Spontoon Tomahawk Pipe

Spontoon Tomahawk Pipe. University of Oregon. Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Accession 109 © University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Spontoon Tomahawk Pipe

This nineteenth-century tomahawk features vibrant analine-dyed porcupine needlework on its ash sapling handle, and a horse hair and sinew tassel. It was collected by the eighteenth governor of Oregon in the 1890’s. Tomahawk pipes like these were popular among both North American Indians and colonists for their functionality as a trade item, a tool, a decorative piece and a symbolic object. While the first recorded Tomahawk pipe dates back to 1757, the intact needlework and the use of a heated rod rather than a drill to hollow the handle suggests that those components were constructed in the 19th century by a native craftsman. The head of the tomahawk, on the other hand, was produced by a colonial blacksmith. Pipe heads like these warranted a different method of construction than that typical of tomahawks. The poll, or back of the axe head, was likely forged out of an iron tube. Often decommissioned gun barrels were used for this task.  Both the heads and the handles of tomahawk pipes were highly personalized by the craftsman, such that it is rare to find two with identical features. 

Avery Butler