Northern Plains Pipe Tomahawk with Beaded Hide Drop

Acquired circa 1900 Dr. Harlow Brooks
Acquired in 1927 by the Brooklyn Museum
Acquired in 1966 by the Denver Art Museum
Acquired in 1974 by Drew Bax
Acquired in 1977 by Jim Strouse

The pipe tomahawk is an icon of American Indian art. Used as a weapon for striking, chopping or throwing and as a smoking implement for indigenous rituals, the pipe tomahawk was a wildly imaginative fusion of form and function.

Despite its ferocious nature, the pipe tomahawk was a prized gift used to foster positive relations between Anglo explorers, traders and trappers and Native Americans. Lewis and Clark, for example, were known to have spent time blacksmithing tomahawk blades while traveling through the Upper Missouri River region. Once in the hands of a Native warrior, these ingenious, multi-purpose implements were often decorated to enhance their sculptural integrity.

In this fine example, the deeply patinated wood shaft has been decorated with hot-file markings and a series of brass tacks. The wrapped section of tanned deer hide, sinew-sewn in bright blue glass beadwork and cut with fringe pendants tied with small metal cones is called a "drop." It not only adds a visual element but an aural one as well as the cones jangle against each other. The materials used to assemble the fine pipe tomahawk would have been extremely difficult to obtain at the time it was created and reinforced the status of its owner.