Native American spike tomahawk, fur trade pole axes and skinning knives

M ELEY · 5th May 2025, 02:59 PM

Hello David and thanks for responding. Also, thank you for that great information! In R.R. Gale's "A Soldier-like Way:The Material Culture of the British Infantry 1751-1768", among the Scottish light infantry here during the French & Indian War, the Scots "replace their (broad)swords with tomahawks and left their pistols in storage" , due to the "rough country, severe climate, and the guerrilla tactics of the French and their Indian allies." Note that in not carrying their swords, this axe replacement meant it was to be used as a weapon and not just for chopping wood! Likewise, as you pointed out, no specifics as to whether these mentioned axes were hammer polls, round eye polls or spike tomahawks. What this does point out, as many other authors have, is that the word 'tomahawk' was a loose description for any fighting axe in the field.

I feel that there were certainly hammer poll axes used by the Indians as 'hawks', especially in the earlier periods before the "peace pipe" axes of the later era. Many early sketches of Native Americans show them as carrying round axes and hammer polls, yet as far as photography is concerned, we rarely see halberd heads, spikes and hammers, always the trusty pipe axes. This again makes sense, because photography was obviously from a much later period. Unfortunately, this creates confusion among collectors who imagine that only the pipe axes were 'real' war axes, a complete fallacy. On a side note, as we have discussed in the past concerning boarding axes and their possible connection to trade tomahawks, there have even been documented early British boarding axes found among tribes bearing brass trade tacks, incised decorations burned into the haft with wire, attached beadwork, etc. The point being, for those historians blowing off the more common spike axes and hammer polls by native peoples, I say there is plenty of proof otherwise.

Tomahawk axes, be they hammer-polls, spike, etc, were ideal weapons (as shown by the Scottish light infantry carrying them here in America circa 1750's) for the American frontier-

5th May 2025, 02:59 PM	#24
M ELEY Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NC, U.S.A. Posts: 2,146	Hello David and thanks for responding. Also, thank you for that great information! In R.R. Gale's "A Soldier-like Way:The Material Culture of the British Infantry 1751-1768", among the Scottish light infantry here during the French & Indian War, the Scots "replace their (broad)swords with tomahawks and left their pistols in storage" , due to the "rough country, severe climate, and the guerrilla tactics of the French and their Indian allies." Note that in not carrying their swords, this axe replacement meant it was to be used as a weapon and not just for chopping wood! Likewise, as you pointed out, no specifics as to whether these mentioned axes were hammer polls, round eye polls or spike tomahawks. What this does point out, as many other authors have, is that the word 'tomahawk' was a loose description for any fighting axe in the field. I feel that there were certainly hammer poll axes used by the Indians as 'hawks', especially in the earlier periods before the "peace pipe" axes of the later era. Many early sketches of Native Americans show them as carrying round axes and hammer polls, yet as far as photography is concerned, we rarely see halberd heads, spikes and hammers, always the trusty pipe axes. This again makes sense, because photography was obviously from a much later period. Unfortunately, this creates confusion among collectors who imagine that only the pipe axes were 'real' war axes, a complete fallacy. On a side note, as we have discussed in the past concerning boarding axes and their possible connection to trade tomahawks, there have even been documented early British boarding axes found among tribes bearing brass trade tacks, incised decorations burned into the haft with wire, attached beadwork, etc. The point being, for those historians blowing off the more common spike axes and hammer polls by native peoples, I say there is plenty of proof otherwise. Tomahawk axes, be they hammer-polls, spike, etc, were ideal weapons (as shown by the Scottish light infantry carrying them here in America circa 1750's) for the American frontier- Last edited by M ELEY; 5th May 2025 at 03:48 PM.