Tomahawk
Literally: cut with a tool
A one-handed hatchet of the Algonquian peoples of North America, originally with a head of stone, bone or antler, later with a metal head from trade with Europeans.
Quick Facts
About the weapon
The tomahawk is a one-handed hatchet created by the Algonquian peoples of North America; from them it quickly spread to tribes in the south and on the Great Plains. The word comes from the Powhatan tamahaac and from the Proto-Algonquian root *temah-, "to cut with a tool". Before the arrival of Europeans, heads were shaped from stone, bone or antler and attached to a wooden handle with strips of rawhide. Metal heads, which Europeans traded to natives for food and other supplies, derived from the hatchet used by the British Royal Navy for boarding. Today's tomahawks usually have a handle shorter than 61 cm, traditionally of hickory, ash or maple, a head weighing 260 to 570 g, and a blade generally no more than 10 cm long. A special form is the pipe tomahawk: one end represented a peace pipe, the other a war axe. Tomahawks were carried by individual soldiers of the US Army's Stryker Brigade in Afghanistan, and the tool received a NATO stock number. The martial art Okichitaw revives fighting with the tomahawk, and tomahawk throwing is practiced as a competition with rules for the shape of the weapon.