War clubs are the oldest weapons used by humans; many primitive cultures used various war clubs in battle and in ceremonies throughout history. The Native American Indians spent time and labor to choose the right material and craft their individual war clubs according to creative visions. Thus, Indians revered their war clubs with pride and used them in ceremonial rituals and tribal celebrations.
Stone-Headed War Clubs
Commonly used by the Plains Indians who ranged from Texas to the Dakotas, stone-headed war clubs included a handle carved from wood or bone with a piece of stone attached to the head. The handles varied in length, and often the craftsman of the club would inscribe meaningful ornaments, decorative designs and symbolic images onto the handle. While some stone-headed war clubs used a riverbed stone that was round and smooth, the Plains Indians preferred the double-pointed stone head, which featured a stone with pointed edges in both directions. Among the Plains Indians these double-pointed stone-head clubs were popular for both clashing at war and for dancing at ceremonies.
Tomahawks
A tomahawk is a stone-headed club with a handle made out of wood, antler or rawhide, with a rock at the head refined to have a sharp-edged blade on one side that was capable of cutting and slashing through enemies. Today, such a weapon is known as an axe, so the tomahawk is sometimes referred to as an "axe-head" club. Indian cultures, especially the Navajo, highly valued their tomahawks; the handles were often wrapped with deerskin and adorned with a medicine bundle to represent supernatural abilities, eagle feathers to represent heroic achievements, small skulls to demonstrate the owner's power and strands of hair from his favorite horse. The Navajo Indians often held, swung and admired tomahawks in ceremonial dance rituals.
Root Clubs
The Penobscot Indians who resided in the northeastern U.S. in what is now Maine preferred root clubs as weapons and for ceremony. Root clubs were made from the root bundles of immature gray birch trees, and while sometimes the heads of the root clubs were carved into a round smooth sphere, typically the roots at the head of the club were carved and refined into sharp spikes and rough blades. In addition to using root clubs in battle, the Penobscot Indians also used the root clubs in ceremonies by carrying the clubs around as they danced to drum music.
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