A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and European settlers later introduced heads of iron and steel. The term came into the English language in the 17th century as an adaptation of the Powhatan (Virginian Algonquian) word.

Tomahawks were general-purpose tools used by Native Americans and later the European colonials with whom they traded, and often employed as a hand-to-hand weapon

Etymology

The name comes from Powhatan tamahaac, derived from the Proto-Algonquian root *temah- ‘to cut off by tool’. Algonquian cognates include Lenape təmahikan, Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon, and Abenaki demahigan, all of which mean ‘axe’

History

The Algonquian people created the tomahawk. Before Europeans came to the continent, Native Americans would use stones, sharpened by a process of knapping and pecking, attached to wooden handles, secured with strips of rawhide. The tomahawk quickly spread from the Algonquian culture to the tribes of the South and the Great Plains.

Native Americans created a tomahawk’s poll, the side opposite the blade, which consisted of a hammer, spike or pipe. These became known as pipe tomahawks, which consisted of a bowl on the poll and a hollowed out shaft.

General Purpose Tool

Many Native Americans used tomahawks as general-purpose tools. Because they were small and light, they could be used with one hand. This made them ideal for such activities as hunting, chopping, and cutting. Both the Navajo and Cherokee peoples used them in this way. The development of metal-bladed tomahawks expanded their use even more. Most Native Americans had their own individual tomahawks, which they decorated to suit their personal taste. As Native American artwork shows, many of these were decorated with eagle feathers, which represented acts of bravery.

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  • peppersky [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    25·
    6 days ago

    there’s a genocide going on with the explicit support of the country i am living in and nothing is being done to stop it or anything. im losing my fucking mind here. gaza is not just gaza, gaza will be everywhere in twenty years. the west is taking off its mask and has no intention of ever putting it on again. the thousands of dead refugees, the million dead in the war on terror, the hundreds of thousand dead palestinians is all the same genocide the same murder the same ideology. facism won in 1945. all ideas of progress are facist. those people who progress deserve to live all others die.

  • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    20·
    6 days ago

    Today’s vegan product of my vegan labor. It’s chimichurri marinated grilled portabello mushrooms topped with an eloté relish

    chile lime roasted sweet potatoes

    And spicy refried pinto beans

  • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    21·
    6 days ago

    Ugh. Had to actually escape from security shoplifting the other day. Such a waste of time having to drop all my shit in case i get snagged, double back, sit in a park wait for the security guard to call his boss to say i got away. Go get the shit and go.

    Most be getting sloppy

  • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    20·
    6 days ago

    I FUCKING HATE THE CIA! HOLY SHIT I’M SO FUCKING MAD

    Venting about work

    So I work at Langley monitoring leftist forums, right? I caught my work crush, Sam walking down the hallway on their way to lunch. I was making a joke about how we should try new ways to undermine leftists. I said “we should say that ‘working class’ is ableist.” Well, what do you know? The next work meeting my work rival and Sam’s work crush, Gusano Jones, has a brilliant idea. “We start a viral trend about how the term ‘working class’ paints the disabled as enemies.” Sam had taken my joke to try and impress their work crush!! What’s more, everybody loved the idea. I tried to protest “that’ll never work because that has no sitting in Marxist theory.” but everyone was sure that nobody reads theory so it didn’t fucking matter. They go ahead with the plan and Gusano Jones gets all the credit. He’s probably going to get the promotion to cringe take and nanobot injector even though I wanted to do. I might have to report leftists who post too good to my crush’s crush. It makes my stomach churn.

  • stigsbandit34z [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    6 days ago

    Consent will be manufactured over the dumbest shit and all I can do is watch people eat it up dog

    Case in point this dumbass Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson shit which my mother (who has never seen boxing in her life) wants to watch because she keeps seeing advertisements

    As a communist, how the fuck can you not be a tankie

  • moonlake [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    23·
    6 days ago

    Hexbear mods when they remove my meme post from c/memes and tell me to post it in one of the cringe new comms even though it already received a ton of comments:

  • HomoSexualTransStalinist [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    17·
    6 days ago

    hate this shit, like why do i have to hear about your big bit of pride about how like you were a nazi 6 months ago but now you’ve realised you could make some money as a radlib grifter instead so you’ve stopped saying slurs for now

  • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    6 days ago

    Those first three fights were really fun to watch and then this. What the fuck are we doing here?

    Congratulations to Jake Paul for beating a 58 year old man.