Pipe Tomahawk - Morris Museum

3D Model

The pipe tomahawk shown here dates to the Plains Indian Wars (c. 1870) and is part of the Morris Museum’s William Philo Clark Collection. Clark, a United States Army officer during the Plains Indian Wars, was known to the Plains Indians as the “Chief with the White Hat.” The tomahawk’s wooden handle is decorated with brass studs. Engraved on both sides of the metal blade’s surface is the morning star (a name used by the Plains Indians for the planet Venus). The Plains Indians honored the morning star as a sign of courage and purity of spirit.

From the beginning of the fur trade through the 1870s, pipe tomahawks had more of a symbolic meaning than a functional purpose. The Europeans presented pipe tomahawks as gifts in diplomatic agreements and they eventually became status symbols with various tribes. Description Credit: Maria Ribaudo, Collections Manager.

Photogrammetry: 317 photographs processed with Agisoft Photoscan and Blender