Did any Native Americans make tomahawks from metal?

Upvote:0

Native americans, never had processed iron metals. Steel was an unknown substance to them. Copper and soft metals were worked, but little evidence shows they had forging technologies. But there is some samples of them having meteoric iron used for weapons; being the only largely pure iron that didn't require smelting

Upvote:3

Yes, of course, American Indians used metal or copper axes, usually the celt type in the Archaic and Woodland eras. The copper celt was a woodworking tool used as an axe, but most tools, especially axes, were also used as weapons. There were also full grooved axes and even the 3/4 grooved axes - used as axes (cutting down trees, splitting into timber and lumber, etc.) and as weapons. Don Spohn Ph. D. Great Lakes Copper Research, Founder & President The Prehistoric Copper Artifact Journal, Editor and Producer

Upvote:6

It appears that Peruvians did this (although the word "tomahawk" is probably misapplied if used on South American weaponry). The Met has multiple copper axe-heads from that area, at least one of which may date to as early as the 3rd Century BC. There seems to be a common theme with these Peruvian axe heads to have a functional blade, but a decorated back end.

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They also had their own unique metal ceremonial weapon, the Tumi. It occupies an interesting middle ground between a hand-axe and a knife.

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Some copper axe heads have also been found at Mississippian sites, such as Etowa, and Spiro. enter image description here

Earlier Hopewell sites have also been found to contain copper axes, although they generally show no signs of wear, so they don't appear to have been everyday tools.

The metal axe finds disappear about the time the Mississippians went into decline, so most likely no living European ever witnessed a native North American using a native metal axe.

There are numerous first-hand reports from Europeans of Native Americans trading for (and in many cases working traded) iron, including some of the nomadic hunting nations such as the Inuit. So its reasonable to say that they were routinely using iron rather than stone as soon as Europeans made it available to them in sufficient quantities. So pretty much immediately upon contact.

Upvote:9

Metallurgy in North America above the Rio Grande rarely advanced beyond the cold working of native copper, an item which was common enough to be an exported from the upper peninsula of Michigan, even during the pre-Columbian era.

In THE PRIMITIVE COPPER INDUSTRY OF AMERICA, by George Brinton Phillips (1925), an analysis of Michigan native copper is reported; it is found to be 99.9% pure, with the main impurity being silver. OTOH, European refined copper is only 98% pure, with a variety of impurities. This makes it easy to tell native copper from later European imports.

The article then traces locations where copper artifacts have been found, with vast numbers in Wisconsin, where nuggets from Michigan were carried by glaciers, but also including Indian mounds throughout the midwest, and even in the southern states. Most of these pre-date European contact, often by hundreds of years. The author notes that though much of this copper is hardened by cold working, none has been melted or cast, nor is there any bronze. The theory then, as now, is that this copper moved from Michigan and Wisconsin through native trade networks. Copper would be a very expensive trade good, which is why it is often found made into ceremonial or figurative items. enter image description here

Early descriptions of the tomahawk are inconsistent; by 1650 we have this description of native American armaments: "Their weapons formerly were bows and arrows, with a war club hung to the arm, and a square shield which covered the body up to the shoulders; . . . At present many of them use fire arms, which they prize highly and learn to use dexterously. They spare no pains in procuring guns and ammunition, for which they trade with the Christians at a dear rate, At present they also use small axes (tomahawks) instead of their war-clubs." (see p. 271 of the long article "The Tomahawk", link given below).

I found several worked stones, similar to these, on our family farm, near Ypsilanti, Michigan.

So it is not surprising that the native American tomahawk was a stone implement. Metal blades were introduced by European traders, English, Dutch, and French, by the early 1600s, who found a ready market among the eastern woodlands natives. A brief history is given here and here. enter image description here

Also see the long article on "The Tomahawk", which appeared in the American Anthropologist (1908). The image of stone tomahawks is borrowed from this article; the manufactured steel pipe tomahawk, dated to the early 1800's, is from the Wikipedia article.

Pipe tomahawk from early 1800s

So the answer is no; native Americans of the North Atlantic coast did not make metal axes; they used stone axes, as shown above. These were immediately replaced with European hand axes, later modified to the modern tomahawk form, as shown here. This trade began immediately upon contact, with French, Dutch, and English, from Canada on down the Atlantic coast. These, in turn, were traded into the interior.

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