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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  • rhubarb [he/him]
    ·
    8 days ago

    I'm trying to come up with some insightful take about why Veilguard is kinda bad, but it really feels like just about everything in it is slightly off. Characters will change their facial expression half a second too late. Dialogue choices will often have the character say a different quip than the one I chose for seemingly no reason. There is a chest full of treasure behind every corner, even when it makes no sense, like when I found one in an alley three meters and a ladder away from a beggar. The world is full of puzzles that are in-universe locks, but they do a very bad job of keeping unwanted people out and seem like they would be a pain to open normally. Characters will say things that don't quite make sense like "if someone thinks they know all the secrets of this town, they are lying". I could go on.

    Any of these alone would be a goofy nitpick, but these kinds of things are so impressively ever-present that the whole really suffers.

    • hexbee [she/her]
      ·
      7 days ago

      I wonder if this is more and more how "AAA" games will start feeling as LLMs and other machine learning tools will be further integrated into the production pipeline. Just things being a little off because nobody had the time to go around and check that the details properly form a cohesive whole.