Artist:Plains
Medium: Catlinite, rawhide, wood
Dates:19th century
Dimensions: height: 24 7/16 in. (62.1 cm); width of hammer stone: 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm)
Collections:
Accession Number: 43.201.131
Image: CUR.43.201.131.jpg,
Catalogue Description: This hammer has a catlinite hammer with a wooden handle covered with rawhide sewn over and around the center of the hammer. The red catlinite is tapered on each end and has three grooves around it on each end either side of the wood and hide holding it on. This might have had a decorative horsetail hanging from it. Such clubs were used in dances before a hunt and had symbolic and ceremonial function not a war function. Members of a society carried these as badges of honor and emblems of office.