[NATIVE AMERICAN] Plains Stone-Headed War Club with Beaded Hide Pendants

A Plains Stone-Headed War Club with Beaded Pendants. Stone, wood, hide, and glass beads.

A Plains war club with an elongated, rounded stone head mounted transversely to a slender, hide-covered wooden shaft. The stone, mottled in warm brown and buff tones, narrows toward its rounded ends and is secured by a hide binding passing around its central waist. The covering continues down the long handle, giving the club a largely uninterrupted surface from the head to the grip.

Near the lower end, a hide tie suspends a cluster of narrow pendants carrying small glass beads in blue, white, green, and red, with traces of red fibers at their extremities. Their concentrated color and loose movement provide a delicate counterpoint to the substantial stone head. 

Stone-headed clubs belong to a longstanding Plains weapon tradition extending across a broad region from the Dakotas to Texas.

The example offered here is particularly distinguished by the placement of its ornament at the grip, leaving the principal shaft and head exposed. Its interest lies in this combination of a substantial striking form, economical hide construction, and the small, individually worked embellishments suspended from the handle.