Subject: wic'âša 'shirt wearer' warrior

Culture: Lakota Sioux

Setting: Sioux/Plains Wars, 1862-1890

Object: clubs

Skullcracker

* Hofsinde 1965 p52-54

"The stone-headed war club was another favorite weapon of the Sioux. They used three distinct types. One club had an oblong stone head with pointed ends. The head was grooved and fastened to a shaft with sinew or rawhide. The second type as made the same way, but the head was more rounded, and the club was encased in rawhide.

"The third club also had a rounded stone head and a rawhide cover, but the head was not fastened to the shaft. Instead, the Indian left a loose section of rawhide between the stone and the shaft. The cover was sewed in place while wet, and when it dried the Indian wetted the loose section between stone and shaft again and twisted it. He then added a loop to fit around his wrist. When this club was swung at the head of an enemy, it was a dangerous weapon."

Tomahawk

Ball-Headed

Gunstock

* Taylor 2001 p23-24

"By the 1850s, such clubs were to be found amongst the Lakota on the western Plains, although the stock itself was generally slimmer and longer than those formerly used by the more eastern tribes. A variant on this style of club was one which had two or more steel knife blades set in the edge. A particularly dangerous weapon at close quarters in the hands of a resolute man, such styles were popular in the period 1860-1880 ...."