This is a great late 19th Century pipe tomahawk with artful cutouts and long beaded drop from the Sioux Indians. The early reservation period piece, circa 1890-1900, features a blacksmith hand-forged iron head with wide western blade having a flat bottom blade and small rear facing spur as well as a “Top Hat” small pipe bowl on a raised pedestal with forged chevrons and moldings. There are filed etched “X”’s on both sides of the moldings. The blade shows a large four point “Cross of Lorraine” cutout with thin arm and ball ends as well as three pierced bleeder holes. The head is affixed to the ash wood haft with diamond shape, as is the eyelet / eye hole of the head a documented feature by authors Baldwin, Hartzler & Knowles, Peterson, Francis, etc. The haft is adorned with dark hot file brandings, extensive brass tack designs in various sizes and has two pierced holes, above and below the gripping area. The bottom edge of the haft has an incised, in cut, pattern and the smoking tip comes to a tapered end. The bottom hole has a long beaded and fringed Indian tanned buckskin hide drop tied on which measures 26 inches in length. The fringe has some discoloration. The beadwork is later being all glass trade seed beads in early 1900’s colors of green, chalk white, and corn yellow with two brass trade beads above. Provenance: From the ex-collection of Tom Hardy Indianapolis, IN. For another example of a Plains tomahawk with Cross of Loraine cutout see the piece in Harold Peterson's 1965 American Indian Tomahawks on page 119 figure 194. The head measures 11 inches long by 4 inches wide across the bottom of the blade. Total length of 24 inches.