The round stick on the table had a bizarre look about it. It was about 18″ to 20″ long, tapered like a cane or walking stick but too short to be either. The head had sharp projections jutting from it like the metal spikes on a knight’s flail.
I wasn’t sure what it was lying there on the auction table, but I surely was going to find out. I examined the end with the projections and saw that one point had been carved into the shape of an Eagle, its mouth open. There were two other points on the back. At the other end was a strap for either hanging or slipping it around the wrist for carrying or holding. A turtle and flower were carved along one side.
Taped just below it was a note:
“T.V. Antiques Road Show. 1/13/01. Penobscot Indian Tribe Root Club. $400.00 dollars to $600.000 dollars. Put this on the club hanging in the hall.”
Someone had apparently taken the club to an Antiques Roadshow event back in 2001 or seen one like it appraised on the show.
I had never heard of a root club, and wondered about the makers and how it was used. In Googling, I found that root clubs were a prized art form of the Penobscot – pronounced puh-NOB-scott (“nob” sounds like “bob”) – Nation in Maine. On their website, the Native Americans mentioned that root clubs were an important part of their carvings and that they had them on display in their museum in Indian Island, ME. They also made walking sticks, tools and baskets with designs that were symbolic of their people. The Penobscots are known for their basketry.
They were part of the Wabanaki confederacy of people who were native to eastern Maine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, wars and other conflicts decimated the nation, and they now get by on reservations on parts of their original lands.
The pointed clubs are their trademark, and they have been making them at least since the 17th century.
Other nations have made them, too, and the earliest appeared to have been smooth ball clubs that were used by Native Americans for fighting and ceremonies, according to an article on the Pequot Museum and Research Center website. They were carved out of the roots of such hardwood trees as maple, cherry and birch, and then decorated. Some were also painted in red or black denoting life and death.
The clubs were a symbol of power and prestige. One newspaper article noted that warriors left them on the battlefield like a calling card of their prowess.
The Penobscots carved their roots into pointed projections that evolved into animal and human shapes. These were an important symbol of the nation’s cultural identity, according to the museum article. They are still being made, and are considered as much an art form for collectors as a tourist buy.
The Maine Historical Society, which has a photo of a very colorful red-handled club on its site, noted that Native Americans felt that they were allowing the spirits of the birds and animals to be released from the roots as they carved. The society said the clubs became tourist items in the late 19th century.
Here’s a club that sold for $1,000 at an auction in 2006. And another. Here, you can listen to Stan Neptune, a Penobscot root wood carver, as he talks about and demonstrates how it’s done.
