War club

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This weapon was carved as an effigy of a deer’s leg. The sculptor carefully chose the hardwood so that the burled portion, where a branch was once attached, would strengthen the angled head. The heavy spherical element seems to have contained a projecting spike designed to split skulls in intertribal warfare or conflicts with Europeans in the Midwest. Highly polished and decorated with red pigment, this club would have been a warrior’s prized possession.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art