Treasures of the Past

Male Wolf Spirit	Female Wolf Spirit

The Wolf Spirit Clubs of Joseph Newell-Penobscot Medicine Man 1795-1865

The earliest root clubs were used in hand-to-hand combat during the 1600s and early 1700s. The roots of the birch saplings were trimmed of all the small roots and the larger ones were pointed to make the war club more effective. On these earliest clubs there were no carvings in the root burl and no chip carving on the handle, but later, carvers added decorative chip carving. From the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s carvings on root clubs seem to have represented spirit beings with their faces emerging from the root burl.

Information from Stan Neptune, master carver of the Penobscot Nation.