Many Bears Tomahawk

In 2022, "From the Great Lakes to the Rio Grande", the Roy H. Robinson Collection sale was held at Bonhams Los Angeles. One of the lots on offer was a Spontoon tomahawk with a beaded drop, estimated 80.000,00 $ - 120.000,00 $, that once belonged to Many Bears of the Flathead Tribe of Montana. Spootoon tomahawks, from old French "esponton", were war tomahawks carrying a blade intended to pierce the enemy's skull.

The Flathead were the easternmost Plateau Indians. Like other tribes that regularly traversed the Rocky Mountains, they shared many traits with the nomadic Plains Indians. The Flatheads acquired horses in large numbers and organized annual fall expeditions to hunt buffalo on the plains, often waging war against the tribes who were permanent residents of the area. Blackfeet Indian country was to the east. Flathead Indian country extended from the valley to the west. These two tribes could never be considered very friendly or congenial toward each other and often met in pitched battles in this mountainous country. The Blackfeet had an abundance of buffalo to supply their wants, while there were no buffalo west of the Continental Divide, north of the state of Utah. The Flatheads crossing the mountains to secure their buffalo. The Blackfeet entering the mountains to their west to fish the mountain streams.

An early 21st-century population estimates indicated more than 4,000 Flathead descendants. Most living on the Flathead Reservation (formally the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation) in western Montana, the fourth largest reservation within the United States. We don't know much about Many Bears and beside the Edward S. Curtis 1911 photography the only trace I found is a Many Bear aka Andrew Spokane on a census of the Flathead and Confederated Tribes Indians of Flathead Montana taken by Samuel Bellew, United States Indian Agent on September 1st, 1907.

As Harvard University did a few years ago by returning to his tribe a tomahawk once owned by Chief Standing Bear, the previous owner of the one belonging to Many Bears should have done the same. 

Bonhams said they were honored to be offering the The Collection of Roy H. Robinson in Los Angeles, this collection representing a broad selection of material culture of Native peoples across North America. "In the more than 50 years since Robinson's passing, the collection was thought to be lost, so its rediscovery and offering is a significant moment in the Native American Art market".