Serpent Slayer Gunstock Warclub
Serpent Slayer Gunstock Warclub 2023
Tuscarora Siberian elmwood
Billy Logan, Onondaga, Turtle clan
The Serpents Slayer Gunstock Warclub commission was an idea of the client as a gift for her brother who she cares for dearly. She wanted her and her brother to simultaneously to connect with her father’s legacy.
The idea was to make a original and unique piece of work to pass down to their future seven generations while paying solemn respect to their patriarch. After a brief consultation, she decided on a gunstock warclub. The gunstocks warclubs is deeply embedded into the Eastern Woodlands cultural DNA and particularly the Haudenosaunee people.
The clients are Seneca, wolf clan and wanted their clan and their fathers represented. Both images were embedded on the piece via pyrography stylus. The client requested her brother's Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca) name be inscribed on the forestock (shaft). This was completed with a more contemporary font to give a modern look to delineate the generations.
The reverse side of the forestock was the hardest to articulate but it is the gem of the piece. Their farther collected and sold Native American art, in fact, it was his passion. During that time, he cultivated a friendship with Norman Jimerson (Seneca, Beaver clan,) notable stone and antler carver. He collected many works by Jimerson throughout the years and they were liquidated after he passed.
Their father prudently had photographic images printed of his collection which the family was able to obtain. One of these images was named “Serpent Killer/Slayer,” but no provenance was produced to verify. I was given this image with several angless to work from.
The figure in the Norman Jimerson version in his antler carving resembles Hé':nu, Hé:nö, or Ĥi-nun. This “Grandfather” came in the western clouds but is said to live underneath the (Niagara) falls. He carries a basket of chert which he can throw with thunderous power. He is said to have had several battles with an evil snakes which he lures, and he slays the snake with a thunderbolt. If you look at Hé-nö's ballhead warclub, we see a squiggly line that may be a thunderbolt. Moreover, the basket the figure is holding seems to be also squiggly lines, possibly representing abstract thunderbolts. Last, his breach cloth has the Tree of Peace carved into it, representing the good mind and the process of conquering which impedes our well-being.