tomahawk

Common to several Indian languages of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Micmac, tomehagen; Abenakis, temahigen; Mohegan, tumnahegan; Delaware, tamoihecan. An Indian hatchet, or axe.--Gallatin's Synopsis.

It was and is the custom of the Indians to go through the ceremony of burying the tomahawk when they made peace when they went to war, they dug it up again. Hence the phrases 'to bury the tomahawk,' and 'to dig up the tomahawk,' are sometimes used by political speakers and writers with reference to the healing up of past disputes or the breaking out of new ones. See hatchet.