Native American Crooked Knives

Cisco’s Gallery offers a collection of antique Native American crooked knives, a distinctive one-handed drawknife used by Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, Great Lakes and northeastern Canada. Also known in some traditions and historic sources as the mocotaugan, the crooked knife was used to shape wood for canoes, paddles, snowshoes, baskets, bowls and other objects. Examples typically combine iron or steel blades with individually carved wooden handles ranging from simple working forms to elaborate decorative examples.