The tiponi is a ceremonial object about 18 inches long, consisting of feathers set upright around a small disk of silicified wood, which serves as its base when set upon the altar.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891] Reference

This woman’s house is also called the “house of grandmother,” and in it is preserved the tiponi and other fetiches of the society.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891] Reference