The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley

by Harlan Ingersoll Smith

Fig. 101. Tubular Pipe made of Green Stone with Stem. From Lemhi River, Idaho. (Reproduced from p. 342, Vol. II, Lewis and Clark. Bowl about 2-½ inches long.)

A tubular pipe made of steatite is shown in [Fig. 100]. It was collected by Mr. Frank N. McCandless from the Yakima Indians. Mr. McCandless says the stone differs from that found at the head of Wenatchee Lake, which is sometimes used for pipes in this region. This pipe is No. 215 in his collection deposited in the Ferry Museum in the City Hall at Tacoma. It is 51 mm. long and the bowl has been broken off irregularly, about half of it apparently having been broken away. The bowl flares rather more abruptly than is the case in the pipes usually found either in this region or that of the Thompson River. In this respect it resembles the tubular pipes made of steatite, found on the coast of British Columbia.[317] In outline, it is nearly straight, while most pipes of this type have bowls convexly curved in a form characteristic of the type found in the interior of British Columbia and of Washington. The bowl has been gouged out. There is a ridge or ring around the pipe where the bowl meets the stem. Oblique incisions slanting downward from left to right, at an angle of about 45°, mark this ridge, making it suggest a twisted cord. The end of the stem is similarly marked. These lines are again mentioned under art on [p. 125]. The stem expands from the ridge to the end. The outline of the stem is rather straight or slightly concave, while most pipes of this type have more slender or nearly cylindrical stems. The interior of the stem was apparently formed by whittling. The pipe is stained by tobacco which suggests that while it may be old, it has nevertheless been recently smoked.[318] In the Nez Perce region to the east the earliest form of pipe, according to Spinden, was doubtless the straight tubular type.[319] One of the pipes figured by him has a flange for a mouthpiece similar to those found in the Thompson River region, and this flange is perforated near one end. This particular type of pipe is also found in Oregon.[320] A pipe of this type, but which much more nearly resembles the typical form of tubular pipe of this region, especially the shorter specimens, is reproduced in [Fig. 101] from Lewis and Clark.[321] This specimen which is made of green stone and has a stem, was seen among the Shoshone Indians at the headwaters of the Lemhi River, Idaho, by Lewis, August thirteenth, 1805. It marks the eastern limits of the occurrence of this type of pipe, so far as I am aware at present, the short forms having been found at Fulford Harbor, North Saanich, Sidney[322] and Port Hammond,[323] on the southern coast of British Columbia, Damon[324] on the coast of Washington, Lytton[325] in the interior of British Columbia, Umatilla[326] and Blalock Island,[327] near Umatilla, both in the interior of Washington. In the Journal for Tuesday, August 13, 1805, Lewis refers to this pipe, as follows:—"the chief then lit his pipe at the fire kindled in this little magic circle ... pointed the stem to the four cardinal points of the heavens first [beginning] at the East and ending with the North. He now presented the pipe to me, as if desirous that I should smoke, but when I reached my hand to receive it, he drew it back and repeated the same c[e]remony three times, after which he pointed the stem first to the heavens then to the center of the magic circle smoked himself with three whifs and held the pipe [until] I took as many as I thought proper; he then held it to each of the white persons and then gave it to be consumed by his warriors. This pipe was made of a dense semi-transparent green stone very highly polished about 2-½ inches long and of an oval figure, the bowl being in the same direction with the stem. A small piece of birned clay is placed in the bottom of the bowl to seperate the tobacco from the end of the stem and is of an irregularly rounded figure not fitting the tube perfectly close in order that the smoke may pass. This is the form of the pipe. Their tobacco is of the same kind of that used by the Minnetares Mandans and Ricares of the Missouri. The Shoshonees do not cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the Rocky mountain Indians and some of the bands of their own nation who live further south."[328]

Mr. James Teit informs me that a flange like the end of a spool at the mouth of the stem of a tubular pipe, makes it of a type which seems to him peculiarly characteristic of the Thompson River region. In some cases this peculiarity is carried over into the stems of pipes of the modern or elbow type, which have wooden stems, as is shown in [Fig. 102]. Mr. Teit has never seen or heard of tubular pipes from the Thompson River region with holes through the flanges. It seems possible that the hole in such specimens as one from Umatilla, Oregon,[329] may have been made for the attachment of ornaments or symbolic material such as feathers or for a cleaner. Ornaments were sometimes attached to pipes of the elbow type in the Thompson River region. This was done by tying in a hole bored through the hatchet-shaped piece underneath the shank close to the elbow. Pipes of the simple bowl type often had an extension at the foot of the bowl, sometimes perforated, to which ornaments could be attached. On the other hand, the hole may have been to facilitate attaching the pipe to its wooden stem. The pipes that have been perforated through the flange,[330] however, seem to have too small a bore for a wooden stem; yet, a pipe of this type with a wooden stem has been shown in [Fig. 101]. One reason given Mr. Teit by the Indians for the making of the flange or other thickening at the mouth of the pipe stem was to prevent the string used in attaching the pipe to the wooden stem slipping off. According to all of them, wooden stems were always used with tubular pipes as with elbow and simple bowl pipes; for a person cannot smoke any kind of stone pipe more than a few draws before it becomes too hot for the lips. To Mr. Teit's mind, no matter how small the bore of the pipe, a regular stem must have been used for smoking.

Fig. 102. Pipe made of Steatite used by the Thompson River Indians at Spences Bridge in 1895. About ½ nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch by Mr. James Teit.)
Fig. 103. Form of the Flange-Shaped Mouth of the Bowl of some Thompson River Indian Pipes. About ½ nat. size. (Drawn from a sketch by Mr. James Teit.)

Some tubular pipes are said to have had a flange around the mouth of the bowl, similar to that on elbow pipes as in [Fig. 103]; but this flange meets the body of the bowl with an even curve. Mr. Teit does not distinctly remember having seen such flanged tubular pipe bowls among the Thompson River Indians who gave him this information, but he saw one specimen at least, of the elbow type with flanged bowl. He further states that to his knowledge there is only one part of the country where the [semi-transparent] green steatite is obtained; that is, on the west side of the Fraser River, over twenty miles north of Lytton, which as is well known is at the mouth of the Thompson River. This stone, when polished and used, takes on a much darker hue than its original color. The fire may be seen through the stone of the pipes when smoked in the dark. The bluish gray steatite is the most commonly employed and it turns black when polished and used. The Thompson River Indians can usually tell from what part of the country the stone comes of which any particular pipe is made.

The tubular form of pipe is remembered by the old Indians to have been in use in the Thompson River region, although not so common as the simple pipe bowls and elbow pipes, and one was seen in use in eastern Washington as late as 1896.[331] On the other hand, no simple pipe bowls known to be such, or elbow pipes have been seen among archaeological finds. The bowl and elbow pipes are affiliated with forms found farther east. This fact suggests that the tubular pipe was supplanted recently by bowl and elbow forms brought in from the southeast, or at least from the east. The westward movement of tribes due to the encroachment of our settlements may have brought them, or some of them, and they may be patterned after pipes seen in the hands of fur traders and their Indian employees. The tubular pipe made of steatite, shown in [Fig. 104], was purchased from Mr. W. Z. York of Old Yakima (Old Town), who secured it from Shaw-wa-way, an Indian known as "Young Chief Aleck," who lives on a ranch three miles south of Old Yakima. This Indian is known to have frequently visited the Okanogon region and it is possible that he secured the pipe, decorated as it is, or got the idea for this particular sort of decoration from that region. This is suggested by the fact that this particular kind of decoration is common, especially on more recent ornaments, in the Thompson River region, the people of which in turn frequently visited the Okanogon country. The bowl of the pipe is cut squarely across at the end where the outer edge has been rounded. It is of the typical shape of this form of pipes, and has been hollowed out by gouging contra-screw-wise. It meets the stem abruptly and the latter is slightly larger than the base of the bowl, so that it seems to be separated from it. The stem is very short and cylindrical and the end is cut squarely off; but it is bevelled on each side so that about one third of the end is left and the bevelled surfaces extend over half the length of the stem. This beveling may have been to form the mouthpiece; but it seems more likely that the pipe had a long stem similar to those found in the Thompson River region.[332] This seems to have been broken off obliquely near the bowl, then cut squarely across, and the other side bevelled to give bilateral symmetry because one of these bevelled surfaces appears as if it had been broken and then only slightly smoothed; both of these surfaces and the square end of the stem seem to have been more recently cut than the rest of the pipe. These three surfaces seem less polished and as if they were made with a steel knife. The bore of the stem measures 5 mm. in diameter. A portion of the bowl is decorated by incised lines into which red paint has been daubed, suggesting that it was recently applied; while the design itself, which is further described on [p. 131] under the section of art, is of figures which suggest that it was made lately. Possibly the pipe is old, but was recently broken and decorated with the incised design and paint.