The California Indians, with the exception of the Diegueño, also used the straight pipe, and the form is probably as ancient there as in the Southwest. There were various tribal and regional differences in the shape and material. Wooden pipes without separate stems were of nearly universal occurrence, and were probably the earliest form. In some regions they were carved and inlaid with abalone shell. Pipes of unbaked clay with wooden stems were used in a few localities ([Pl. II], No. 4), but the finest California pipes were made of steatite or soapstone ([Pl. II], No. 5). They were usually provided with short mouthpieces of wood or bone. The Hupa of northern California used a pipe with a small steatite bowl accurately fitted into a cavity in the end of a long tapering wooden stem ([Pl. II], No. 6).
Several of the tribes of the Great Plains used straight pipes in ancient times. These pipes were made from the leg bone of an antelope wrapped with sinew at the bowl end ([Pl. III], No. 1). In some cases the whole pipe was covered with rawhide or membrane. The Arapaho say that they used this form exclusively in early times, and the sacred pipe of the tribe is straight with a black stone bowl and a long tubular wooden stem. A pipe of the same form, but with a red stone bowl, was used by the Cheyenne in their Sun Dance, and the Crow have made straight stone pipe bowls until quite recent times ([Pl. V], No. 3).
A number of straight pipes of stone and clay have been found in the eastern United States, but there seems to be no record of their use by the historic tribes. The examples shown ([Pl. III], Nos. 2–3) are from Johnson County, Illinois. They are made from close-grained greenish brown steatite, a material soft enough to be easily worked with flint tools, but capable of taking a fine polish. The large size and excellent finish of these pipes indicates that they were intended for ceremonial rather than personal use. The bird pipe is eight and a quarter inches long, with an internal bowl diameter of one and a quarter inches, and is an unusually good example of aboriginal sculpture. The eye sockets are roughly finished, and were probably inlaid with some other material.
Straight pipes are easier to make than elbow pipes, but have certain disadvantages. They have to be directed upward in smoking to keep the tobacco from falling out of the bowl, and the tobacco dust and juices are drawn down into the stem with results familiar to all smokers. To prevent this, many tribes are said to have put a pebble or pellet of clay in the bottom of the bowl before filling it. Even a slight angle between the bowl and stem is a great convenience to the smoker, and this improvement once hit upon, perhaps through faulty workmanship, the development of the elbow pipe was easy. Pipes from different parts of North America show all degrees of bowl inclination from the straight tube to a right angle, and there can be little doubt that the main evolution of the elbow pipe was along this line. In the Mississippi Valley and Great Plains there are, however, certain types of elbow pipe which could hardly have been developed in this way. In these the bowl rests upon a base which extends out for some distance in front of it. From various archæological finds it seems probable that these types were developed from pipes which had a corn-cob bowl pierced through the base with a reed stem.
North American elbow pipes have never been satisfactorily classified, but about twenty types are distinguishable. Only the more important of these can be mentioned here. Most of the types show a more or less continuous geographical distribution, but there was no tribe or region in which all the pipes were of the same type. The Chippewa distinguished four types of pipe which were in simultaneous use among them. These were—(1) Women’s pipes, which were small, with short stems and little decoration. (2) Men’s pipes for ordinary smoking, which were somewhat larger and better made than the women’s pipes, but were also small. (3) Personal pipes of famous warriors, which were larger than the ordinary pipes, with heavy decorated stems sometimes as much as five feet long. (4) Chief’s pipes and ceremonial pipes, which were large, with long stems like the warrior’s pipes, and were elaborately decorated. Even the pipes for ordinary smoking were highly valued and would often be carved and decorated in the owner’s spare time. Stone for pipe-making, and even finished pipes, seem to have been bartered from tribe to tribe in ancient times.
The Indians made their pipes from many materials. Most of the prehistoric pipes are of stone or clay, but early records prove that wood, horn, and bone were also used by the tribes of the Atlantic Coast at the time of their first contact with Europeans. Almost all the pipes made of these perishable materials have been destroyed, but they were probably of the same types as the stone and clay pipes from this region. Clay pipes were in at least occasional use throughout the whole of North America east of the Great Plains, but the finest examples are found in the old Iroquois territory in New York State and Canada, and in the southeastern United States. Stone pipes are found from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains and seem to have been preferred by all those tribes among whom pottery making was poorly developed.
Large numbers of Iroquoian clay pipes have been found in old cemeteries and village sites, and their form makes them easily distinguishable in collections. They are made of fine hard-burned clay and have a graceful trumpet shape, with rather long slender bowls and short stems ([Pl. IV], No. 3). The upper part of the bowl is often encircled by a band of incised designs or modeled into a human face or bird’s head. They were not provided with separate stems.
PLATE IV.
AMERICAN INDIAN TOBACCO PIPES.