AMERICAN INDIAN TOBACCO PIPES.
1–2. PAWNEE SACRED PIPES. 3. CHEYENNE SUN-DANCE PIPE. 4. BLACKFOOT PIPE. 5–7. CHEYENNE PIPES. 6–8. SIOUX PIPES. 9. PIPE TAMPER, SIOUX. 10. PIPE BAG, SIOUX.
All Plains Indian pipes, with the exception of the straight bone pipes previously noted, were provided with long, heavy, wooden stems. Some tribes preferred tubular, others flat stems. In ancient times most of the long pipe stems were probably split lengthwise, the smoke passage excavated, and the two halves glued together. Some of the northern and western tribes used a solid tubular stem which they pierced by an ingenious method. They selected a young ash shoot which had a small pith cavity in the center and caught a wood-boring grub. They made a hole in one end of the shoot and inserted the grub, closing the opening behind it. The shoot was then hung over a fire, and the grub, following the pith as the line of least resistance, drilled a hole through the shaft from end to end. When it emerged, it was captured and returned to the place where it had been found with appropriate thanks. Split tubular stems are rather unsatisfactory, as the halves are liable to warp and separate. The broad, flat pipe-stem was probably invented to give a wider surface for the glue and hence a firmer joint. It reached its highest development among the Dakota, and they seem to have been the inventors of the “puzzle stem,” a broad, flat stem pierced with designs so that the smoke passage had to make several turns between the pipe-bowl and mouth-piece. Pipe stems were often decorated with elaborate wrappings which helped to hold the halves together.
A peculiar form of pipe, which may be a variant of the Sioux type, is found in a limited area in the upper Mississippi valley. These pipes usually have bases with long projecting spurs, but the bowl is smaller than the stem hole and very low. It is surrounded by a broad, thin disk sometimes as much as three and a half inches across. Some of these “disk pipes” suggest the shallow-bowled pipes of the Asiatics, but the form is certainly prehistoric. Pipes of this type are rare, and were probably made for ceremonial use. One of the sacred pipes of the Omaha is of this sort.
Although all the Mexican Indians were predominantly cigarette-smokers, ancient clay pipes of elbow type have been found in the valley of Mexico ([Pl. IV], No. 5). They are not mentioned by any of the early Spanish writers, but the specimens found are unquestionably of native workmanship, and are probably prehistoric. The commonest form has a bulb-shaped bowl and a rather thick stem flattened on the bottom, so that the pipe will stand upright. The occurrence of elbow pipes in a limited area, far from any other in which they were known, is difficult to account for. Some of these pipes resemble forms in use in the southeastern United States and lower Mississippi valley.
Elbow pipes were also used on the Northwest Coast and in Alaska, but they were introduced into these regions after the discovery of America. The Alaskan Eskimo apparently learned the practice of smoking from the natives of Siberia, and their pipes are of Asiatic type, with very small bowls ([Pl. VI], No. 1). Their best pipes are made from walrus tusks, and are often elaborately etched. The tusk is usually split lengthwise and the halves joined in such a way that they can be taken apart to obtain the juice distilled in smoking. The juice was mixed with fungus ashes for chewing or with the smoking tobacco. Poorly made pipes of Eskimo form were used by the Athapascan tribes of interior Alaska, who were taught to smoke by the Eskimo.
The Indians of the Northwest Coast chewed tobacco in ancient times, but did not smoke it. The more northern tribes may have adopted smoking from Asia by way of the Eskimo, but their pipes show little resemblance to the Asiatic forms, and they probably learned the practice from white visitors. The natives of this region are expert carvers, and nearly all their pipes are decorated with figures of men or totemic animals. Wood is the favorite material ([Pl. VI], No. 2), but bone and antler are also used and some of the tribes make very elaborate pipes of black slate ([Pl. VI], No. 3). The slate pipes are much sought after by collectors, and many of them seem to have been made for sale rather than use.
Pipes are mentioned among the goods given to the Indians in some of the earliest English land-purchases, and they were regularly carried by the white traders with the Indians. An English pipe-maker, Robert Cotton, came to Virginia in 1608. The earliest trade pipes were made of clay and seem to have been patterned after the small pipes used for personal smoking by the coast tribes. Those made in the various European countries showed minor differences, but were all of nearly the same form. The later trade pipes show an increasing diversity in shape and decoration, but the whites apparently did not attempt to make the larger ceremonial forms. The most important contribution on the part of the whites to the Indian tobacco complex was the tomahawk pipe. This implement had a pipe-bowl above and a blade below, and could be used either as a pipe or as a weapon. We do not know when or where it originated, but it apparently did not come into general use in the English Colonies before 1750. All the European nations equipped their Indian allies with tomahawk pipes, and a number of types are recognized by collectors. The pipe-bowl was nearly always of acorn shape, like the pipe used by the northeastern Algonquians, but the blade varied considerably. In general, the English and early American tomahawks had straight-edged hatchet-blades, and the French ones had diamond-shaped blades, like spear-heads. Spanish tomahawks had flaring blades with curved edges, like mediæval battle-axes. There were a number of white tomahawk-makers whose work differed in minor details; and fine inlaid, chased, or inscribed tomahawks were sometimes made for presentation to important chiefs.
An Indian warrior was rarely without his pipe and tobacco, and special tobacco-bags were used by all the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains. In early times, these bags were usually made from the skins of small animals taken off whole. The Eastern Woodland tribes used a rather small bag which was tied to the belt. The Plains tribes used a larger bag, often made from a fawn skin, in which they carried both the pipe and tobacco. In historic times the northern Plains Indians have used long, flat rectangular bags decorated with beads or porcupine quills, but this type apparently is not an ancient one ([Pl. V], No. 10). Several of the Plains tribes also had special boards on which the tobacco was cut up and elaborate pipe tampers ([Pl. V], No. 9). These accessories were used mainly in ceremonial smoking. In Pawnee ceremonies the pipe was always tamped with an arrow captured from the enemy. It was forbidden to pack it with the fingers, as the gods might think that the man who did so offered himself with the tobacco and take his life. The tribes of the Northwest Coast crushed their tobacco in mortars. These were usually made from whale vertebrae, and were often elaborately carved.