A ceremonial pipe is a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in their sacred ceremonies. Traditionally they are used to offer prayers in a religious ceremony, to make a ceremonial commitment, or to seal a covenant or treaty. The pipe ceremony may be a component of a larger ceremony, or held as a sacred ceremony in and of itself. Indigenous peoples of the Americas who use ceremonial pipes have names for them in each culture's Indigenous language. Not all cultures have pipe traditions, and there is no single word for all ceremonial pipes across the hundreds of diverse Native American languages.
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Use in ceremonies
editAlthough often called "peace pipes" by Europeans (and, specifically, calumet de paix, by the French[1]), the smoking of a ceremonial pipe to seal a peace treaty is only one use of a ceremonial smoking pipe, by only some of the nations that utilize them.
Various types of ceremonial pipes have been used by different Native American, First Nations and Métis cultures. The style of pipe, materials smoked, and ceremonies are unique to the specific and distinct religions of those nations. Similarly, the pipes are called by names in that tribe's language. The specific type of pipes smoked in Catholic conversion rituals first in Illinois and then in Mi'kmaq territory were known as Calumets.[2] Historically, ceremonial pipes have been used to mark war and peace, as well as commerce and trade, and social and political decision-making.[3]
During his travels down the Mississippi River in 1673, Father Jacques Marquette documented the universal respect that the ceremonial pipe was shown among all Native peoples he encountered, even those at war with each other. He claimed that presenting the pipe during battle would halt the fighting. The Illinois people gave Marquette such a pipe as a gift to ensure his safe travel through the interior of the land.[3]
In ceremonial usage, the smoke is generally believed to carry prayers to the attention of the Creator or other powerful spirits. Lakota tradition tells that White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the Chanunpa (Lakota sacred pipe) to the people, and instructed them in its symbolism and ceremonies.[4] Many Native American cultures still practice these ceremonies.
According to oral traditions, and as demonstrated by pre-contact pipes held in museums and tribal and private holdings, some ceremonial pipes are adorned with feathers, fur, animal or human hair, beadwork, quills, carvings or other items having significance for the owner. Other pipes are very simple. Many are not kept by an individual, but are instead held collectively by a medicine society or similar indigenous ceremonial organization.
Varieties and terminology
editIndigenous peoples of the Americas who use ceremonial pipes have names for them in each culture's indigenous language. There is no single word for all ceremonial pipes across the hundreds of diverse Native cultures.
The Lakota sacred pipe is called a chanupa, also spelled chanunpa or c'anupa.[4]
In some historical sources written by colonists, a ceremonial pipe is referred to as a calumet (kal-yə-ˌmet, -mət). Calumet is a Norman word (pronounced [kalyme]), first recorded in David Ferrand's La Muse normande around 1625–1655,[5] and used by Norman-French settlers to describe the ceremonial pipes they saw used among the native peoples of the region.[6] The settlers initially used the word to refer to the hollow decorated pipe shaft alone while the pipe bowl was a separate ritual object,[7] a "sort of reeds used to make pipes", with a suffix substitution for calumel.[8] It corresponds to the French word chalumeau, meaning 'reed' (Modern French also means 'straw', 'blowlamp').[9][10] The Calumets smoked in Catholic conversion rituals first in Illinois and then in Mi'kmaq territory were elaborately carved and decorated.[2] The name of the Calumet Region in Illinois and Indiana may derive from the French term or may have an independent derivation from Potawatomi.[3][11] Likewise, there is a current Umatilla term, čalámat.[12]
Materials
editTobacco, Nicotiana rustica,[13] was originally used primarily by eastern tribes, but western tribes often mixed it with other herbs, barks, and plant matter, in a preparation commonly known as kinnikinnick.[14]
One material used for ceremonial pipe bowls in the Upper Midwest is red pipestone or catlinite,[15] a fine-grained easily worked stone of a rich red color of the Coteau des Prairies, west of the Big Stone Lake in South Dakota. The pipestone quarries of what today is Minnesota, were neutral ground as people from multiple nations journeyed to the quarry to obtain the sacred pipestone.[16] The Sioux people use long-stemmed pipes in some of their ceremonies. Other peoples, such as the Catawba in the American Southeast, use ceremonial pipes formed as round, footed bowls. A tubular smoke tip projects from each of the four cardinal directions on the bowl.
Pipestone varieties
editThis section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2015) |
A number of Indigenous North American cultures make and use ceremonial pipes. However, there are also Native American cultures that do not have a ceremonial smoking tradition, but make pipes for social smoking only. The types of materials used vary by community and locality. Some of the known types of pipe stone and pipe materials are:
- Clay
- The Cherokee and Chickasaw both fashion pipes made from fired clay, however these are only used for social smoking. They use small reed cane pipestems made from river cane. These pipes are made from aged river clay hardened in a hot fire.
- Red pipestone
Mississippian and Eastern Woodlands style "acorn" pipe. These pipes have been found in Mississippian culture earthwork mounds in the Eastern United States. This acorn pipe is made from South Dakota red pipestone. - Blue pipestone
- is used predominantly by the Plains Tribes for certain types of ceremonial pipes. Deposits of the stone are found in South Dakota.
- Bluestone
- a hard, greenish-blue quartzite stone from the southern Appalachian Mountains. After being worked, it takes on a decidedly greenish cast. This stone has been used by several Eastern Woodlands tribes for pipemaking. Several ancient Mississippian culture bluestone pipes have been excavated.
- Salmon alabaster
- The Uncompahgre Ute People make ceremonial pipes from salmon alabaster mined in central Colorado.
- Green pipestone
- A white on green marbled cupric pipestone found in Wyoming and South Dakota is used by the Shoshone, Ute, and Plains Tribes for personal and ceremonial pipes. This stone is also used to carve sacred effigies and religious items.
- Black pipestone (South Dakota)
- a soft, brittle, white on black marbled pipestone found in South Dakota and used by some of the Plains Tribes for certain types of ceremonial pipes.
- Black pipestone (Uinta)
- an extremely hard black quartzite slate which has undergone metamorphic compression and is found in the southeastern drainage of the Uinta Mountains in Utah and Colorado. This stone has been used by the Great Basin Tribes for war clubs and pipes that are jet black with a high gloss when polished. Stones which have tumbled down creeks and drainages are always selected, since these stones typically contained no cracks or defects.
Traditional pipemaking tools
editOne traditional method of manufacture is the use of bow drills made with hard white quartz points for drilling sacred objects from stone. One technique uses moistened rawhide strips rolled in crushed white quartz and stretched with a bow handle to shape and rough the pipes. Pipe bowls may also be shaped with hard sandstones, then polished with water and sanded with progressively finer and finer abrasive grit and animal hide, finally being rubbed with fat or other oils to complete polishing.[18]
See also
editReferences
editNotes
- ^ Kalm, Pehr (1772). Travels into North America: containing its natural history, and a circumstantial account of its plantations and agriculture in general, with the civil, ecclesiastical and commercial state of the country, the manners of the inhabitants, and several curious and important remarks on various subjects. Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster. London: T. Lowndes. p. 344. ISBN 9780665515002. OCLC 1083889360.
- ^ a b Leavelle, Tracy Neal (2012) The Catholic Calumet: Colonial Conversions in French and Indian North America. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ^ a b c Moore, Powell A. (1959). The Calumet Region: Indiana's Last Frontier. Indiana Historical Bureau. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
- ^ a b Looking Horse, Chief Arvol (March 13, 2003) "Looking Horse Proclamation on the Protection of Ceremonies Archived 2015-11-25 at the Wayback Machine" at Indian Country Today Media Network
- ^ CNRTL site etymology of calumet
- ^ Rowland, Dunbar (1907)
- ^ Calumet or "Peace-pipe" of the Indians, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1907
- ^ The word comes from Late Latin calamellus. The Northern Norman dialect retains the group /ca/, when it turns into /ʃa/ (cha-) in Common French and it retains the suffix -el, when it has turned into -eau in Common French. The fall of the final /l/ is specific for the Cauchois dialect, which explains the later confusion with another suffix -et, pronounced the same way [e].
- ^ CNRTL
- ^ T.F. Hoad, English Etymology, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 59
- ^ Calumet River-Frontal Lake Michigan Archived 2015-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, Watershed Central Wiki, U.S. EPA, quoting from the "City of Chicago Calumet Land Use Plan"
- ^ Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; Rude, Noel (2014). Umatilla Dictionary. Seattle: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, in association with University of Washington Press. p. 558. ISBN 9780295994284.
- ^ The Native American Chanunpa, the Sacred Pipe Archived 2012-12-21 at the Wayback Machine Archived 2012-12-21 at the Wayback Machine, Barefoot's World
- ^ Charles L. Cutler. Tracks that speak: the legacy of Native American words in North American culture. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Boston : 2002).
- ^ "Catlinite, Calumet Pipes and Pipestone National Monument". Maps, Material, Culture, and Memory: On the Trail of the Ioway. University of Iowa. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
- ^ "Pipestone National Monument". National Park Service. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
- ^ Geologic Formations, Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota, National Park Service
- ^ Paul S. Martin, "The bow-drill in North America." American anthropologist 36.1 (1934): 94-97. online
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Calumet". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
edit- Brown, Ian W. "The calumet ceremony in the southeast and its archaeological manifestations." American Antiquity 54.2 (1989): 311-331.
- Cessford, Craig. "The archaeology of the clay pipe and the study of smoking." Assemblage 6 (2001): 84-112. online
- Cutler, Charles L. Tracks that speak: the legacy of Native American words in North American culture. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2002).
- Haberman, Thomas W. "Evidence for aboriginal tobaccos in eastern North America." American Antiquity 49.2 (1984): 269-287.
- Hall, Robert L. "Calumet Ceremonialism, Mourning Ritual, and Mechanisms of Inter-tribal Trade." in Mirror and Metaphor: Material and Social Constructions of Reality (1987): 29-43.
- Hays, Charles F. III, ed. Proceedings of the 1989 Smoking Pipe Conference: Selected Papers (Research Division of the Rochester Museum and Science Center, 1992).
- Higgins, David A. "Clay tobacco pipes: a valuable commodity." International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 24.1 (1995): 47-52. online[permanent dead link]
- Springer, James Warren. "An ethnohistoric study of the smoking complex in eastern North America." Ethnohistory (1981): 217-235. online
- Winter, Joseph C., ed. Tobacco Use by Native North Americans: Sacred Smoke and Silent Killer (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000).
External links
edit- Society for Clay Pipe Research, founded 1983
- Pipestone County Museum – History
- Symbol and Substance in American Indian Art, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on calumets