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A Lakota (Sioux) "peace pipe" pipestem, without the pipe bowl, displayed at the United States Library of Congress

A peace pipe, also called a calumet or medicine pipe, is a ceremonial smoking pipe used by many Native American tribes, traditionally as a token of peace. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Peace_pipe. ... Image File history File links Peace_pipe. ... Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ... Youth with pipe by Hendrick Jansz Terbrugghen A pipe is a tool used for smoking. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States and their history after European contact, chiefly in what is now the United States. ...

A common material^[1] for calumet pipe bowls is red pipestone or catlinite, 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 quarries were formerly neutral ground among warring tribes; many sacred traditions are associated with the locality. Pipestone can refer to: Pipestone, Minnesota, a town in the state of Minnesota, USA. Pipestone County, Minnesota, the county in which the town of Pipestone is located. ... Catlinite is a type of red, carvable rock found in Pipestone County, Minnesota, that was used by Native Americans for pipes and effigies. ... The Coteau des Prairies: orange arrows indicate paths of the two lobes of the glacier around either side of the formation. ... Big Stone Lake is a long, narrow freshwater lake and reservoir forming the border between western Minnesota and northeastern South Dakota. ... Official language(s) English Demonym South Dakotan Capital Pierre Largest city Sioux Falls Area  Ranked 17th in the US  - Total 77,116[1] sq mi (199,905 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 380 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ...

A type of herbal tobacco or mixture of herbs (marijuana) was usually reserved for special smoking occasions, with each region's people using the plants that were locally considered to have special qualities or a culturally condoned basis for ceremonial use. Shredded tobacco leaf for pipe smoking Tobacco can also be pressed into plugs and sliced into flakes Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. ...

Some northern Sioux people used long, stemmed pipes or ceremonies while others such as the Catawbas in the southeast used ceremonial pipes formed as round, footed bowls with a tubular smoke tip projecting from each cardinal direction on the bowl.

Sioux ceremonies included saying a prayer to each of the four cardinal directions and the earth and sky (reportedly viewed as female and male principles, respectively), then a little bit of tobacco would be sprinkled on the ground in recogniton of the relationship connecting humans to all other parts of existence. Other Indian peoples used and use pipes in different ways, according to their personal or group beliefs, ceremonies, purposes and habits.

It should be clarified that the television image of a "chief" with long braids smoking a long, feathered "peacepipe" is a false, Hollywood fabrication that absolutely does not convey the variety of practices, pipe forms, or beliefs and ceremonial procedures of the thousands of Indian groups in pre-European North (and South) America.

Spiritual reference

Similarly, the word "peace pipe" is a European construct based on only one type of pipe and one way it was used. Ceremonial pipes were used by the northern Lakota Sioux Indians as a means of conveying prayers or wishes to the originating force/s or being/s, with construction of the pipe and the smoking mixture symbolically forming a bridge believed necessary for successful communication with non-human beings that influenced fates or outcomes.

In that world view, the pipestem was the Male Principle as well as the Animal World, hence sometimes a piece of fur was wrapped around it. The pipe bowl in that view represents the Female Principle and Plant Kingdom, while the pipe as a whole represents Creation in a sacred form that embodies as soon as the pipe bowl and stem are connected.

The tobacco being burned in a pipe under this belief system was thought to carry prayers to the attention of the being or beings or forces that create everything. Lakota tradition has it that White Buffalo Calf Woman, the aboriginal source of the pipe, instructed the Lakota people to hold the pipe stem upward during ceremonies as a sacred bridge between this and Wakan Tanka the creator's world. The White Buffalo Calf Woman, in Lakota mythology, is a sacred woman of supernatural origin who gave the Lakota their Seven Sacred Rituals. The traditional story is that, long ago there was a time of famine. ... Eddie Plenty Holes, a Sioux Indian photographed about 1899. ... In Lakota traditions, Wakan Tanka is a term for The Great Spirit which resides in every thing, similar to many notions of God. ...

According to oral traditions, and amply illustrated by pre-contact pipes in museums and tribal and private holdings, pipes were (and are now) adorned with feathers, fur, human or animal hair, bird wings, plants, beadwork, quills, carvings and other items having significance for the owner. "Peacepipes" may be palm-sized, short, round, horn-shaped, animal or human figurines, or short pipes as well as two foot long feathered reeds ending in an upright rather than round bowl. There are, of course, as many individualistic pipe-using traditions as pipes, and the formulaic, often-repeated "Lakota" way used in contemporary popular culture and interttribal pow-wows should not to be misunderstood as an historically accurate, universal, or reliably sourced practice, but rathr as a means of forming a modern unifying tradition through the use of ceremonial constructs, repetition and an assertion of authority that permits inclusion if the rules are known and followed.

Pipestone varieties

Uncompahgre Ute Salmon Alabaster Ceremonial Pipe. Ute pipe styles are similar to those of the plains indians, with notable differences. Ute pipes are thicker and use shorter pipestems than the plains style and more closely resemble the pipe styles of their Northern neighbors, the Shoshone.

Several Native tribes make ceremonial pipes. The types of stones used vary by tribe and locality. Some of the known types of pipe stone and pipe materials are: Image File history File links UtePipe3. ... Image File history File links UtePipe3. ...

Clay - The Cherokee and Chickasaw both fashioned pipes made from fired clay that also employed small reed cane pipestems made from river cane. These pipes were made from aged river clay hardened in a hot fire. This page contains special characters. ... For other uses, see Chickasaw (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Clay (disambiguation). ... This article is about common reed. ...

Red Pipestone - Catlinite is an iron-rich, reddish, soft quartzite slate typically excavated from below groundwater level, as the stone erodes rapidly when exposed to the weather and outside air. Red pipestone was used by the Eastern Tribes, Western and Great Basin Tribes, and the Plains Tribes, with sources of the stone in Tennessee (South Central), Minnesota (Pipestone), and Utah (Delta, Uinta). Sacred pipestone comes from Pipestone, Minnesota. The quarry itself is located just north of the town at the Pipestone National Monument. Today only people of Native American ancestry are allowed to quarry the pipestone from this quarry. The pipestone or catlinite from this quarry is softer than any other catlinite.-1... For other uses, see Slate (disambiguation). ... The Eastern Woodlands was a cultural area of the indigenous peoples of North America. ... Bold textThe Great Basin tribes of Native Americans occupied an area of some 400,000 mile² (1,000,000 km²), between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, and parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. ... The three chiefs--Piegan, by Edward S. Curtis The Plains Indians are the Indians who lived on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. ... This article is about the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Pipestone is a city in Pipestone County, Minnesota, United States. ... Pipestone crafting demonstration at Pipestone National Monument. ...

Mississippian and Eastern Woodlands style "acorn" pipe. These pipes have been found in Mississippian mounds in the Eastern United States. This acorn pipe is made from South Dakota red pipestone.

Blue Pipestone - Also a form of catlinite, blue pipestone was used almost predominantly by the Plains Tribes for ceremonial pipes. Deposits of the stone are also found in South Dakota. The use of blue pipestone coincided with the arrival of the horse among the Plains Tribes. Image File history File links MissPipe1. ... Image File history File links MissPipe1. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ...

Bluestone - a hard, greenish-blue quartzite stone from the southern Appalachian Mountains. After being worked, it takes on a decidedly greenish cast. This stone was used by several Eastern Woodlands tribes for pipemaking. Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw made pipes from bluestone. Several ancient Mississippian bluestone pipes have been discovered. The Appalachian Mountains are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. ... The Creek are an American Indian people originally from the southeastern United States, also known by their original name Muscogee (or Muskogee), the name they use to identify themselves today. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

Salmon Alabaster - the Uncompahgre Ute made beautiful ceremonial pipes from salmon alabaster mined in central Colorado. The Uncompahgre River, a tributary of the Gunnison, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison River, approximately 75 mi (121 km) long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. ... The Utes (; yoots) are an ethnically related group of American Indians now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. ... A modern uplighter lamp made completely from Italian alabaster (white and brown types). ... Official language(s) English Demonym Coloradan Capital Denver Largest city Denver Largest metro area Denver-Aurora Metro Area Area  Ranked 8th in the US  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ...

Uncompahgre Ute Salmon Alabaster Ceremonial Pipe with Pipestem.

Green Pipestone - A white on green marbled cupric pipestone found in Wyoming and South Dakota and used by the Shoshone, Ute, and Plains Tribes for personal and ceremonial pipes. This stone was also used to carve sacred effigies and religious items. Image File history File links UtePipe1. ... Image File history File links UtePipe1. ... Copper is also the title of a web and print comic: see Copper (comic). ... Official language(s) English Capital Cheyenne Largest city Cheyenne Area  Ranked 10th  - Total 97,818 sq mi (253,348 km²)  - Width 280 miles (450 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 0. ... This article is about the Native American tribe. ...

Black Pipestone (South Dakota) - a soft, brittle, white on black marbled pipestone found in South Dakota and used by the Plains Tribes for 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 was used by the Great Basin Tribes for war clubs and beautiful pipes that are jet black with a high gloss when polished. Stones which had tumbled down creeks and drainages were always selected, since these stones typically contained no cracks or defects. Quartzite, a form of metamorphic rock, from the Museum of Geology at University of Tartu collection. ... This view of Kings Peak and the Henrys Fork Basin shows the cliff bands and basins typical throughout the Uintas. ... “Truncheon” redirects here. ...

Traditional pipemaking tools

Both raw and cut and slabbed high grade Red Pipestone from Delta, Utah.

Native Americans who learned the use of the bow and arrow rapidly advanced the concept in early pipemaking and employed bow drills that used hard white quartz points which, when combined with water, could bore out even the hardest of pipestones. Image File history File links Pipestone1. ... Image File history File links Pipestone1. ... A bow is a weapon that shoots arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow and/or the string. ... The bow drill is an ancient tool. ... -1...

Early Native Americans employed moistened rawhide strips rolled in crushed white quartz and stretched with a bow handle to shape and rough the pipes. The efficiency of such bow stone saws in cutting and slabbing a large piece of red pipestone is quite surprising given their seeming simplicity. Pipes were also shaped and roughed with hard sandstones, afterward polished with water, then sanded with progressively finer and finer abrasive grit and animal hide, finally being rubbed with fat or facial oils to complete polishing. Rawhide is a hide or animal skin that has not been exposed to tanning and thus is much lighter in color than treated animal hides. ... This article is about the geological formation. ... An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish (see metal polishing and wood finishing) a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away. ... For other uses, see FAT. Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water. ... The sebaceous glands are glands found in the skin of mammals. ...

See also

• Peace symbol

Peace sign redirects here. ...

References

1. ^ See Longfellow's Hiawatha

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.