Information about Peace Pipe

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.

A common material 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.

A common misconception of the peace pipe is what, exactly, was in it. The most common and sacred things smoked out of the pipe was Tobacco. Tobacco was sacred to the many different Native American tribes. A prayer would be said to each of the four directions as well as mother earth and father sky as they filled the pipe. After filling the pipe, some tobacco would be sprinkled on the ground.

To show respect smoke would be blown into one's face. Captives would at times take this the wrong way, but it was actually a sign of kindness or respect.

Spiritual reference

In a way the word "peace pipe" came first into use by white people, who initially had seen but one use of the pipe, but the ceremonial pipe had more uses than just settling a conflict between tribes.

The stem of the pipe represents the Male Principle as well as the Animal World, hence that sometimes there is a piece of fur wrapped around it.

The bowl of the pipe represents the Female Principle as well as the Plant Kingdom.

Consequently the whole of the pipe represents Creation, and as soon as bowl and stem are connected the ceremonial pipe becomes sacred as a result.

The tobacco being burned in it is believed to send one's prayers up to the Great Spirit, the creator of all that is. A string of eagle prayer feathers may also be attached to the pipe, as this bird, sacred to the Native Americans, soars highest of all birds and therefore dwells closest to the Great Spirit.

As White Buffalo Calf Woman had instructed the Lakota people, the stem of the pipe is to be held upward during ceremonies, thus forming a sacred bridge between our world and that of Wakan Tanka.

Pipestone varieties

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Salmon Alabaster - the Uncompahgre Ute made beautiful ceremonial pipes from salmon alabaster mined in central Colorado.

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.

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.

Traditional pipemaking tools

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.

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.

See also

• Peace symbol

References