Sacred Pipe

Most of us over the coarse of our lives have heard someone talk of having smoked a traditional "Peace-Pipe" of our tribal brothers and sisters while others are so bold as to actually brandish what they swear is a sacred pipe of indigenous cultural history, but usually what turns out is NOT our sacred Čhaŋnúŋpa pipe but instead what Our Holy man says "Is nothing more than a dope pipe" which as you can imagine, when coming from an authentic looking "Indian", isn't received well at all by the person claiming such... so, we thought we would go ahead and teach you of sacred Čhaŋnúŋpa so to maybe save some of you unavoidable embarrassment, especially when among your tribal associates, especially their elders.

Native American ceremonial pipes have sometimes been called "peace pipes" by Europeans or others whose cultures do not include these ceremonial objects.

Do NOT refer to it as a "Peacepipe!"

The pipe...

The sacred pipe is a spiritual artifact, a religious altar, always to be treated with respect and care, and used only in a sacred manner. When it is put together with the stem it is sacred. 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 čhaŋnúŋpa (Lakota sacred pipe) to the people, and instructed them in its symbolism and ceremonies. c’anunpa, comes from the Creator.

Historically, ceremonial pipes have been used to mark both war and peace, as well as commerce and trade, and social and political decision-making. Other types of pipes used in ceremonies were the medicine pipe and the war pipe. The Indian that carried the peace pipe was often allowed to pass through enemy territory out of respect. The war pipe had red feathers symbolizing blood and was smoked before going into battle.

There are different kinds of pipes and different uses for them. There are personal pipes and family pipes as well as pipes for large ceremonies. The particular stone used depends upon the tribe's location, and various symbols are added to attract certain spiritual energies. Also, the type of tobacco used depends on tribal custom in the pipe ceremony. But despite these differences, there are certain important similarities.

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.

A ceremonial pipe is a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of Native American cultures in their sacred ceremonies especially to us as a church. In standard Lakota it is called Čhaŋnúŋpa. The various parts of the pipe have symbolic meanings, and much of this symbolism is not shared with those outside the culture. Traditionally they are used to offer prayers in a religious ceremony, to make a ceremonial commitments, and 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. It's important that you understand that not all cultures have pipe traditions, and there is no single word for all ceremonial pipes across the hundreds of diverse Native cultures of our beloved Turtle Island.

Not EVERYONE can honorably carry Čhaŋnúŋpa!

So the Čhaŋnúŋpa...

The bowl of a Čhaŋnúŋpa is made of a very sacred stone called "Catlinite" which is more commonly referred to as "Pipestone" as the sacred stone thought to only found at a place named Pipestone in the state of Minnesota alone out of all of our beloved Turtle Island, but truth be told it does produce elsewhere, and too, in different colors!

The name "Catlinite" came into use after the American painter George Catlin visited the quarries in Minnesota in 1835; but it was Philander Prescott who first wrote about the rock in 1832, noting that evidence indicated that American Indians had been using the quarries since at least as far back as 1637.

Catlinite is a type of argillite (metamorphosed mudstone), usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux Quartzite.

Most catlinite deposits exist beneath the level of groundwater or are in deep enough layers where the soil is constantly moist as the iron compounds which give catlinite its red color quickly convert into iron oxides when exposed to the elements and the stone degrades and breaks down

Sacred pipestone comes from Pipestone, Minnesota!

Only enrolled Native Americans are allowed to quarry for the stone at the Pipestone National Monument, and thus it is protected from over-mining. The pipestone from this quarry is considered the softest stone available. Minnesota catlinite is buttery smooth and can be cut with a regular hacksaw or even a knife, it comes out of the ground a pinkish color often with a cream layer protecting it from the hard quartzite.

Another quarry is located near Hayward, Wisconsin on the reservation, which the Ojibwa have used for centuries. The stone there is harder than the stone from Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. Utah pipestone has a more variable range of hard and soft forms, since it occurs as layers between deposits of harder slates. The quarry at the Pipestone River in Ontario, Canada is no longer used for harvesting Catlinite, but Interesting to note is that there are active quarries in Canada where another type of pipestone, black stone, which is gleaned. The Ojibwe use both the red and black stone for their sacred pipes. while the Shoshone and Ute sometimes use green pipestone, and the Uncompahgre Ute of central Colorado mine salmon alabaster to make their peace pipe bowls

(pictured is a "T" shaped Salmon Alabaster pipe of the Ute).

Colors of 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 undergonemetamorphic 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.

About the bowl...

True authentic pipestone pipes are expertly hand carved using traditional methods One traditional method of manufacture is the use of bow drills made with hard white quartz points for drilling sacred objects from stone while another 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. Then the stone bowl is buffed and polished to a high gloss with beeswax.

Smoking pipes molded from wet clay are different from those where the bowl is carved from solid pipestone and then fitted with a wooden stem (as is the case with Catlinite pipes).The Eastern Band Cherokee are social smokers, and use molded clay pipes for this purpose.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.

For a personal pipe, generally the L-shaped bowls are thought to be for a woman, a single man or for an everyday smoking pipe which is seen in the picture immediately next to this paragraph.

The T-shaped bowls are for a man or a family pipe. The nose of the pipe represents a man coming of age. The animal effigy pipes are for those who have aligned with a particular animal spirit, such as the black "T" shaped sacred pipe immediately below, which is of Wolf spirit. This pipe below is actually from the 18th century.

Don't Dishonor Čhaŋnúŋpa!

Do NOT ever store sacred pipe assembled!

Do NOT ever let a child hold sacred pipe!

If a woman is in her time of menstruation, she is going through her own personal purification ceremony and she is in her sacred time. She should not be near a c’anunpa or other sacred ceremony. This is because you do not cross ceremonies; you do not perform two ceremonies at the same time. If you did, they would cancel each other out.

Stems of a Čhaŋnúŋpa...

The Sioux people use long-stemmed pipes in some of their ceremonies. The stem should be about 20 inches long. You can use a hollow reed or bamboo. You can also use a hollow bone like the leg bone of a deer or the wing bone of a large bird. If you do not have access to either of those, you can cut a stem from a tree (such as a maple, willow, or poplar). After you split it down the middle, dig out the inside and glue the pieces back together. It should join easily so the split is hidden.

Most common are the flat style wooden pipe stems, commonly found to be made today in beautiful, aromatic red cedar. The stems are usually slightly tapered and complete with hole and can be found in a twisted, spiral, natural or even animal styled in there pattern.

What goes into the pipe...

Traditionally, a Native American and First Nations herbal smoking mixture, made from a traditional combination of leaves or barks. Recipes for the mixture vary, as do the uses, from social, to spiritual to medicinal.

Tobacco, Nicotiana rustica, 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, a term that comes from derives from the Unami Delaware, although the Ojibwe call it "giniginige " which means "to mix something animate with something inanimate." and the Proto-Algonquian xall it "kereken" which means to "mix (it) with something different by hand"

The Native Americans considered tobacco to be a sacred and powerful plant. In addition to tobacco, traditionally other plant medicines that would be blended was most often Bearberry (Arctostaphylos spp.) and to lesser degree, Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) and Silky Cornel (Cornus amomum), and even to Canadian Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), Evergreen Sumac (Rhus virens), Littleleaf Sumac (Rhus microphylla), Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra), and Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), but were known to also include leaves or bark of red osier dogwood, arrowroot, red sumac, laurel,ironwood, wahoo, squaw huckleberry, Indian tobacco, cherry bark, and mullein, among other ingredients.

The material smoked by the Chippewa in earliest times were said to be the dried leaves of the bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng.), and the dried, powdered root of a plant identified as Aster novae-angliae L.. Two sorts of bark were smoked, one being known as "red willow" (Cornus stolonifera Michx.) and the other as "spotted willow" (Cornus rugosa Lam.). The inner bark is used, after being toasted over a fire and powdered. It is then stored in a cloth or leather bag, and may be used on its own or in combination with other herbs.

Carrying sacred pipe...

The Plains Indians often carried the Native American peace pipes in a bag called a pipe bundle. This bundle was decorated on the outside and also was used to carry the tobacco that would be used in the pipe.

You carry it for the people, to pray for their health and help, to pray for the healing of the body, mind, and spirit. It is very wakan, very sacred, and it is not for selfish or greedy use, only to make good medicine.

A man by the name of 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 during his travels down the Mississippi River in 1673. 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.

Pipe Ceremony...

The pipe ceremony is a sacred ritual for connecting physical and spiritual worlds. "The pipe is a link between the earth and the sky," explains White Deer of Autumn. "Nothing is more sacred. The pipe is our prayers in physical form. Smoke becomes our words; it goes out, touches everything, and becomes a part of all there is. The fire in the pipe is the same fire in the sun, which is the source of life." The reason why tobacco is used to connect the worlds is that the plant's roots go deep into the earth, and its smoke rises high into the heavens.The pipe ceremony invokes a relationship with the energies of the universe, and ultimately the Creator, and the bond made between earthly and spiritual realms is not to be broken. Simply put, the smoke coming from the mouth symbolizes the truth being spoken, and the plumes of smoke provide a path for prayers to reach the Great Spirit, and for the Great Spirit to travel down to Mother Earth.

In the hands of a medicine man, his sacred pipe is full of mysterious power and able to accomplish many things for the health, safety and well-being of his people. The smoke is not inhaled, but puffed into, then out of the mouth in each of the four directions, acknowledging Father Sky, Mother Earth, and the Great Spirit as the pipe is smoked and passed from one person to the next around the circle. As the pipe is passed, one holds the pipe in the left hand while using the right hand to wave the smoke over the top of one’s own head as a blessing. When speaking to the Great Spirit, often the stem of the pipe is pointed toward the sky.

Most pipe ceremonies have the same intention: to call upon and thank the six energies: "All of our Sioux ceremonies beseech to the four directions, the earth and sky, and ultimately the Great Spirit. We see our Creator through nature, and we try to emulate what the Creator has made. This has worked out well, as you can see from the track record of Native American people. The old time Indians were honest, ethical people, and they had an unblemished environmental record. When the Pilgrims first landed, they kept them alive, and they took in black slaves. They were extremely humanistic. That's one of the main reasons that I believe in the natural way." ~Ed McGaa (Eagle Man), Ogalala Sioux

Eagle Man begins a pipe ceremony by beseeching the West power, while thinking about the life giving rains and the ever present spirit world. Next, he beseeches the north power, the source of endurance, strength, truthfulness, and honesty, which are qualities needed to walk down a good path in life. Then, he will look to the east power. The east is where the sun rises, and the sun brings us knowledge, the essence of spirituality such as meditation practices. Without knowledge, we become ignorant and cause harm to ourselves and others. The fourth energy is the south power, which brings us bounty, medicine, and growth. Next to be acknowledged is the earth spirit. Eagle Man touches the pipe to the ground, and says, "Mother Earth, I seek to protect you." Since Mother Earth depends on the sun's life giving energy, the pipe is then held up towards the sky. Lastly, the pipe is held straight up to the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery, the unexplainable source of all life. These words are then spoken: "Oh Great Spirit, I thank you for the six powers of the universe." Unlike many westerners, Eagle Man explains that the person reaching out to the spirit world has no fear: "Most of us are not afraid of the Great Spirit. We don't fear something that has given us our life."

When smoking is finished, the pipe is again treated with great respect as the bowl is cleaned, the stem is detached from the bowl, the pipe is blessed and smudged,then mullen is put in both ends of the bowl, and it's wrapped and put it away in its special bundle or pouch in honorable way.

We hope you found this article enlightening, and that you stay tuned as we bring you more wisdom we think you appreciate. As always, we Thank You ever-so-much for your continued interest, contributions and support, blessings to you all, may we go in a good medicine way.