Tobacco, Pipes, and Native American Culture, Term Paper Example

Introduction

There is a sanctified relationship between tobacco smoking and American Indian ritual activities and beliefs that continues to play a significant role in their communities (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). Sacred tobacco was and still is a symbol for peace and healing in the cultural milieu of tribes today, which is quite contrary to the modern commercial tobacco use in manufactured cigarettes (Hall, 1997). When used commercially, tobacco is an addictive narcotic and the spiritual, medicinal, and cultural implications are lost in this abusive practice (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). As stated by Struthers & Hodge (2011), “Tobacco use via cigarette smoking can no longer be seen solely in a cultural context because the smoking of tobacco has been transformed from a healing herb to an abusive, addictive habit and deadly carcinogen” (p.209). This discourse will review the how Native Americans used tobacco and pipes ceremonially, its importance in their traditions and beliefs, the relevance of the animals and imagery carved into pipe artifacts discovered in archaeological digs, and how altars like the Cahokia pipe has been a symbol of prayer to the Native American..

Native Americans and Tobacco

When used in the traditional ways of the American Indian people, tobacco has long played a significant role, serving as a connection between their own culture and the spirit world (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). Native American history speaks of tobacco use in ceremonial or religious practices, medicinal and healing rituals, and as a tool for teaching and sacred tobacco was seen as a gift of the earth (Hall, 1997). In healing rituals, the plant was burned and the rising smoke was used to heal and cleanse and sacred tobacco was often scattered around the bed of the ailing individual for protection and to facilitate healing (Hall, 1997). Socially, tobacco was also used to promote well-being and good thoughts, smoked as a ritualistic exchange before important meetings, and it was used as a powerful teaching tool (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). Tobacco leaves were commonly used by elders, healers, and tribal leaders in their storytelling and held symbolic meaning as spirits paths (Struthers & Hodge, 2011).

The smoke of the tobacco plant was thought to have the potential to channel evil or bad spirits and there were specific rules that had to be followed when smoking sacred tobacco, which have as much significance as the act of smoking itself (Hall, 1997). In the ritualistic smoking of tobacco, small puffs of smoke are encouraged and the smoke is held in the mouth without inhaling, “…as the smoke was not to be enjoyed but was a symbolic gesture meant to cleanse the air, the heart, and the mind” (Struthers & Hodge, 2011, p.211). For the Native Americans, the smoke became a catalyst to the spirits world, allowing for a peaceful exchange so that their prayers could be heard (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). Unfortunately, the smoking of commercial tobacco has become a principal cause of death and illness among American Indian adults and adolescents and they have the highest prevalence of smoking in the United States (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006). In addition, 31% of American-Indian adolescents ages 12 to 17 admitted that they had smoked in the past month, which was the highest amongst all ethnic groups in the United States (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006).

Smoking prevalence’s among American-Indians vary depending on the region and tribe, with the highest incidences in Alaska and the North Plains, and the lowest in the Southwestern United States (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006). Like these variations in occurrences, reasons for the amplified risk for tobacco use among American-Indian youth also varies and includes issues such as parental influences, peer influences, perceptions regarding the positive effects of tobacco, easier access to tobacco, traumatic life experiences, and the customary sacred tobacco in ceremonies performed in some tribes (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). In regards to believed practices regarding the use of hallucinogenic or psychoactive substances, research is unclear as to whether plants stronger than high doses of nicotine or native tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), which has a higher nicotine content than commercial tobacco was used to achieve shamanistic out-of-body experiences because it was known to create the sense of disembodiment or of exosomatic flight (Brown, 1997). Such experiences was commonplace in many Native American tribes, which explains the presence of birds on archaeological smoking pipes and implies that the elemental properties of a drug can have a crucial effect on the socio-cultural aspects of its use (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). Tobacco has this potential whether smoked or taken in some alternative form, as does many other plants, such as Peyote, which is commonly used in the East and jimsonweed (Datura sp.), frequently used to the Southeast (Brown, 1997).

The psychosomatic effects of tobacco have been assumed to have caused some of the ritual actions and signs characteristic of Adena and later periods, primarily the bird images seen on effigy pipes, tablet inscriptions, and other forms of indigenous art (Rafferty, 2006). The specific sociocultural effects noted are based on the specific chemical and psychoactive effects of nicotine that would not necessarily manifest if smoking pipes were used to smoke materials with various psychoactive effects (Rafferty, 2006). Additionally, the ethnohistory and ethnography indicated the significance of tobacco smoking in Native American tribes has a substantial historical complexity, dating as far back as the origins of horticulture, improved regional trade and interaction, and sedentism during at around 500 B.C., also known as the Woodlands Period (Rafferty, 2006). There are different kinds of pipes and different uses for them and the type of materials used and symbols added depends on the tribe’s location and the spiritual energies desired.

Ceremonial Pipes

The sacred pipe ritual is a ceremony American Indians use to connect the physical and spiritual worlds, with the pipe being symbolic of the link between the earth and the sky (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). Smoking tobacco during the sacred pipe ceremony uses the pipe as a representation of the prayers in physical form, the smoke becomes the words, flowing out into the world to touch everything and becoming part of all there is (Brown, 1997). The fire is symbolic of the sun, which is the source of life, and the tobacco is used to connect the worlds because the plant’s roots delve deep into the earth while its smoke surges high into the heavens (Brown, 1997). There are personal pipes, family pipes, and large ceremonial pipes and the type of tobacco used is contingent upon the tribal custom involved in the pipe ceremony. However, there are many similarities in the sacred pipe rituals between the tribes, including the spiritual relationship invoked through what is believed to be a convergence of the universal energies of the Creator and the bond made between earthly and spiritual realms that should not be broken (Rafferty, 2006).

Most pipe ceremonies involve beckoning the same energies, which requires beseeching the four directions, the earth and sky, and ultimately the Great Spirit (Hall, 1997). In these ceremonies, Native Americans feel they can see their Creator through nature, and so they try to mimic what the Creator has made in how they use the land and in their honest, humanistic, ethical treatment of all people they encountered. The Native American’s faith in the bond created from smoking the sacred pipe in ceremony was so strong that, to break one’s word after smoking the sacred pipe in the pipe ceremony meant dishonoring the meaning of this sacred practice and would bring negative results instead of the blessings intended (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). The design of the pipe (see Appendix A) is equally as important as what is smoked in it, as the peace pipe is to be respected as a portable altar and Native Americans must remember the four cardinal values when smoking the peace pipe, which are respect for Wakan Tanka, respect for Mother Earth, respect for our fellow man and woman, and respect for individual freedom (Hall, 1997). The rich depth of symbolism in the joining of the stem as the connection of a living, breathing being, like with Cahokian and other tribal pipes, and when they are disconnected, they are still two sacred objects can be interpreted in a variety of ways (Hall, 1997). The most popular Native American pipes are the long “peace pipes” or calumets commonly used by the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were usually crafted by joining a wooden stem to a bowl made out of “pipestone” or catlinite, which is native to Minnesota, but became widely available due to intertribal trade throughout Native North America (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004).

Other native hand-made pipes included smaller wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, one-piece stone and earthenware pipes indigenous to the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metallic pipe basin and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). Another herbal variation commonly used in peace pipes is called kinnic kinnick , which is the bark of the red willow tree and a non-hallucinatory element with a pleasant aroma that was traditionally smoked as a substitute when tobacco was scarce (Rafferty, 2006). Although it is otherwise contended, as previously indicated, no form of mind-altering substance is condoned by Native American religion traditionalists, including the use of peyote, which is wrongfully associated with traditional Native American religion and ceremony (Struthers & Hodge, 2011). True Native American’s seek the Great Spirit only through natural methods, such as fasting, Vision Quest, knowledge and observances of God’s creation and the Sun Dance, and Sweat Lodge ceremonies (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006). The final stage of the sacred pipe ceremony is the pipe offering, which means the pipe is held with its stem pointed straight upward, out into the center of the universe (Hall, 1997). Even though God is everywhere, in ceremony, Wakan Tanka is regarded as above.

The Symbolism of Pipe Figures

The traditional adornment of shamanic objects is often described as “self-directed” art, which basically means that the images are oriented to face the user rather than to an external viewer (Brown, 1997). Some famous examples of such embellishment include the Hopewellian pipe effigies that usually face the smoker (Brown, 1997). Additionally, actions planned to position the universal midpoint at the precise position that a ceremonious action is being enacted can result in very particular four- or six point directionality (Brown, 1997). The permeating cross-in-circle design is indubitably a symbol of this act and many others have ethnographically observed that this universal symbol operates repetitively in a defined manner, which is to position the cosmic epicenter at the precise site in which a ritual is being enacted. Brown (1997) also indicates that “Other meanings are probably derived from this ritual centering act, which can be inscribed in the earth or communicated in a variety of other manners. Just such a commonly accepted means for creating sacred space individually has probably accounted for the widespread appearance of quadrated symbolism on pottery, in domestic housing, and in the sacred hearths of the most private sacred spaces” (p.477).

The documentation of connotations derived from objects in frameworks that can consistently be moored in sacramental notions and ideology ethnologically acknowledged is a norm that is well recognized among art historians (Hall, 1997). While this principle is not typically encouraging when bearing in mind the amount of time that archaeologists are accustomed to, generally recognized connotations may have arisen or died out over time, which is predominantly true when a symbol has been appointed to create a thought for its own promotion (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). Integrated within this cynical perspective is the faith that is commonly embedded in pious ritual and conservative practice (Rafferty, & Mann, 2004). Tobacco smoking is argued to be such a case and a wider variety of historical approaches has been advocated to better determine the true import and implications of this practice.

The extensive dissemination of singular components that could be linked to past shaman practices has persuaded some researchers that these objects, at one time, may have represented shamanic beliefs and practices and were more common if not universal (Hall, 1997). The earliest context in which shamanism can be detected archaeologically is in the Late Archaic Period, which is a period where civilizations were small in scale and is the ideal context for shamanism practices (Brown, 1997). It was a hunting and gathering social structure and the artifacts that would ordinarily be used by shamans, like quartz crystals and tubular smoking pipes, were found (Rafferty, 2006). It was also demonstrated that when the society grew during the Middle and Late Woodland Periods, the shamanism becomes a stronger influence and assumes an elaborate material form in which smoking pipes were embellished with effigies of animal species that could possibly be associated with assisting the shamanic trance (Brown, 1997). Other small animals, like birds, otters, beavers, and frogs or toads were typically seen during the common dream and trance experience of either flying or swimming and pipe animals that were uncharacteristic are the duck, the bear, and the cougar or panther (Brown, 1997). As stated by Fowler (2007), “Given these trends, the presence of an effigy alone cannot be considered uniquely diagnostic of lithic pipes but neither can it be diagnostic of ceramic pipes. Though the raw number of ceramic effigies outweighs lithic forms, the dominant overall pipe form is…ceramic” (p.40).

Conclusion

Over the centuries, tobacco smoke has been transformed from the healing spiritual experience that was common the Native American users and into the deadly, carcinogenic experience that commercial tobacco smoking has produced. However, in traditional American Indian practices, pipe assemblage and the embellishment of effigies is not a dead practice and the tradition of has not been lost, showing two primary trends, which are that “ceramic pipes outnumber lithic pipes by a great volume and various animal and human effigies appear on both lithic and ceramic pipes” (Fowler, 2007, p.40). Although the figurative value of smoking pipes has been diminished, it warrants mentioning that indications of symbolic importance can be seen in behaviors applied to both effigy and non-effigy pipes alike and many non-effigy pipes seem to have been ceremonially damaged and could thus be believed to be sacred (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006). Overall, considering the high incidence of underage smoking amongst Native American youth, smoking interventions for at-risk adolescents necessitates a ethnically knowledgeable and age-appropriate method that is overseen within the context of the adolescent life and it must also be understood that the pipe’s worth may have nothing to do with the presence or absence of symbolic imagery (Unger, Soto, & Baezconde-Garbanati, 2006).

References

Brown, J.A. (1997). The Archaeology of Ancient Religion in the Eastern Woodlands. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26, 465-485. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2952531 .

Fowler, T. (2007). The symbolic role of Lithic materials as evinced through the smoking pipes of the early historic Iroquoians. Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology, 15(1 Article 5). Retrieved from http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=totem&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dsymbolism%2Bon%2Bnative%2Bamerican%2Bpipes%2B%26btnG%3DSearch%26as_sdt%3D0%252C5%26as_ylo%3D2005%26as_vis%3D0#search=%22symbolism%20native%20american%20pipes%22

Hall, R.L. (1997, April 1). An archaeology of the soul: North American Indian belief and ritual. Illinois: University of Illinois Press,

Rafferty, S.M. (2006). Evidence of early tobacco in Northeastern North America? Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 453-458. retrieved from http://www.tabakspijp.nl/Paginas/Early_Tobacco_in_NE_North_America_by_Rafferty_2006[2].pdf

Rafferty, S.M. & Mann, R. (2004). Smoking & culture: Archaeology tobacco pipes, Eastern North America. Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press.

Struthers, R. & Hodge, F.S. (2004, September). Sacred tobacco use in Ojibwe communities. American Holistic Nurses’ Association, University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Journal of Holistic Nursing, 22(3), 209-225. (10.1177/0898010104266735). Retrieved from http://nursing.ucla.edu/workfiles/CAIIRE/Articles/sacred%20tobacco%20use.pdf

Unger, J.B., Soto, C., & Baezconde-Garbanati, L. (2006). Perceptions of ceremonial and non-ceremonial uses of tobacco by American-Indian adolescents in California. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 443.e9–443.e16. Retrieved from http://www.lsic.ucla.edu/classes/psych/hs/instructor/Perceptions%20of%20ceremonial%20and%20nonceremonial%20uses%20of%20tobacco%20by%20American-Indian%20adolescents%20in%20California.pdf