Iroquois pipe, c.1725.
Region: Illinois.
This carved wooden pipe is from northern Illinois and is attributed to the Iroquois, a term used to cover the different tribes of the Eastern Woodlands who had similar lifestyles. These include Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca. The Native American peoples of the south-west made their tobacco pipes entirely of wood but generally, the Eastern Woodland tribes fashioned them completely out of stone, or gave wooden stems to carved stone bowls.
The use of tobacco by the native population was observed by the early European settlers and recorded by Christopher Columbus. The plant was cultivated and grown in the villages of the various Native American tribes, and although used for smoking, had a more important role in ceremonial rituals. Often the tobacco would be ground and thrown onto the fire as an offering. It was also used by shamans as a painkiller for toothache and other ailments. It was also considered a poison. The shaman would draw on these ornate pipes and blow the smoke over their ‘patients’.
Source: ‘Folk Art’, Susann Linn-Williams, pp. 160-61.
