Peace Pipe

The Peace Pipe or medicine pipe was a ceremonial instrument used by Native Americans for celebrating sacred occasions, especially peace treaties. It appears that Native Americans are the only groups known to smoke the Peace Pipe. The Peace Pipe was an important ritual to the Native Americans. Peace Pipes were smoked on many sacred and spiritual occasions. The Peace Pipe was a way of making a bridge to the Great Spirit and the smoke from the Peace Pipe was a sacred thing. It wa a great honor to have the smoke from the Peace Pipe blown on you. It was an important sign of trust and brotherhood and respect to sit down and smoke a Peace Pipe with someone, especially someone who you had been in conflict with.

Peace Pipe were made from many materials and depending upon the tribe and their location, Peace Pipes could be made out of clay or wood or stone and wood. The Native Americans used the resources that were naturally occurring in the areas they inhabited, or in some cases from other ares where they traveled to for trading purposes. Making a Peace Pipe was a labor of love. The bowl of the Peace Pipe had to be hollowed out of a stone by hand and then the stem of the Peace Pipe had to also be hollowed out to draw smoke through it. Peace Pipes could be simple or Peace Pipes could be quite elaborate affairs. Very often they were painted and adorned with eagle feathers and beads and leather strips.

There is always some question in people's minds about what they were smoking in those Peace Pipe, but it is reported to have been tobacco that they were smoking in Peace Pipe ceremonies. tobacco was considered sacred so that is most likely what they burned in their Peace Pipes. You can see Peace Pipes in many museums and you can even buy authentic old Peace Pipes on the collectors' market. But since these were sacred items of spiritual significance to the Native Americans, it just doesn't seem right that these items have been taken away from the tribes whose ancestors made them and who knows under what circumstances they ended up in the hands of non-Indians...

There is a strong effort and movement to return artifacts back to the original tribes where they belong. Anyone who wants to collect these items would be acting responsibly if they only acquired artifacts from descendants who knew the story of the original trade or gifting when the particular item changed hands and came to be owned by its present owner. Otherwise, you could be trafficking in someone else's misery. Items were stolen after slaughter or taken by force during violence against a people who were the first people of the Americas. And that is why it is important to return the items so the people can reclaim their rightful inheritance from ancestors who were victimized years ago.

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