Cherokee Stone Pipe
Today, we are looking at a new acquisition to the MONAH collection, a Cherokee pipe carved in the 18th century! It was carved from a solid hardstone and is notably less decorative than some other Cherokee pipe designs. This pipe was found in Sequoyah County in Oklahoma back in 1956. It likely arrived in Oklahoma on the "Trails of Tears" in the early 19th century. Gregory Perino, whose collection the pipe came from, carved the spiral wood stem pictured alongside the pipe. The original wood stem has long since deteriorated to time. The stem could have decomposed between 50 to 130 years once left for Mother Nature to reclaim. This rate of disintegration depends on the factors of the environment and the type of wood. All that is left behind of this Cherokee person is this pipe they left behind. If only it could tell us the stories of their journey!
We can pull some interesting history by reading into this simple stone pipe and others like it. Pipes are the most common object used for ceremonial purposes in Native societies, both past, and present. Pipes in the Americas have been in use for at least 4,000 years in different variations and materials! They are used during prayer, healing, and acts of agreement. The term "peace-pipe" was coined for smoking rituals to unite the spiritual realm and those present at the ceremony in harmony for peace, war, or confederacy. Calumet pipes or calumet ceremonies are other terminologies used in writing to refer to these peace pipes or traditions. These ceremonies originated in the Great Plains and spread south to the Mississippi Valley and the east of North America in varying versions.
Many of these pipes are incredibly ornate and crafted with incredible skill. While the pipe analyzed here is a simple elbow shape with no distinct design, many others include figures of human beings and animals perched in front of the pipe bowl, all carved from a single piece of stone or wood. Some picture the figures as the actual bowl of the pipe. Cherokee and other tribes specialize in this type of ornate pipe.
To have a glimpse at the pipe's journey, we must also look at the "Trail Where They Cried." For the Cherokee people that forced Removal began in 1838. Although they resisted by creating their own newspaper, sent out speaking tours, lobbied Congress, and made petitions. They took their case, with 15,000 Cherokee signatures on their petition against the Removal, to the Supreme Court in Worcester vs. Georgia (1832). The President, Andrew Jackson, ignored the Supreme Court decision, which ruled the Cherokee were a sovereign nation and proceeded with his Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee people were forced to walk a thousand miles to removed Indian Territory after the government took homes and incarcerated them in stockades. Along the path, more than 4,000 people died, many rest in unmarked graves on the trail.
Blog by Jazlyn Sanderson
References:
Johansen, Bruce, and Pritzker, Barry, eds. Encyclopedia of American Indian History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007.
Museum of the Cherokee Indian. “Trail of Tears.” Accessed September 24, 2020. https://www.cherokeemuseum.org/archives/era/trail-of-tears
Witthoft, John. “Stone Pipes of the Historic Cherokee.” Southern Indian Studies, 1 no. 2 (1949): 43- 62
This beautiful quilled pipe bag dates to the last quarter of the 1800s but remains in excellent condition today. It measures to about 39 inches in length, including the fringe. The original owner is "He Frightens" (a.k.a Joe Frightens), the son of Chief Iron Shell of the Brulé Sioux.