Ceremonial tobacco pouch

Pipe bag; Lakota; ca. 1870-1880 \nHide, glass beads, porcupine quills, pigments; l. 40 cm. (incl. fringe); w. 13 cm.\nRMV 3158-9; purchased from art dealer Leendert Van Lier, Amsterdam, 1954 \nThe oldest surviving Native American bags, documented "tobacco bags." were collected early in the eighteenth century in the Great lakes region, probably from the Ojibway, neighbors of the Lakota. The pouch section of these bags was made from two pieces of hide sewn together and painted with a different complex, geometrical design on each side. Typically a decorative panel of netted quillwork with a short fringe was attached below the pouch. There are several comparable examples with unpainted pouch sections and netted panels (Brasser 2009:97, Feest 1987, Feest 2007:40). The shape and proportions of these bags may be compared to late nineteenth century Lakota tobacco bags, with the netted panels on the early examples equivalent to the quill wrapped rawhide slat panels on later bags. The early nineteenth century saw the introduction of a narrow horizontal band of bead or quill embroidery terminating the pouch section, later evolving into a larger oblong panel toward the end of the century and usually with different designs back and front. Meanwhile, the fringe increased in length. Whereas the seams joining the sides of the early painted pouch sections were sometimes finished with a narrow line colored quills, the later bags featured more predominant beaded bands. The early bags were closed with a drawstring and perhaps the band of rolled beadwork at the opening of later bags is a vestigial reference to that feature. \The Jesuit missionary Paul le Jeune noted in 1633 that the Montagnais Indians of Quebec referred to their tobacco bags made from eviscerated small animals as Castipitagan, or a "small bag squeezed to keep closed." The Ojibway used the same term for their tobacco bags until at least the beginning of the twentieth century. Generally the tobacco bag held a pipe, tobacco, fire-steel and tinder. Like most small Indian bags, they were worn tucked into the belt, substituting as pockets. In the late nineteenth century Plains Indians wore European clothing for everyday wear. However, on ceremonial occasions they again tucked their highly decorated tobacco bags into the belt, or held them in their hands as part of their status signifying regalia. \At some point in the latter half of the nineteenth century the proportions of tobacco bags across much of the plains became fairly uniform. In this regard, the relative scale of fringe, quilled rawhide lattice work, beaded panel and hide sleeve sections on the illustrated tobacco bag is typical. However, the presence of quilled rawhide slats, arched lane-stitch beadwork and other features suggests Lakota origins. Generally speaking, beaded panels on the majority of tobacco bags featured geometric abstract designs, while pictorial imagery, other than floral motifs, was quite rare. Pictorial motifs in Lakota bags almost always recorded deeds in war. \Plains Indian men customarily displayed records of their war deeds through "honor marks" painted on their clothing and bodies. Typically men, not women, depicted war imagery. Tobacco bags bearing representations of men's war exploits embroidered by Pawnee, Cheyenne and Lakota women are among the rare exceptions. Such bags displayed severed heads representing enemies killed, U-shaped head-prints standing for horses captured, wound marks and hands. At least ten tribes routinely depicted the hand as a war honor mark, and most commonly it signified grappling with an enemy. Clark Wissler learned in 1902 from his field informants that among the Lakota red hands stood for hand to hand combat, blue hands signified the capturing of women and children, yellow hands represented the capture of horses; yellow because tawny or dun-colored horses were most prized. He was also told that when tobacco bags bore military symbolism, the red-dyed quillwork slats signified flowing blood. Transverse bands were conceived as roads or trails. A red band embroidered on a woman's object signified "the trail on which a woman travels," that is, her childbearing years. In context with the imagery on the tobacco bag, the bands may signify war trails. In general, there are two central tendencies in Native American art; the decorative and symbolic, and it is often impossible to separate them out. While it seems certain that the motifs decorating this tobacco bag are essentially symbolic, their interpretation is open to question since the meaning of such imagery was both fixed and idiosyncratic (Wissler 1904).\nArni Brownstone, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; 2015; Ted J. Brasser, Native American Clothing: an Illistrated History; Firefly Books; Richmond Hill, ONT., 2009. Christian F. Feest, Some 18th Century Specimens from Eastern North America in Collections in the German Democratic Republic; in: Jahrbuch des Museums für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig 38:281-301; 1987. Christian F. Feest, First Nations - Royal Collections; in: American Indian Art Magazine 32/2:44-55,104; 2007. Clark Wissler, Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians; Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 18/3:231-277; 1904.‖ Tobacco, smoking, ritual, pipes, tobacco pouches Tobacco was a stimulant used by indigenous people in large parts of North, Central, and South America as a sedative, medicine for fatigue, emetic, etc. Columbus discovered the herb in 1492 in The Caribbean. The word "tobacco" is derived from the word for cigar in the language of the Arabs of Cuba and Hispaniola. The use of tobacco spread quickly in Europe. Tobacco was first introduced to the Netherlands in the second half of the sixteenth century.‖ The native tobacco grown in North America was predominantly Nicotiana rustica, found from Chile to Canada, but spread as a cultivated crop from Ecuador and Peru. The wild species Nicotinia attenuata was found in the Great Basin, the Southwest and adjacent parts of the Plains. Other wild and cultivated species have limited ranges. The species Nicotinia tabacum from the Caribbean and originally distributed from the borderlands of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, became commercially most popular and later was planted by English settlers on a large scale in Virginia.Use: social and ritual Tobacco was often considered a sacred plant and tribal myths were told of its origin. Sometimes a distinction was made between tobacco used for social and that used for religious purposes. In the latter case, cultivation of the plant was often reserved for a special group of men, especially elderly or specially consecrated men.‖ Tobacco was originally rarely smoked alone, but was often combined by Indians with other plants to enhance the flavor, such as leaves of the velvet tree and the inner bark of the dogwood. The Algonkin word for tobacco is "kinnikkinnik" which means "mixed". Sometimes tobacco was used as chewing tobacco, usually mixed with shell lime as on the Northwest coast and in the Southeast. Sometimes tobacco was ground up and sniffed (Karok-California; Nootka-Northwest Coast). Tobacco was smoked in pipes in the Southwest and wrapped in corn leaves to make cigarettes. The social use of tobacco emphasized the calming effect of smoking.‖ On the subject of smoking, Ten Kate observed among the Cheyennes (1885:359-360): \"They smoke the peace pipe, which is not only smoked at special ceremonies or meetings, as is often imagined, but as other tribes smoke cigarettes. This last habit is not used by the Cheyennes, which already betrays their northern origin... In the wih (teepee) of Bullbear I smoked the calumet for the first time. The head (hioêgk) consisted of red catlinite ... The tobacco they smoke, they nowadays buy from the Americans, but they mix it with finely chopped sumac leaves (Rhus sp.; Chey. Maénoánje), which gives a mild taste to the smoke. The pipe went from mouth to mouth, and finally, after having passed around the six or eight people present in the tent, it came back to Bullbear, whose wife smoked along with the men... Before the old chief made the first draw, he pointed the stem (hiess) of the pipe to the four winds, while muttering a few words that I could not understand. Although on this occasion it concerned a form of social smoking, religious elements were still visible, since also with social use it concerned a herb that was considered as a carrier of spiritual power, while the smoke was considered as a vehicle for the thoughts of the smoker. \Tobacco smoking also had a function of conferring special status on important occasions. The smoking was then done in a solemn way such as during celebrations in relation to the life cycle, at meetings of chiefs, the making of peace between former enemies, the closing of political alliances, etc. It meant a ritual sealing of the agreement. The ritual aspects of smoking were then even more pronounced.‖ Tobacco was often used in a ritual context. The herb was used as incense and burned, the smoke being regarded as expelling evil, as cleansing. The Creeks of the Southeast used it as one of the ingredients of their "black drink," an emetic used in rituals to cleanse participants. Shamans used tobacco and smoke to drive away sickly spirits and thus bring about healing. On the Plains, a pipe, pipe stem and tobacco were often part of the medicine bundle that symbolized the unity of the tribe. In that case, smoking the Sacred Pipe was a special occasion in which only certain individuals could participate, under the direction of the "pipe bearer." The pipe and tobacco were first offered to the sky (Sun), the earth (Mother Earth) and the four cardinal directions before those present were allowed to smoke (e.g. Arapahos, Gros Ventres, Lakota Sioux, Omahas). Sometimes a ceremonial pipe was the symbol of a clan or society, and its management and use was also an exclusive privilege. The right to light the pipe was also often a special privilege. Smoke was also smoked in ceremonies to beg for rain, the smoke symbolizing the clouds. The smoke was also considered as a carrier of prayers to the gods in heaven. Tobacco was also offered in ceremonies as a litter.‖ In the corn ceremony held twice a year among the Mandans and Hidatsas, the pipe with the carved goose head was used during the ritual aimed at begging fertility in the spring and gratitude for the harvest in the fall. Blackfeet and Gros Ventres used a sacred pipe in the ritual to prevent storm and lightning, natural elements that could become life threatening on the Plains. It happened repeatedly that the grassy plains caught fire and Indian encampments were destroyed, accompanied by loss of life, horses, housing and personal belongings. Drowning people were administered tobacco smoke rectally, which led to coughing up water from the lungs (eastern Canada; also in Europe)._______________________________Pipes and pipe stems The oldest stone pipes come from archaeological excavations in the eastern United States. Known are the small pipes of stone and pottery, often shaped like animals, with the body having an opening that serves as a pipe bowl. These are characteristic for the prehistoric Hopewell period (200 BC - 400 AD). There are many varieties of pipe bowls. The preferred stone type because of its softness and therefore good machinability, as well as its almost blood red colour, was an aluminium silicate coloured by iron oxide that was mined in a quarry in southwest Minnesota. Because the American painter George Catlin first reported about this, this stone is often called "catlinite". People also speak of "pipestone" and the town where the quarry is located is called Pipestone. Raw pipestone was traded over a large area. The importance of the quarry was recognized by the U.S. government in 19 by declaring it a protected Pipestone National Monument, and under the management of the Santee Sioux.An Indian pipe is often called "calumet", an old Norman-French word for "stem/tube", by which French settlers referred to their Indian neighbors' means of smoking. Native American pipes generally consisted of two parts: a stone pipe bowl and a wooden stem, often decorated.‖ Pipe bowls were carved from a variety of soft stones. The pipes are often a combination of wood- and stone-sculpure: the wooden stem, often with carved and otherwise applied decorations, the stone bowls, also often decorated in various techniques. The fact that the making and decoration of pipes took such a high flight, is due to the ceremonial and recreational importance of smoking in Plains communities. Stone pipes exist in different shapes: a T-shape, an L-shape and a completely straight pipe, the I-shape. The pipe bowl and the stone stem are sometimes decorated with one or more sculptured figures: a human head or whole human figure, an animal head or whole animal. Some pipe bowls are inlaid with lead, which causes different geometrical patterns. In the rarest cases both forms of decoration are found on one pipe. The stone pipe bowls were later equipped with a wooden stem made of a hard wood: ash, willow. Sometimes these were decorated with carvings, geometric patterns or animal figures. There are also wooden stems that have been carved into spirals. In most cases the stems were embellished with bird feathers, porcupine quills and later also coloured fabric and copper nails*. Pipe stems painted blue and green refer to a dualism in the world view, to heaven and earth. These colours are also related to other dualisms such as between man and woman, war and peace, sun and moon, etc. Wooden tobacco stub handles were sometimes decorated with animal sculptures. When the decision was made to go to war, a red stem was used, decorated with feathers of a male eagle. Warriors danced around the pipe before it was smoked. The stem of the pipe that sealed the peace was blue and had feathers of a female eagle as decoration. This was also carried when visiting neighbouring tribes or trading with them. It was a declaration of good will. Sometimes only the decorated pipe stems were used on special occasions, as with the Pawnees who danced with them and imitated the flight of eagles before peace was made.‖ Tobacco bags became popular on the Plains especially in the second half of the nineteenth century. Prior to this time, they were often made from the scrotum (scrotum) of an elk or bison. From 1850 onward, however, the thin and supple deerskin was used for this purpose, and sometimes elk leather as well.‖ Tobacco bags were provided with colorful decoration. Before the arrival of the whites, this was done by sewing on dyed porcupine quills. However, this technique was quickly supplanted after the introduction of colored glass beads by white traders. The men determined the decoration applied by the women. Both geometric patterns and naturalistic images are found on tobacco pouches.‖ The basic pattern of the tobacco pouch is predominantly uniform. The top half of the long narrow bag is usually largely unadorned, except for thin borders of beads covering the seams and finishing the top edge. The top of the lower half usually consisted of a colorful panel of motifs executed in porcupine quills or beads. Often both sides of the bag were decorated, but the panels were rarely identical and differed in color and motifs (asymmetrical decoration). The bottom of the bag was often formed by long leather fringe, sometimes wrapped with porcupine quills. Some bags have two or more triangular leather tabs at the bottom, usually decorated. They often indicated the special status of the owners.‖ Virtually all men on the Plains owned a tobacco bag. This attests to the important social and religious significance of smoking. Many women also owned a small tobacco pouch, particularly for social use. The men usually carried the tobacco pouch on their belt, but on festive occasions over their left forearm. In the latter case the tobacco pouch was also tied to the pipe, which was worn as a showpiece. Also flint and a piece of iron to make fire were part of the contents.\ (PH, 2000)