192 



CALUMET 



[b. a. e. 



perforated for a pathway for the breath 

 or spirit, painted with diverse symbolic 

 colors and adorned with various sym- 

 bolic objects, and which may or may 

 not have a i)ipe bowl to contain tobacco 

 for making a sacred offering of its benev- 

 olent smoke to the gods. In modern usage 

 the term usually includes the pipe. Its 

 coloring and degree of adornment varied 

 somewhat from tribe to tribe and were 

 largely governed by the occasion for 

 which the calumet was used. From the 

 meager descriptions of the calumet and 

 its uses it would seem that it has a cere- 

 monially symbolic history independent 

 of that of the pipe; and that when the 

 pipe became an altar, by its employment 

 for burning sacrificial tobacco to the gods, 

 convenience and convention united the 

 already highly symbolic calumet shafts 

 and the sacrificial tobacco altar, the pipe- 

 bowl; hence it became one of the most 

 profoundly sacred objects known to the 

 Indians of northern America. As the 

 colors and the other adornments on the 

 shaft represent symbolically various 

 dominant gods of the Indian polytheon, 

 it follows that the symbolism of the calu- 

 met and pipe represented a veritable ex- 

 ecutive council of the gods. Moreover, 

 in some of the elaborate ceremonies in 

 which it was necessary to portray this 

 symbolism the employment of the two 

 shafts became necessary, because the 

 one with its colors and accessory adorn- 

 ments represented the procreative male 

 power and his aids, and was denominated 

 the male, the fatherhood of nature; and 

 the other with its colors and necessary 

 adornments represented the reproduc- 

 tive female power and her aids, and was 

 denominated the female, the motherhood 

 of nature. 



The calumet was employed by ambas- 

 sadors and travelers as a passport: it was 

 used in ceremonies designed to conciliate 

 foreign and hostile nations and to con- 

 clude lasting peace; to ratify the alliance 

 of friendly tribes; to secure favorable 

 weather for journeys; to bring needed 

 rain; and to attest contracts and treaties 

 which could not be violated without in- 

 curring the wrath of the gods. The use 

 of the calumet was inculcated by reli- 

 gious precept and example. A chant and 

 a dance have liecome known as the chant 

 and the dance of the calumet; together 

 they were employed as an invocation to 

 one or more of the gods. By naming in 

 the chant the souls of those against 

 whom war nmst be waged, such persons 

 were doomed to die at the hands of the 

 person so naming them. The dance and 

 the chant were rather in honor of the 

 calumet than with the calumet. To 

 smoke it was prohibited to a man whose 



wife was with child, lest he perish and she 

 die in childbirth. The calumet was em- 

 ployed also in banishing evil and for ob- 

 taining good. Some, in order to obtain 

 favor of the gods, sacrificed some animals 

 in spirit to them, and, as the visible food 

 was not consumed visibly by the gods, 

 they ate the food and chanted and danced 

 for the calumet. 



J. O. Dorsey asserts that the Omaha and 

 cognate names for this dance and chant 

 signify "to make a sacred kinship," but 

 not "to dance." This is a key to the 

 esoteric significance of the use of the cal- 

 umet. The one for whom the dance for 

 the calumet was performed became there- 

 by the adopted son of the performer. 

 One might ask another to dance the cal- 

 umet dance for him, or one might offer 

 to perform this dance for another, Ijut in 

 either case the offer or invitation could 

 be declined. The dancing party con- 

 sisted of 2 leaders and sometimes as many 

 as 20 or 80 adherents. In the lodge 

 wherein the dance for the calumet was 

 to be held the 2 niniha meawan, or cal- 

 umet pipes, were placed on a forked sup- 

 port driven into the virgin soil in the 

 rear part of the lodge. Each wemvan has, 

 instead of a pipe-bowl, the head and neck 

 of a green-neck duck. Next on the staff 

 are the yellowish feathers of the great 

 owl, extending about 6 in.; next are 

 the long wing-feathers of the war eagle, 

 riven and stuck on lengthwise in 3 places; 

 at the end a bit of horsehair, tinted red, 

 is wrapped around the staff and bound on 

 with sinew, and over this is fastened some 

 fur of the white rabbit, strips of which 

 dangle about 6 in.; below the rabbit 

 fur the horsehair extends fully 6 in. 

 The horsehair is wrapped around the staff 

 in 2 other places and secured in a sim- 

 ilar manner; the 3 tufts are equidistant, 

 about 6 in. apart. Close to the last 

 tuft is the head of the rvajhVgadn (?) 

 woodcock, having the bill faced toward 

 the mouthpiece. There may be, accord- 

 ing to La Flesche, as many as 6 heads on 



1 pipe. No part of the neck appears, 

 and the lower mandible is removed. The 

 head, or the heads, in case of a plurality, 

 was secured to the shaft ])y means of a 

 deer or antelope skin. Next to this are 

 suspended 2 eagle plumes, symbolizing 



2 eggs, typifying that the adopted per- 

 son is still animmature child, and serving 

 as a thinly veiled symlwl suggestive of 

 the source of life. Next are a numlier 

 of eagle feathers secured to the shaft by 

 means of 2 cords or thongs of deer or 

 antelope skin. On one shaft the eagle 

 feathers are white, being those of a male 

 eagle, and the shaft is dark green. On 

 the other shaft the feathers are sjiotted 

 black and white, being those of the fe- 



