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11 The Pipe Industry The Catawba pipe tradition traces its roots to the very origin of tobacco use and the invention of smoking paraphernalia in the Southeast. It continues to exhibit great vitality, and pipes are produced in a wide assortment of forms and styles (see Figures 29, 30, and 31). Making pipes is, in effect, a Catawba sub-tradition. Since pipe bending, as the Catawba call it, requires special skills, some Catawba excel at the craft while others do not. The current incentive to make pipes is often linked to the ownership of pipe squeeze molds, which makes pipe making easier. For instance, Doris Blue was well known for her pipes, many of which were mold made. Georgia Harris’s pipes were much sought after, too. This potter used molds made by her grandparents and also bent pipes by hand. Catherine Canty did not have molds and was known for her pipes, but she did not make nearly as many pipes as she would have if she had pipe molds. Potters with an af¤nity for pipes, like Earl Robbins, have dif¤culty keeping up with the demand for them. There is a growing interest in pipe making among the male potters. Those young contemporary potters who excel in pipe making include master potters Monty Branham, Keith Brown, Edwin Campbell, and Donald Harris, to name only a few. Of those who were working at the end of the nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth century, perhaps the best-documented pipe makers include Epp Harris, Sallie Gordon, and Billy George. During this period, master pipe makers were held in high regard, for tobacco was either chewed or smoked in a clay pipe, and smokers always sought a well-balanced and attractive pipe. For any pipe to be successful, it must be utilitarian. A pipe must have balance, be light in weight, and attractive to the eye. It must be easy to hold. Being a smoker is not a prerequisite to making a good pipe but it helps. Few of the Catawba potters are smokers; but as a rule, an ability to identify closely with the smoker’s needs is of value. The Catawba have been known for their pipes for centuries, and the pipe trade itself is ancient in origin among the Catawba. The two are linked. Writing at the beginning of the eighteenth century, John Lawson emphasized the importance of smoking pipes to the contemporary Carolina/Catawba Indian trade: “At spare hours the women make baskets . . . others, when they ¤nd a vein of white clay ¤t for their purposes , make tobacco pipes, all of which are often transported to other Indians that perhaps have greater plenty of deer and game; so they buy with these manufactures the raw skins” (Lawson 1714:316). The business records for the Colonial period also contain references to the general importance of pipes among the American Indians. For instance, when William Penn made his 1672 Indian land purchase, 300 pipes, 100 hands of tobacco, and 20 tobacco boxes were included in the purchase price (McGuire 1899:461). Five years later, another land purchase was made from a New Jersey tribe, and 120 pipes were part of this bargain (McGuire 1899:461). Although these transactions were not made in South Carolina, much-sought-after trade items were the same all along the Atlantic coast, for the trade needs of the Indians were comparable . At this time, if one smoked, one smoked a pipe. Pipes were made of clay and because they were easily broken, required frequent replacement . The clay pipe would not decline in popularity until the twentieth century when ¤rst the briar pipe and then the cigarette became popular (Sudbury 1977:123). As late as 1890, one American pipe kiln was large enough to ¤re 200,000 pipes in a single ¤ring. This particular pottery-making operation shipped 400,000 clay pipes per week (Sudbury 1977:123). Although the Catawba tradition predates the establishment of European potteries, and the Catawba had long faced this competition, the Catawba pipe tradition suffered more from the abandonment of the smoking pipe for the cigarette than it did from the factory-made clay pipe. Following contact with European culture, the enduring popularity of the clay pipe allowed the Catawba pipe tradition to survive. The Catawba maintained a brisk wholesale trade in pipes as long as local nonIndians smoked them. The small size of the Catawba Nation and the subsistence nature of the pottery tradition also allowed...

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