Chippewa Customs

PIPES

DENSMOREJ C]=fIPPEWA CtrS'I'OMS 143 With the flint and steel was carried a piece of decayed wood, or "punk." A bit of flint appears as f, and decayed wood as g, in Plate 52. A Chippewa said, "Fire was the first and best tool that the Indians had." Before axes were common the Chippewa obtained wood by burning a fallen tree into sections. A log of soft wood was selected and fires were made at intervals beneath it. The fire was allowed to burn only enough so that the log could be broken. Mide drums and similar articles were hollowed by charring the wood and scraping it out. The heat of a fire was used in scorching wood as a decorat~on. Heated stone or metal points were used in burning holes in pipes, flutes, and other wooden articles. Heated stones were used in the sweat lodge. A Canadian Chippewa said that in a winter camp long ago his people obtained water by putting a snowball on the end of a stick and placing the stick in the ground near the fire, slanting over a birch-bark dish. The snow melted and the water fell into the dish. One or two men traveling in the winter sometimes made a high bank of snow on the windward side of their little camp and slept between the snow bank and the fire. It was said that a winter traveler sometimes made a fire on the place where he wished to sleep, scraped the embers away, wrapped himself in his blanket, and lay down on the warmed ground. Another informant doubted whether this was a "strictly Indian custom." In the long winter evenings the fire in the lodge gave light for work and the various activities of the family. Signal fires were used, especially for signaling across wide expans:es of water. The offering of food by placing it in the fire is noted on page 130. (See also p. 145.) The uses of fire for drying meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables are noted in the sections on these subjects. PIPES (a) Pipe bOlwls.-Stone pipe bowls were in use among the Chippewa at an early date, and it was said "they used to dig a hole in the stone for the tobacco." The writer obtained a pipe bowl of stone with a simple decoration of straight lines which belonged to the celebrated chief Wadena and had been in his family for many generations; also a pipe bowl of chipped red stone which belonged to Niskigwun. A peculiarity of this pipe bowl is the shape, which fits conveniently between the fingers. These are of hard stone. Two sorts of comparatively soft stone were widely used by the Chippewa. These were a smooth black stone found in central 'Vis- 144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [nULL. 86 consin and a red stone found near Lake Superior. The, latter was similar in texture but darker in color than the familiar red pipestone of the Sioux. The pipes smoked by women were usually of the black stone and were small. Plate 52 (at the top) shows a typical woman's pipe. Pipes of red pipestone were smoked by the men (pI. 52, a), and as the stone was comparatively soft when first quarried it was possible to inlay the pipe with decorations of lead. Bars of lead were given to the Chippewa as part of their annuities, lead being needed for melting into bullets. The pipe decorations took the form of lines and frequently of somewhat elaborate designs. These were cut in the stone and filled with the melted lead, which afterwards was highly polished. The Indians also had' pipe bowls made of a material called in English" white lead." This was an alloy containing lead and some harder metal, and was soft enough to be shaped with a knife. Wooden pipe bowls were made from a knot of wood and sometimes were carved. The openings were burned with a hot iron. Small pronged deer horns were also used as pipe bowls. The stem and pipe were separated when put into the pipe bag, and the tobacco was removed from the bowl by means of a sharpened stick called a "pipe cleaner" (pI. 52, e), which was also carried in the pipe bag (pI. 52, b). (b) Pipestems.-Any wood with a pith was used for round pipestems , hazel being a favored material. A straight slender stick was selected and carefully split lengthwise. The pith...