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American Indian Pipes (Calumet)

Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.

The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.

If you are looking to buy pipes that were actually made by Native Americans--either because it's important to you to have the real thing or because you want to support native people with your purchase--then here is our directory of American Indian pipe artists whose carvings are available online. If you have a website of Indian pipes to add to this list, let us know. We gladly advertise any individual native artist or native-owned art store here free of charge, provided that all pipes were made by tribally recognized American Indian, Inuit, or First Nations artists.

Native American Pipes

Ancient Ways Calumet Pipes Plains Indian pipes from the Wind River reservation, traditionally carved from catlinite pipestone by Shoshone and Arapaho artists.

Neokistomi Indian Pipes Beaded pipestone pipes by Lakota Sioux and Blackfoot artists.

Four Winds Indian Pipes Artistic Native American pipes in historical and contemporary styles by a Choctaw Indian pipe carver.

Iroquois Stone Pipes Traditional stone carved pipes by Iroquois artists from the Six Nations Reserve.

Navajo Peace Pipes Leather-wrapped antler pipes made by two Navajo craftsmen.

Native American Pipe Bags

Arapaho Indian Pipe Bags Traditional Plains Indian carrying cases for the peace pipe, made of beaded buckskin with fringework.

Blackfoot Beaded Pipebags Another Plains Indian artist selling lovely calumet bags with traditional beadwork.

Books About Indian Pipes
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Offering Smoke: Sacred Pipes and Native American Religion	The Sacred Pipe	Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines	Greengrass Pipe Dancers
Overview of the history, mythology, ceremony, and symbolism of the Native American pipe in various tribes.	Black Elk's 1947 description of Lakota Sioux pipe ceremonies.	An 1899 anthropology book, very dated but some good history of Indian pipe traditions.	Autobiography of a Micmac man bringing Crazy Horse's pipe bag back to his Lakota Sioux tribe. Good story, also with interesting material on the significance of the peace pipe.

Links About Indian Pipes

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