American Indian Culture and Research Journal

I am making sacred smoke; In this manner I make the smoke; Mayall the people behold it! I am making sacred smoke; All over the universe there will be rejoicing! Sacred Smoke. Kablaya sang this song a long time ago when he danced the first Sun Dance among the Oglalas. Kablaya, like all Native Americans, understood the importance of sacred smoke; he knew that no ritual deed, no spiritual act, took place without the sacred pipe. Native American pipe smoking gripped the imaginations of early White observers, who called the pipe various names, most often the calumet or the peace pipe. Yet White people, taking readily to smoking as a personal and social pleasure, failed to understand Native American pipe use as a sacred act. White people failed to comprehend pipe smoking as an act relating the smoker spiritually to all living things and their Creator. And to this day White culture readily associates the pipe with Native Americans, but it rarely goes beyond its romantic associations to any real comprehension of the pipe's use and sacred function. While it is impossible in one article to cover the pipe's sacred function among all Native American tribes, an examination of its use and spiritual place among the Lakotas-a People who live because of the pipe-will hopefully deepen appreciation for its place among all Native Americans.

The Sacred Pipe in American Indian Religions has a unique position in the history of primal religions throughout the world in the wide variety of symbolism associated with it and in its many ceremonial uses. Despite this importance there has never been a comprehensive study of the Sacred Pipe in its religious significance. The purpose of this bibliographical essay is to list all the important literature and to bring together an abundance of ethnographic data so that the religious meaning of the Sacred Pipe can be understood and appreciated. I will present the Sacred Pipe for its own sake and not simply in its social functions. It is my conclusion that the Sacred Pipe's ultimate meaning is in its sacramental nature, since it is a Native American symbol that makes all of life sacred. The literature has been organized in the following sections: 1) An Introductory Overview; 2) The Sacred Pipe in Mythology; 3) American Indian Attitudes towards the Sacred Pipe; 4) The Sacred Pipe in Ceremony; 5) The Chief and the Sacred Pipe; 6) The Sacred Pipe in the Societies; 7) The Sacred Pipe in Peace and War; 8) The Sacred Pipe as a Sacramental for All Needs; 9) The Sacred Pipe as the Symbolic Man; 10) The Sacred Pipe and Christianity; 11) Further Research on the Sacred Pipe. The contribution each section makes to our understanding of the Sacred Pipe as a sacramental will be indicated at the beginning of each section.