Short Stuff: "Peace" Pipes | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[music]. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. for Dave. So it's a short stuff and. we're talking about what you might know. as peace pipes, but as it turns out. that's not the right word for it at all. So although we'll probably accidentally. call it peace pipes a bunch of times, they're really called sacred or. ceremonial pipes. >> That's right. uh that whole notion of. passing the peace pipe uh something that. American settlers and soldiers saw and.

they thought like, hey, they're smoking. that thing during a treaty signing, so. that must be a peace pipe. And while. it's true that they might have smoked. those during uh treaty signings, they it. turns out they smoked them a lot. So, it's it's a bit of a misnomer. >> Yeah, they come up in all sorts of. different um parts of Native American. culture. Something I thought was really. interesting is that I could not find the. a mention of any North American tribe. that doesn't use um ceremonial pipes.

>> And so like they found old ones from. Florida up to the Midwest. I think they. found it in the Hopewell culture in. Ohio. um from uh the southwest up to the. Pacific Northwest, like all over they. use peace pipes, which tells you like. this is a really old tradition and it. predates some of the tribes that. eventually kind of grew out of other. tribes that were older. >> Yeah, for sure. Um and again, they just. call them pipes. >> Uh they're the I think there's a broader.

term that you can use if you want to get. more specific called a calamit. Uh, and. apparently that's from the French word. Would that be shalom? Like Timothy? >> Yeah. >> All right. And that means read or flute. And Timothy Shalomé. He's like a little. uh fluty reed himself. >> He really is. I wonder if that's a stage. name now. >> Maybe. Uh, and you know, depending on. the the tribe and the culture, they each. have their own name for it perhaps in. their own language. And generally they.

take them out during some kind of. ceremony, maybe a prayer, maybe a treaty. signing thing, maybe just a a party or. or maybe a monarchy situation. >> Oh yeah, I forgot about that. >> But it is a u sort of a physical. representation of a connection to God or. maybe the smoke flowing out in all. directions to nature and connecting in. that way. Yeah, I also saw and it what. it means specifically definitely depends.

on the tribe. They have different. meanings for it even though it's. generally used for some sort of prayer. solemn occasion like you were saying. >> Um, one explanation I saw is that the. plants that are smoked in there, it's. not always tobacco. It's never. marijuana. Um, but and it can be a. combination of a bunch of different. plants. Those plants have roots in the. earth, but their smoke travels up to the. heavens, to the spirit world, and they. carry the um person's prayer with them. So, it's a very they're very sacred and.

solemn occasions when they're smoking a. ceremonial pipe, even though exactly. what they believe about it is is it. varies. >> Yeah, for sure. And where they come from. varies. Uh I think the Lakota um you. know the the ideas that they were given. it by the white buffalo calf woman. >> and it was used for prayer in their. their culture generally and uh that's. why the white buffalo calf is very much. a sacred thing to the Lakota still. >> Yeah. The Lakota call there's the.

chinooa which is a cool word to say. >> Yeah. And one other thing about any uh. ceremonial pipe is there's like. different parts represent different. things, but they come in pieces. They're. not actually just one single piece. Especially with the Dakota and the. Lakota, both Sue. Um they're meant to. stay apart. And when they're put. together, that indicates a ceremony or. um a prayer session is is beginning. You.

don't keep like if you're storing it or. say if you're a museum who gets your. hands on one of these and you're. displaying it. Um you do not show them. put together. They're just kind of like. exploded on display. Separated the. different parts. >> They should call them pieces pipes. >> Very nice. >> Should we take a break? >> That was very nice. Yeah. I got to let. that gel with me for a minute. >> All right. We'll be right back after. that bad pun right after this. [music].

>> [music]. [music]. >> So, um, one of the other things that a. lot of ceremonial pipes have in common. in North America is that they are made. from a specific kind of rock. Um, and.

there's different variations on this. kind of rock, but they're all generally. called pipe stone. >> Yeah. Um, you know, we talked about the. pieces. There's that wooden stem and. then you've got your bowl. Uh, it's like. an L-shaped bowl or a T-shaped bowl. And. that is, uh, that pipe stone. There are. different colors of pipe stone. So, they're often very pretty pipes and. pretty bowls. Uh but there's one. apparently that's a little more revered. and that's the red pipe stone from. Pipstone National Monument uh which is.

southwest Minnesota and apparently it's. uh that particular pipe stone is. considered sacred by a lot of indigenous. tribes. >> Yeah. Like they'll come from all over. North America to get the red pipe stone. It's a kind of catlanite which is a. stone made from clay and it's actually. fairly easy to work with. But to get to. it at Pipstone National Monument, number. one, you have to get a permit. Number. two, you can't get a permit unless. you're enrolled in a North American. tribe. And then number three, it's going.

to take you a while to get there because. the red pipe stone at that um park only. exists underneath a thick quartz layer. and you're only allowed to use hand. tools like pickaxes, chisels, sledgehammers to get to it. And the park. rangers recommend expecting to do at. least a weekend's worth of work with. multiple other people, but that some. people end up having to get an annual. pass because they have to just keep. coming back and coming back and to.

finally get to it. And can you imagine. if you dedicated months to this and you. came back for that last time, you're. like, "This is the one." And to find. somebody else had just used the rest of. your work, dug through it, and got to. the red pipe stone and you had to start. over. >> Yeah. I thought you were going to say. you finally make that beautiful bowl out. of the pipe stone and then your friend. Gary knocks it off the kitchen counter. >> Either way, either way, it was probably. Gary who used your hole in the first. place, too. So either way, Gary's to. blame. >> Gary notorious hole user. >> Mhm.

>> Uh so there it's not always that pipe. stone. Sometimes it's limestone, sometimes it's bone or pottery or shale. Uh but that pipe stone is what you're. really after. Um, the stems are. generally wood, uh, maybe alder or ash, and they're usually decorative, not. always. Um, because like we said, they're all different kinds of pipes. Some for a different ceremony, some just. personal pipes. Um, a lot of times. they'll have feathers and bead work. Um, some are just plain though. And like you. mentioned, they'll smoke of a variety of. things. Uh, not always tobacco.

Sometimes it's dried bark uh of maybe a. red oyster dogwood. Um, maybe it's a a. ground shrub if you're out on the. prairie. Uh, and like you mentioned, it's never marijuana. That is just some. dumb uh joke made by white people at. some point. Probably in a cartoon strip. or something. >> So that um yeah, an arrum strip. >> Yeah, maybe. >> Fritz the cat. Um, so that that ground. shrub from the prairie you mentioned is. called kick. Um, and it's spelled like.

it sounds. It's also called bear berry, but actually both of them are really fun. to say as well. um that's a sacred plant. And then the. the tobacco um that they'll smoke uh is. also considered sacred, but it's not. that standard Virginia tobacco strain. It's a older indigenous strain to the. United States that's much more potent. Um just stronger tobacco. So, um I'm. sure in a pinch you could use the. Virginia kind, but there's apparently a. a preferred kind that's not that,

>> aka the good stuff. >> Yeah, exactly. So, I also said that you're not supposed. to keep the pipe stored put together. >> Yeah. >> Uh, in addition to the stem and the. bowl, there are um there's also often a. mouthpiece, too. So, these three. separate parts are brought together to. begin a ceremony, might be in a sweat. lodge, like you said, it might be um as. part of a wedding. There's all sorts of. different times to use it. But in some. Native American cultures, they were used.

to basically seal a peace treaty between. waring nations. >> And there was a process for for doing. this. And there would be a medicine man. involved, and then you would bring. together the chiefs of the two waring. tribes. >> Yeah. >> And the the cool thing about it is the. medicine man and each of the waring. chiefs brings a piece of the pipe. The. medicine man puts it together, and then. it's kind of like, all right, we're all. we're all connected again. Yeah, that's. great. I I love what it symbolizes and.

uh it's something that's not, you know, something's still happening. And I mean, I think they this is from house. stuffworks.com. They interviewed uh I. think a woman from the Lakota maybe. >> uh and she's like, you know, this stuff. is not past tense. Like we still have. our culture and we still do these. things. >> Yeah. Her name's Gabriel Drao. Uh and. she's with the Yankton Sue tribe of uh. the South Dakota. Oh, >> okay. Well, she just makes a point like. this stuff is not in the past tense. Like we still I think a lot of people.

look at it that way as like, oh, they. used to um smoke these ceremonial pipes. and she's like, "No, we still do this. We still have her culture and it's still. sacred to us.". >> Yeah. Pretty cool, man. >> I love it. >> Uh well, I guess uh short stuff is out, everybody. >> Stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, [music]. iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. listen to your favorite shows.