Pipe Dreams

There are many styles of pipes for ceremony. The first blackfoot pipes were straight.

The straight pipe is the oldest form of the tobacco pipe bowl known to blackfoot traditions.

its relative antiquity is attested by the facts that the straight pipe is the only form refered to in tribal mythology,

that it could have been made with stone tools more easily than other known blackfoot pipe bowl forms,

Probably the straight pipe bowl was smoked most commonly while fitted to a fairly short willow or rosewood stem,

which was split longitudinally, the pith removed, and the two pieces glued together and tightly bound with sinew.

The two known examples of blackfoot straight pipes differ markedly from each other in form.

One has a rather bulbous bowl with a constricted neck at the stem. The other has slightly curved sides with a collar at the stem end.

both forms were found among other tribes, the former among the Shoshoni as early as 1805 (as demonstrated by Lewis and Clark data),

and the latter among the Crow indians in the 19th century (as illustrated by the specimens from pipe-holder's bundles).

Data are insufficient to indicate that the blackfoot favored either form of straight pipe,

or to make possible the positive indentification of straight pipes found archeologically as of blackfoot origin.

The Modified Micmac pipe bowl appears to have been made by blackfoot pipemakers only within the period that metal tools have been available to them

                                                                                                                    Homentocweasa Oho , Wado
                                                                                   Desert Wolf

                                           O Hon-ga , I have a pipe that I have made to be my body:

                                           If you also make it to be your body,

                                           You shall have a body that is free from all cause of death.

                                           Behold the joint of the neck, they said,

                                           That I have made to be the joint of my own neck.

                                           Behold the mouth of the pipe,

                                           That I have made to be my mouth.

                                           Behold the right side of the pipe,

                                           That I have made to be the right side of my body.

                                           Behold the spine of the pipe,

                                           That I have made to be my own spine.

                                           Behold the left side of the pipe,

                                           That I have made to be the left side of my own body.

                                           Behold the hollow of the pipe,

                                           That I have made to be the hollow of my own body.

                                           Behold the thong that holds together the pipe and stem;

                                           That I have made to be my own windpipe.

                                           ... use the pipe as an offering in your supplications,

                                           Your prayers shall be readily granted.