tobacco

The calumet [tobacco pipe] is made from polished red stone and used in the Calumet dance. "It is fashioned from red stone, polished like marble, and bored in such a manner that one end serves as a receptable for the tobacco, while the other fits into the stem; this is a stick two feet long, as thick as an ordinary cane, and bored through the middle. It is ornamented with the heads and necks of various birds, whose plumage is very beautiful. To these they also add large feathers,--red, green, and other colors,--wherewith the whole is adorned. They have a great regard for it, because they look upon it as the calumet of the Sun; and, in fact, they offer it to the latter to smoke when they wish to obtain a calm, or rain, or fine weather. They scruple to bathe themselves at the beginning of Summer, or to eat fresh fruit, until after they have performed the dance, which they do as follows: The Calumet dance".

Ceremony upon receiving strangers, this time to receive the Priest, Father Marquette. First, a council was held . . . There was a speech giving thanks for the visitors Jolliet and Marquette, saying that the river had never been so calm, the tobacco tasting so good, or corn as fine as now that the visitors were here. Second, there was a four-course feast. All dishes were hand-fed to visitors. 1st course: sagamite, 2nd course: three fish, 3rd course: dog, 4th course: wild ox. Third, the visitors went to visit the entire village, all 300 cabins, and were presented with gifts (made of animal fibers, dyed)

"sa'ma"

"miamia hsäma Miami Tobacco - when an indian intends to consult a conjurer, he has to take with him some powder of the M.s. generally tied in a buckskin, and present it to him.  The conj. claim that the tobacco moves - and when it moves the conj. claims he can cure the patient.  If it dont move with the clasped hand, he is told the conj. cannot do anything.  It has to be planted and raised.  On stormy days they take a pinch of it, put it in the fire and the smoke goes up, the thunder smells it and then they pray the thunder to stop the storm.  if they got no fire in the lodge, the tobacco is dropped at the door or by the chimney.  This sort of tob. is not smoked or chewed, only ??used in the above way. Storm never does any harm to Indian homes..."

Used to show repect to elders. "Often the young men take to the aged the finest part of a deer which they have killed, or a skin, some tobacco, or moccasins".

A plaster of tobacco was used to help heal a burn, by a Frenchman in a Myaamia community.

Tobacco is used to make an offering to the deity that inhabits unusual rock formations; mountains or upon entering caves; as they are passed in travels. "It is not an uncommon thing for an Indian to lay upon a large stone a quantity of tobacco, and then to address it -- "O Stone, you are fond of tobacco and I here give you a little to smoke--I am fond of life, I like to stay inthis world and I hope you will let me remain, and that you will give me success in hunting and travelling".

"sa'ma"

If the ceremony is performed at the gravesite then the leader will cast cedar to the four directions and into the grave and over the coffin. After the ceremony friends and family gather at a relatives house. If the deceased smoked cigarettes, relatives will place cigarettes in containers around the area and each person should smoke one of the cigarettes as an honoring. Accompanying this is a smoking ceremony where cedar cedar and tobacco are placed in a receptable and left to smolder. The smoke is fanned over a person in a manner similar to washing, the purpose being to cleanse away the spirit of death.

"They put in [the grave--a hole lined with boards] a little kettle or earthen pot, about a double handful of corn, a calumet, a pinch of tobacco, a bow and arrows . . ." ("une petite chaudiere ou pot de terre, Environ une jointee de Bled, un Calumet, une pincee de Tabac un arc et des fleches").

Smoking was in order to pay honor to visitors. "After We had taken our places [in an Illinois cabin], the usual Civility of the country was paid to us, which consisted in offering us the Calumet. This must not be refused, unless one wishes to be considered an Enemy, or at least uncivil; it suffices that one make a pretense of smoking. While all the elders smoked after Us, in order to do us honor, we received an invitation on behalf of the great Captain of all the Illinois to proceed to his Village where he wished to hold a Council with us".

The calumet dance (tobacco pipe dance) is done on a carpet of large rush [cattail] mats spread under the trees, in the summer.

In 1746, the Weas at the mouth of the Ohio [modern day Cairo, Illinois] were reported to be cultivating corn and tobacco.

Tobacco was transplanted by hand in the early days. "I put [it] standing in the ground, transplant some tobacco" ("nimamara acema8a", "je mets debout en terre, transplante du tabac").

Used in funerals. Prior to the body being taken to the cemetary, an elder or the Chief goes to the cemetery to smoke the ground with cedar and tobacco. The cedar is evergreen, and signifies continuing life and the tobacco helps prayers ascend to the Great Spirit.

A peace-making ceremony involves dancing who are chosen by the warriors of the recent battle. Warriors take turns standing up, recounting great feats of bravery during battle, and choose a dancer by striking a pipe stem or piece of tobacco or a knife against a pole in the ground.

Used in a peace-making ceremony involving peace-pipe smoking with enemy. "He [the peace ambassador] proceeds directly to the principal village of the enemy the chief of which he asks for upon his arrival. he is shown the lodge of this chief and proceeds to it. After setting down his flag at the door he enters and having lighted his pipe and smoked, offers it to the Chief. If he accepts and smokes the sign is held good and the ambassador immediately commences to propose the arrangements for a peace. But if he refuses to smoke at all, it is totally unnecessary to attempt any thing and me makes the best of his way home".

Tobacco branches and leaves were cut with a knife.

Tobacco was offered to the Manitou, the spirits. "There is a common Tradition amongst that People [the Illinois] That a great number of Miami's were drown'd in that Place [a place just above the city of Alton, Illinois, where there are a great number of animal figures painted on a steep rock face with red paint], being pursu'd by the Savages of Matfigamea [an Algonquian tribe living near the mouth of the St. Francis River in Arkansas, which later became part of the Kaskaskia]; and since that time, the Savages going by the Rock, use to smoak, and offer Tobacco to those Beasts, to appease, as they say, the Manitou, that is, in the Language of the Algonquians and Accadians, an evil Spirit . . .".

A small variety of tobacco that was cultivated in the area of the Maumee River was used for ceremonies and offerings.

Friends and relatives of a villager that has had a serious misfortune, visit the grieved and offer them their pipe filled with tobacoo for a shared smoke. "If any peson encounters a grievous accident or a great misfortune, the entire village takes an interest in it, and goes to console him. The men perform this duty for the men, and the women fulfil it for one another among themselves. Visits of this sort are paid to the afflicted person without conversation. The visitor fills his pipe with tobacco and presents it to the other to smoke; after he has smoked it for a little while he returns it to the person who gave it to him, so that the latter may also smoke".

"saamau"

Charlevoix mentions a native tobacco that is far inferior in taste to the introduced tobacco. Kellogg adds that the tribes of the Great Lakes used a species of native tobacco, not a true tobacco, called "petun" and a tobacco mixture containing herbs, sumac, dogwood, and cornel [sic] bark.

Tobacco is cultivated by past and present Myaamia. A strain called Mecsuki tobacco was being grown at the Longhouse in 1996. Cultivation involves the following steps: The crop is started in February,  in planters with potting soil. Seeds are sprinkled over the surface of the soil and can be mixed with sand prior to sprinkling. Seeds are pushed into soil one half an inch deep and watered once. Remove weaker, smaller seedlings as seeds germinate and grow. In mid April after the final frost transplant outside about one foot apart and water moderately. Plants grow to five or six feet high. In July the plants will bloom. When seed capsules are present, cutt off top of plant and dry for planting next year. Then, harvest the rest of the plant, roll the leaves up and tie with twine to keep them rolled, and hand leaves for drying. Finally, shred leaves and smoke.

Myaamia men grow the tobacco. They use it to smudge themselves before using the drum, for making tobacco offerings, put into graves, and into rivers and bodies of water.

Used to make ticks and leaches detach from the body.

The current [Miami] Nation drum is sprinkled with tobacco before using the drum, using left hand which is closest to heart. Tobacco and sweetgrass is tied all around the Nation drum.

Part of a chiefs medicine bag, used for blessing a grave or new building, contained tobacco and cedar. ". . . the chief usually had the medicine bag that has tobacco and cedar in it and uh he blesses the grave. . . the cedar is to purify things and the tobacco and the cedar is to get rid of evil spirits the way I understand it cause when they built this building they what you call smoked it. They use cedar and they put it in a little old pot and they kind of made a smudge out of it and they kind of used a fan maybe to keep it smoking and they'd go all around the room and smoke the building. . . they can take their hand and go like this you know get that smoke all over them and that's to get rid of evil spirits".

The chief smokes a sick person for healing. "the smoking ceremony we think it kind of purifies us  . . . If you're sick or anything the chief will come out and smoke you which we feel like it helps you get well . . .we use to make the smoke is cedar and cedar is a cleanser . . green cedar to get more smoke, we use tobacco, tobacco is a purifier and then we use sage and its for medicinal [purposes] . . . there was some sweetgrass mixed with the combination of sage and tobacco uh and the cedar".

In the traditional Miami story of Young Thunder William Pecongah, he describes the crops he had growing on his land 160 acres of reserve in central Indiana. "There I planted corn, wheat, potatoes, peas, tobacco, beans, apple trees, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, onions, hay, straw, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, turnips, tomatoes, pawpaws, cherries, strawberries, plums, blackhaws, peaches, walnut trees, pecans, hickory nuts, barley and rye."

The tobacco was cut or picked by plucking the leaves off. "We pluck, thin out the tobacco," "I pick it, cut it," "I pluck the leaves off it", "nipapak8namina. nichikai8namina", "nipakich8a," "i8chi nimarirena michipak8ki".

In the traditional story Lennipinjakami, tobacco was cut up and thrown into the water as an offering to the manitou named Lennipinjakami that lives above the Red Bridge in Peoria. This area is also known as the Double Cliffs and is 12 miles east of Peru, Indiana, on the Mississinewa River, and done to receive whatever they were asking for.

An annual plant up to 1 meter in height with greenish white, salverform flowers, 1.5-2 cm wide. 

Used by patient and doctor when sick. "Indians raise a kind of tobacco called miamia sama [Myaamia tobacco] which does not grow big, they use it only when they go to a doctor, they put some in a bag and give it to him and he can tell whether you will get well".

Used to keep a storm away. ". . . when storm is coming, put a pinch in the fire, or by the door to keep storm away".

"Indian tobacco, a weed used by old medicine men for diagnosing disease".

Cultivated throughout eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Cultivated by Native Americans throughout the northeastern U.S. but now very rare or extinct in the wild.

Algonquian chiefs of villages can remarry as soon as six months after a wife has died, to ensure they have women to cultivate fields for tobacco and other crops. "The chiefs of the villages are not under obligation to remain widowers after six month' time, because they cannot get along without women to serve them, and to cultivate the lands which produce their tobacco and all [else] that is necessary for them to be prepared to receive those who come to visit them, and strangers who have any business regarding the tribe to place before them".

The calumet, or tobacco pipe, dance is described in detail by Marquette.

The tobacco pipes were made from a red stone, now known as catlinite, joined to a hollow reed for smoking, and decorated with feather. Tobacco pipes are also known as calumets.

The Miami-Illinois term "nimikima" translates as "I play with him, I gather tobacco or some other animate thing" ("je joue avec luy. Je cueille du tabac ou autre chose noble").

Other terms for tobacco have been documented as "samwah".

Mildred Walker recalls that although they did not grow tobacco in her family garden in Miami, OK, others in the community grew "long green fat tobacco" which was stronger than Indian tobacco.

Only two plants, wild tobacco and red cedar, were used traditionally as ceremonial plants by the Myaamia. Contemporary uses of other plants in ceremonies, including white sage Salvia apiana, from western U.S. and sweetgrass, Hierochloe odorata, have been acquired often from the pan-Indian movement of modern times.

On the origin of tobacco: Tobacco Garden Creek was first described by Lewis and Clark, April 17th, 1805. It was actually a marsh of reeds, Phragmites communis and was misnamed by some early traveler, confusing the Sioux and Assiniboine name for reed, cedi (cheddy), and tobacco, candi (chandee), says Larpenteur. He adds, "Of course, Indians cultivated a native tobacco (Nicotiana quadrivalvis) in those days, but not in separate gardens, apart from corn, etc.".

Keller George (Oneida) described uses and growing of tobacco.

Archaeological studies in central and south-central Indiana revealed that tobacco was either cultivated or "strongly encouraged in wild stands" during the late Woodland period (A.D. 1000 through A.D. 1450).

There is a can of sweet gum for mixing with tobacco, thought to be Myaamia, housed at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.