Tcikapis

Algonkian folk hero

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American Sub-Arctic Cultures

In American Subarctic peoples: Religious beliefs
…be encountered in the forest; Tcikapis, a kindly, powerful young hero and the subject of many myths; and Wiskijan (Whiskeyjack), an amusing trickster (see trickster tale). “Wiitiko psychosis” refers to a condition in which an individual would be seized by the obsessive idea that he was turning into a cannibal…
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Sacred Pipe

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Sacred Pipe

American Indian culture

Also known as: Calumet, Peace Pipe

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Also called:: Peace Pipe or Calumet

Related Topics:: Native American religions; pipe

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Sacred Pipe, one of the central ceremonial objects of the Northeast Indians and Plains Indians of North America, it was an object of profound veneration that was smoked on ceremonial occasions. Many Native Americans continued to venerate the Sacred Pipe in the early 21st century.

calumetA Native American calumet; in the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York City.

The Sacred Pipe was revered as a holy object, and the sacrament of smoking was employed as a major means of communication between humans and sacred beings; the narcotic effect of tobacco and the symbolism of the indrawn and ascending smoke affirmed that such communication took place. The pipe itself was a symbolic microcosm. Its parts, its colours, and the motifs used in its decoration each corresponded to essential parts of the indigenous universe. The pipe was smoked in personal prayer and during collective rituals, and both of these uses commonly began with invocations to the six directions: east, south, west, north, skyward, and earthward. Among some tribes such as the Pawnee, Omaha, and Crow, complex pipe dances were developed that presented smoke offerings to the Almighty on behalf of the entire community.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Elizabeth Prine Pauls.

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