The Origin of Tobacco




Huron Indians have an ancient legend about the origin of tobacco. It says when the land was barren and the people were starving a woman was sent to the world by the Great Spirit to save the humanity. She walked everywhere on the land and touched the soil. At the places where her right hand reached, the soil started growing potatoes. At the reach of her left hand corn grew. When the land became rich and fertile, she sat down to rest. As the woman arose, the tobacco grew in that place.

All the Indian tribes believe in the sacred origin of tobacco. They have different opinions on its creation; however, the story is almost the same for all of them: it explains that tobacco came from powerful spirits or gods. Here is another legend about the origin of the plant. There was a great and powerful spirit that liked to come down to the world and stay there for a while. One evening he fell asleep near the fire in a forest. His enemy came and decided to eliminate the spirit by rolling him into the fire. As soon as the good spirit’s hair caught on fire he woke up and ran frightened through the forest. His burnt hair fell on the ground, took root and grew up tobacco.

Indians are very attached to their pipes. They take care of them as of the most scared things and when a person dies; his pipe goes with him to the grave because Indians believe that it will accompany the dead person “on the journey to the happy hunting ground”. It is believed that the Good Spirit was the first smoker; this is why the first pipe is involved in many sacred ceremonies and traditions.

There is a special story of the origin of a pipe too. Once upon a time the Spirit called all the people of the world. He stood on the precipice of the Red Pipe Stone Rock, broke a piece of the wall and made a huge pipe out of it. The Spirit smoke the pipe over the people to the east, west, north and south and explained to them that the rock was red like their flesh and they could come to that place and make their own pipes, but remember that the rock belonged to everybody equally which meant that there should not be any war equipment or scalping knives on the territory.

This legendary place is known as Pipe-stone Quarry. For many years North American Indians were coming there to get material for their pipes and they have never used anything else. George Catlin, the American artist who traveled with William Clark all over the North America in 1830s and set a goal to make as many paintings about Indian life as possible noted that the legend is so common to Indians that in all the tribes he visited (around 40) the pipes were carved out of the same red pipe-stone.

Every Indian adult had to make a journey to the sacred Rock and take a piece of it for his pipe. Some of the tribes lived thousands of miles from the place, but they were still coming there for the precious stone.

Pipe smoking was the primary use of tobacco, but not all. American Indians used it in different ways: besides smoking it on various occasions they were also chewing the leaves, making hallucinogenic mixtures out of the plant and considered tobacco as the most precious gift to others.

After tobacco came to Mayas and Aztecs the smokers were divided into two groups: the majority of the Indians of the South stuffed resin leaves with tobacco or smoked pipes with great ceremonies after evening meals; the others who moved closer to the north wrapped tobacco leaves in the forms of cigars. After Mayas spread to the Mississippi Valley, their smoking customs went to the neighboring tribes.

John Campbell

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Posted on August 29, 2009 
Filed Under Tobacco History

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