History of smoking goes way back in OTC

Missy Hermes

Published Saturday, November 24, 2007

“Fresh air give it a whiff.” Minnesota has gone smoke-free and the Historical Society has changed right along with it.

The museum exhibit on pipes is gone with the wind just like cigarette smoking in restaurants.

As simple as it is to freshen the air in our favorite eating establishments, the history of smoking in Otter Tail County goes way back, beyond the reach of the state legislature.

Studying the history of smoking and pipes will take you back to the prehistory of our great state. Of course the prehistoric peoples of Minnesota were smoking pipes as part of their spiritual beliefs, not a ciggie break at mid morning.

The men who engaged in the famous tribal disputes of this area such as the war parties at Battle Lake and Dead Lake undoubtedly smoked pipes before meeting their enemy on the battle field. Smoke from their pipes were visual symbols of their prayers rising to the Great Spirit, asking for aid, success, courage.

Tobacco is a gift of the Creator and people still offer pinches of tobacco at powwows or before hunting and at other auspicious occasions.

The tobacco commonly associated with the early pipes is even described in the book Night Flying Woman.

The Anishinabe word for tobacco is kinnickinnic meaning “what is mixed” and it describes a substance made from the inner bark of red willow or sumac leaves and tobacco.

To prepare kinnickinnic, a man cut the stems and scraped off the outer bark with a knife. Using the dull side of the knife, he scraped curls of inner bark from the stem, allowing them to drop into a cloth or skin placed over his lap.

The Milwaukee Public Museum Web site describes the preparation of Native tobacco. “He then made a drying rack by splitting one of the peeled stems halfway down and opening the end to form a Y.

The opened portion was then woven with criss-crosses of other split stems to form a grid, and on this he placed the curlicues of inner bark.

He forced the rack into the ground diagonally, just above a low fire, so the bark was about a foot above the flames and could dry in the heat without being burned.

In about 2 minutes the bark was toasted and crisp and could be pulverized to the consistency of a rough-cut tobacco by rubbing it between the palms.”

The pipes used by the people of this area frequently had a wooden pipe stem, highly decorated and carved, often tinted with paint.

Sometimes trade cloth ribbon, woven porcupine quills and string can be found on ceremonial pipes as well. Where prehistoric people made their pipe bowls from stone or antler, the most highly prized pipes come from a substance quarried in the southwestern part of Minnesota. Pipestone National Monument on the Mdewakaton Sioux Reservation is a sacred site, a place of legend.

Today, pipes are displayed with the bowl and the stem separated. Only when a person prepares to smoke the pipe will he connect the two pieces. The pipes rest on a bed of sage.

Visit the Otter Tail County Museum to see the Native American pipes and other artifacts in your county collection.

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Missy Hermes is the museum educator at the Otter Tail County Historical Society in Fergus Falls.