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Catlinite Pipe

Also called Red Pipestone Pipe, Pipestone Pipe, Siouan Pipe

Catlinite PipePossibly 500 B.C.–A.D. 500 for the earliest artifacts, with most confirmed catlinite after about A.D. 1100–1200 (Scott et al. 2006); catlinite pipes occur in Ohio Hopewell caches, about 50 B.C.–A.D. 300 (Emerson et al. 2013; Farnsworth et al. 2021); Oneota quarrying from about A.D. 1450 (Henning, cited in Scott et al. 2006); still made today.Middle Woodland to Protohistoric

Key facts

Age
Possibly 500 B.C.–A.D. 500 for the earliest artifacts, with most confirmed catlinite after about A.D. 1100–1200 (Scott et al. 2006); catlinite pipes occur in Ohio Hopewell caches, about 50 B.C.–A.D. 300 (Emerson et al. 2013; Farnsworth et al. 2021); Oneota quarrying from about A.D. 1450 (Henning, cited in Scott et al. 2006); still made today.
Cultural period
Middle Woodland to Protohistoric
Culture
Hopewell (traded stone); Oneota; historic Plains nations
Material
Catlinite (red pipestone) from Pipestone, Minnesota.

More from the Woodland period

Description

A catlinite pipe is a smoking pipe carved from catlinite, the soft, dense, brick-red claystone quarried at Pipestone in southwestern Minnesota. The class is defined by the stone, not the shape. McGuire (1899) took the rectangular historic Plains pipe as the typical form; earlier catlinite pipes include Oneota disk pipes and Hopewell platform pipes (Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center; Emerson et al. 2013).

Catlinite lies in thin layers, from about 25 mm to 600 mm thick, between beds of hard Sioux quartzite, reached by breaking away the quartzite with stone sledges (Scott et al. 2006; McGuire 1899). It is only slightly harder than soapstone, about 2.5 on the Mohs scale, and can be pecked, sawn, scraped, ground and drilled with stone tools, though it splits along its layers (McGuire 1899; NPS). It is mostly pyrophyllite and muscovite and contains no quartz (Scott et al. 2006).

Catlinite travelled far: mineral testing has identified catlinite artifacts at more than 44 sites in nine states and Manitoba, and in Hopewell pipe caches in Ohio (Scott et al. 2006; Emerson et al. 2013). The pipe and the quarries remain sacred to many American Indian nations, and quarrying is reserved for enrolled tribal members (NPS). The key trait is the stone itself, a smooth, quartz-free red claystone, which can be confirmed only by mineral testing.

Size

More information needed.

Distribution

Quarried at Pipestone National Monument, southwestern Minnesota; pipes are found across the Upper Midwest and Plains and as far as Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Manitoba and Ontario (Scott et al. 2006; McGuire 1899; Emerson et al. 2013).

Additional information

Color alone does not identify catlinite: visually identical red pipestones occur in South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska and Arizona, and red Missouri flint clay was used for Cahokia figure pipes, so a red pipe is catlinite only after mineral testing such as X-ray diffraction or infrared spectroscopy (Zedeño and Basaldú 2004; Scott et al. 2006; Emerson et al. 2003). Earlier neutron-activation results are considered unreliable (Scott et al. 2006). Form helps with age: Oneota disk pipes are late prehistoric (Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center), and the rectangular Plains pipe is the typical historic form (McGuire 1899). The stone is named after the painter George Catlin (McGuire 1899).

Similar types

Types that are easy to confuse with the Catlinite Pipe artifact.

Sources

  1. Scott, Douglas D., Thomas D. Thiessen, Jeffrey J. Richner, and Scott Stadler. 2006. An Archeological Inventory and Overview of Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota. Midwest Archeological Center Occasional Studies in Anthropology No. 34. National Park Service, Lincoln, Nebraska.npshistory.com (opens in a new tab)
  2. McGuire, Joseph D. 1899. Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Based on Material in the U.S. National Museum. In Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1897, pp. 351-645. Washington.archive.org (opens in a new tab)
  3. National Park Service, Pipestone National Monument. n.d. Quarry History; Frequently Asked Questions; Geologic Formations.nps.gov (opens in a new tab)
  4. Zedeño, María Nieves, and Robert Christopher Basaldú. 2004. Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota: Native American Cultural Affiliation and Traditional Association Study. Final report. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.npshistory.com (opens in a new tab)
  5. Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. n.d. Oneota Tools.uwlax.edu (opens in a new tab)
  6. Emerson, Thomas E., Kenneth B. Farnsworth, Sarah U. Wisseman, and Randall E. Hughes. 2013. The Allure of the Exotic: Reexamining the Use of Local and Distant Pipestone Quarries in Ohio Hopewell Pipe Caches. American Antiquity 78(1):48-67.cambridge.org (opens in a new tab)
  7. Farnsworth, Kenneth B., Thomas E. Emerson, and Randall E. Hughes. 2021. Havana Tradition Platform Pipe Production and Disposition: Implications for Interpreting Regional Variation in Midwestern Hopewell Ceremonialism. American Antiquity 86(4):696-714.cambridge.org (opens in a new tab)
  8. Emerson, Thomas E., Randall E. Hughes, Mary R. Hynes, and Sarah U. Wisseman. 2003. The Sourcing and Interpretation of Cahokia-Style Figurines in the Trans-Mississippi South and Southeast. American Antiquity 68(2):287-313.experts.illinois.edu (opens in a new tab)

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