Traditional Tobacco

History

Tobacco has an important role in traditional American Indian life. For tribes throughout North America, the use of traditional tobacco plants for spiritual, ceremonial, and medicinal purposes goes back thousands of years. Most Indigenous nations have traditional stories explaining how tobacco was introduced to their communities, many of which emphasized the sacred properties of the plant, containing both the power to heal if used properly and the power to cause harm if used improperly.

Sacred Uses

• As a sacrifice to the Great Spirit
• As a gift when welcoming guests to the community
• As an offering to those asked to pray or share wisdom

Medicinal Uses

• As an analgesic to alleviate childbirth pains, toothaches, headaches, and earaches
• To treat a variety of ailments, including asthma, cough, rheumatism, convulsions, and intestinal disorders.
• To treat open wounds because of its presumed antiseptic qualities
• On long journeys, it was used to keep away hunger and thirst, and to prevent fatigue
• As a smudge to ward off pests

Methods

• When smoked, ceremonial pipes were used. Pipe design varies among the different tribes, with pipe stems often made of ash or sumac and pipe bowls carved from various types of stone and clay. Archeological evidence of these pipes goes back at least a thousand years. Some Northwest coastal Indians also placed small tobacco pellets mixed with lime or conifer directly in their mouths.

This historic and enduring relationship with sacred tobacco must be recognized and addressed when shaping meaningful, culturally appropriate tobacco-related policies in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.