The Sacred Calf Pipe

Abstract

[Editor's Note: According to the story of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe as recounted in Teton Sioux Music, the sacred pipe was presented to the Sioux by the White Buffalo Maiden, a super natural being who turned into a white buffalo calf after giving the tribe her gift. The pipe was given to this par ticular Sioux band because they were near death from starvation and because of the reputation of their leader, a great chief and holy man named Standing HollowBuffalo -Horn. The bowl of the pipe was made of rare red stone and the stem resembled the wind-pipe of a calf. The maiden told the tribe that the pipe was a gift from the Buffalo tribe. In addition to being used as a peace pipe, it could be used by medicine men in administering to the sick. The tribe was instructed to offer sacrifices with the pipe: if they smoked the pipe and asked for buffalo meat, they would re ceive it. The pipe had other, less spe cific uses, such as providing help to the women in the raising of children. This pipe, which was named the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, has been handed down from one generation to another. Dupli cates of the pipe were made and carried by every male. The pipe is always passed to the left, the direction the Buffalo Maiden took in leaving the tribe, and the person who lighted the pipe was required to make an offering. The article below tells how Thomas E. Simms learned and recorded the list of the Pipe-Keepers, the members of the Sioux tribe who have kept the pipe and its history since the White Buffalo Maiden gave it to them.]