Peace Pipe

 

 

 

Search  Inquiry Net

Back ] Home ] Up ] Next ]

Storm Cloud
Lone Scout
Shoshoni Dog
Caribou Dance
Animal Dance
Hopi Corn
Spring Dance
Fall Dance
Snake Dance
Courtship Eagles
Peace Pipe
War Dance
Refference

Scout Books

Site Contents

by Ernest Thompson Seton

The Chief rises from the Council Rock and calls: "Ho, Cannungpa Yuha, 0-hay!" ( Oh, Pipe-bearer, bring the Pipe!). Singing of the "Zuni Sunrise Call," is heard far away.

Then enter the Herald, staff in hand. He faces the Chief, and sings the Sunrise Song again, but omitting every other line which is softly sung off-stage as an echo.

Enter in procession 6 or 8 maidens, slowly, silently to tom-tom beaten in slow six-part time by the leader or Medicine Man. They walk with eyes on the ground, arms straight down at their sides, flat hands bent out, palms down. They are followed by a very small boy or girl, dressed in white, bearing the Peace Pipe aloft horizontally and held in two hands, palms up.

The Chief stands with folded arms as they file in, and form 3 (or 4) on the Chief's left, 3 (or 4) on his right, the Pipe-bearer near him on his right, the Medicine Man on his left.

The Maidens then sing the "Prayer of the Warriors before Smoking the Pipe," hands held low forward, palms up, then raised high, palms facing in, for the first line; hands lowered then crossed on breast, for second line; hands forward in beseeching attitude, for third line; raised high, then arms folded, for the fourth line. The head is thrown back until the end of the last line as the arms are folded, when the eyes are cast upon the ground.

The Chief takes the Pipe from the Bearer. The Maidens sit down, cross-legged and cross-armed, in the places where they stood, and the Chief proceeds.

Kneeling at the fire, he lights the Pipe. As soon as it is going, he lifts it grasped in both hands, with the stem toward the sky, saying:

"To Wakonda, the one Great Spirit; that his wisdom be with us. Hay-oon-kee-ya. Noon-way." All answer, in a long intonation, and slightly raising the flat right hand: "Noon-way." (Amen, or this is our prayer.)

Chief: "To Maka Ina, Mother Earth, that she send us food. Hay-oon-kee-ya. Noon-way."

All (as before) : "Noon-way."

Chief: "To Weeyo-peeata, the Sunset Wind, that he come not in his strength upon us." (Blows smoke and holds the stem to the West.)

"To Wazi-yata, the Winter Wind, that he harm us not with his cold." (Pipe as before to the North.)

"To Weeyo-hinyan-pata, the Sunrise Wind, that he trouble us not with his rain." (Pipe as before to the East.)

"To Okaga, the Hot Wind, that he strike us not with his fierce heat." (Pipe as before to the South.) "Hay-oon-kee-oon-ee-ya-snee. Noon-way."

All: "Noon-way."

Then the Chief stands, holding the Pipe high level in two hands and proclaims aloud

"Wakan-tanka Wakan ne-kay-chin, chandee eeya pay-yawo. That is, Great Spirit, by this Pipe, the symbol of Peace, Council and Brotherhood, we ask thee to be with us and take part in our Council."

All intone a long "Noon-way."

The maidens stand, the Chief hands the Pipe to the Bearer, who holds it high and marches off, followed by the others, singing the "Zuni Sunset Song,". The Herald leaves last of all.

The Birch Bark Roll

 

 

   

 

 


Additional Information:

Peer- Level Topic Links:
Storm Cloud ] Lone Scout ] Shoshoni Dog ] Caribou Dance ] Animal Dance ] Hopi Corn ] Spring Dance ] Fall Dance ] Snake Dance ] Courtship Eagles ] [ Peace Pipe ] War Dance ] Refference ]

Parent- Level Topic Links:
Native Skills ] Totem Poles ] Indian Sign Language ] Indian Ceremonies ] Indian Dance ] Indian Songs ] Birch Bark Dances ] Birch Bark Songs ] Birch Bark Plays ] Indian Games for Boys ]

The Inquiry Net Main Topic Links:
 [Outdoor Skills]  [Patrol Method [Old-School]  [Adults [Advancement]  [Ideals]  [Leadership]  [Uniforms]

Search This Site:

Search Amazon.Com:

When you place an order with Amazon.Com using the search box below, a small referral fee is returned to The Inquiry Net to help defer the expense of keeping us online.  Thank you for your consideration!

Search:

Keywords:

Amazon Logo

 

 

Scout Books Trading Post

Dead Bugs, Blow Guns, Sharp Knives, & Snakes:
What More Could A Boy Want?

Old School Scouting:
What to Do, and How to Do It!

To Email me, replace "(at)" below with "@"
Rick(at)Kudu.Net

If you have questions about one of my 2,000 pages here, you must send me the "URL" of the page!
This "URL" is sometimes called the "Address" and it is usually found in a little box near the top of your screen.  Most URLs start with the letters "http://"

The Kudu Net is a backup "mirror" of The Inquiry Net.  

©2003, 2011 The Inquiry Net, http://inquiry.net  In addition to any Copyright still held by the original authors, the Scans, Optical Character Recognition, extensive Editing,  and HTML Coding on this Website are the property of the Webmaster.   My work may be used by individuals for non-commercial, non-web-based activities, such as Scouting, research, teaching, and personal use so long as this copyright statement and a URL to my material is included in the text
The purpose of this Website is to provide access  to hard to find, out-of-print documents.  Much of the content has been edited to be of practical use in today's world and is not intended as historical preservation.   I will be happy to provide scans of specific short passages in the original documents for people involved in academic research.  

 

Last modified: October 15, 2016.