Possibly Sauk and Sioux artists
Illinois and Minnesota
Pipe bowl and stem, stem about 1830, pipe bowl about 1850
Pipestone (catlinite), lead, wood, dyed porcupine quills, dyed horsehair, feathers, sinew
37 1/2 × 2 × 3/4 in. (95.3 × 5.1 × 1.9 cm.) (stem)
4 5/8 × 2 × 9 1/16 in. (11.7 × 5.1 × 23 cm.) (pipe bowl)
Museum purchase  1937.68.112 a,b

Ritual Smoking
Native American tribes across the Plains region employed tobacco for both recreational and ritual uses. They sought protection, success, and guidance through ceremonial smoking. Leaders of war expeditions carried pipes as symbols of their status. Men also held pipe ceremonies to establish alliances among peoples, to arbitrate disputes, and in councils before important deliberations. This pipe is said to have belonged to the renowned Sauk leader Black Hawk, who, in 1832, lead an unsuccessful attempt to regain tribal homelands east of the Mississippi River.