A 162-year-old ceremonial pipe smoked by Ojibwe Indian Chief Buffalo and President Millard Fillmore has been found and returned this week to the Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe.
Rumors of the existence of this treasured piece of history circulated for years. Then a few weeks ago, Red Cliff Tribal Historic Preserva-tion Officer Larry Balber got the call from descendants of the pipe's keepers.
"I was absolutely floored. I said: 'I can't talk for the tribe, but I'll be back to you immediately.' "
The pipe was made around 1848 when the federal government and mineral speculators tried to force tribes out of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Balber said chiefs, trying to understand the U.S. government's action, sent out messengers to see if they might have violated treaties with Washington.
"Has there been problems between our nation and the Chemakeman? Wherever those messengers went they came back saying, 'No. There's been no problems. We don't know what this means but yes, we're being told we're going to be moved.' The chiefs at that point decided they were not going to be moved. If that's the situation, then they're going to fight," Balber said.
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By 1852, Chief Buffalo led a delegation that canoed, walked and took trains to meet with President Fillmore and smoke the ceremonial pipe. That meeting led to the Treaty of 1854, guaranteeing reservation land for American Indians. But even today, pressure continues to extract minerals or develop land, Balber said.
"A lot of my dealings have to do with those locations of ancestors who are inconveniently buried in a location of prime development," he said.
Balber said that makes this ceremonial pipe a symbol of not just the past but also the future.
Eventually, it will be shared with U.S. and Canadian tribes and unveiled at a community feast.
That the pipe will be shared and put to use was good news to Rick Smith, a member of the Red Cliff band and director of the American Indian Learning Resource Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
"It is something that should be smoked," he said. "The pipe itself is the spirit, a sacred item that should not be put on display. It is always an honor to have something like that returned."
Although the pipe is often referred to as a "peace pipe," and at times they are smoked for peace, Smith said he prefers to call them ceremonial pipes.
"Peace pipe is more Hollywood," he said.
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News Tribune staff writer Lisa Baumann contributed to this report.
