"The most important function (of a shaman) is to cure disease----,"-----------1966, Ralph L. Beals & Harry Hoijer, "An Introduction To Anthropology," p. 583.
     "Shamans are ritual specialists who are possessed of special powers and who act as intermediaries between humans and the shadowy world of spirits and the supernatural."---------1996, Brian M. Fagan, "The Oxford Companion To Archaeology," p. 591.
     "They (California Indian medicine men) applied to the suffering parts of the patient's body the chacuaco (conventional tube) or a tube formed out of a very hard black stone. Through this they sometimes sucked and at other times blew, but both as hard as they were able."--------1899, Joseph D., Mc.Guire, "Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Based on Material in the U.S. National Museum," Report of the U.S. National Museum, Part I, p. 386-387.
     "Steatite sucking tubes and/or pipes are common finds in California-----. They are (also) common throughout the Pueblo area of the Southwest."---------1993, George C. Frison, and Zola Van Norman, "Carved Steatite and Sandstone Tubes: Pipes For Smoking or Shaman's Paraphernalia," Plains Anthropologist, Vo., 38, No. 143, pp. 174.
     "These (Indian medicine men) suck that part of the body which is most painful, at times with the mouth, also with the chalumeau (pipe), after making a slight incision near the vein."--------1899, Joseph D., Mc.Guire, "Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Based on Material in the U.S. National Museum," Report of the U.S. National Museum, Part I, p. 390.
     "A Crow with the dubious name of Bull All the Time cured several patients by sucking at the affected parts with a pipestem and pulling out, respectively, a bone, a black beetle, and a morsel of meat."---------1972, Thomas E. Mails, "The Mystic Warriors of the High Plains," p. 123.
     "Then he (the Plains Indian doctor) sang, made an application of his medicine, and using a buffalo horn tube or applying his mouth directly to the place of the illness, sucked the evil out that was causing the pain, spitting "it" onto the ground."---------1972, Thomas E. Mails, "The Mystic Warriors of the High Plains," p. 112.
    "Incantations, prayers, drums, medicine whistles, and sweat lodges were used to prepare the (Shoshone) patient, then to extract the ghost, the doctor formed a tube of his hands, applied it to the patient's mouth, and began to suck until the individual retched and finally belched forth the evil spirit."---------1972, Thomas E. Mails, "The Mystic Warriors of the High Plains," p. 115.

SHAMAN'S TUBE PIPES
WYOMING & INDIANA
GLACIAL KAME & LATE STONE AGE

     Three of the four tube pipes illustrated in this article have previously been described by Frison & Norman in 1993. Their discovery in the 1950's resulted in further investigation of the find site in 1989 & 1990 when nine more pipes were discovered in various stages of fragmentation. These 12 pipes were placed in a location that is referred to as a ritualistic repository. They were apparently place into cracks and crevices in the sandstone wall above the site until they eventually eroded out onto the talus slope below. The report suggests that all the pipes may have been used by shamans as sucking tubes. The fourth pipe (illustrated on page 2) was found in northern Indiana and has not yet been published, but it may also fall within this same category of shaman paraphernalia. Most tube pipes were used for smoking tobacco but early accounts indicate that some were used as sucking tubes to heal the sick or injured.

       Many early descriptions of North American shamans attempting  to heal a patient involve a sucking procedure. They often describe the use of the mouth directly on the patient or sucking through the closed hand. They also describe the use of tubes made from all types of materials such as reeds, horn and stone.

      Healing with the use of sucking is not unique to North America. Different variations of this procedure have been used by healers worldwide. In many cases the healer or shaman produces an object such as a thorn or pebble as if it was sucked from the body and was the cause of the illness. Other sucking procedures remove an invisible spirit that the shaman spits out of his mouth. But whether the sucking procedure produces a physical object or evil spirit these concepts have been used to heal people for thousands of years.

     The three tube pipes from Wyoming that are illustrated in this article were found in an area where nine other pipes had fallen across a talus slope next to a sandstone wall. They were found at the Coal Draw Petroglyph site in the southern Bighorn Basin in north central Wyoming. The original discovery of the cache of three pipes occurred in the 1950's. Later excavations in the summers of 1989 and 1990 verified the site and produced the additional nine pipes. Except for one complete example all the pipes had been deliberately broken. The fourth pipe in this article was found by Tom Bellinger while digging peat on his commercial operation in northern Indiana.

"REFERENCES"

1899, Mc.Guire, Joseph D., "Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines, Based on Material in the U.S. National Museum," Report of the U.S. National Museum, Part I, pp. 383, 386-387 & 390.
1966, Beals, Ralph L. & Hoijer, Harry, "An Introduction To Anthropology," p. 583.
1972, Mails, Thomas E.,  "The Mystic Warriors of the High Plains," p. 112, 115 & 123.
1993, Frison, George C. and Norman, Zola Van, "Carved Steatite and Sandstone Tubes: Pipes For Smoking or Shaman's Paraphernalia," Plains Anthropologist, Vo., 38, No. 143, pp. 163-176.
1996, Fagan, Brian M., "The Oxford Companion To Archaeology," p. 591.
Personal communication with Tom Bellinger.

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