TWO UNIQUE ALABAMA CREEK PIPES

TWO UNIQUE ALABAMA CREEK PIPES

Jim Maus

Advance, North Carolina

The American Indians known as the Creeks lived in the area that today is known as the Alabama Piedmont Region for many years prior to the sixteenth century AD invasion by the Spanish. The Spaniards retreated around 1690 and the French attempted to colonize the area and convert the natives to Christianity in 1717. This unsuccessful French colonial effort lasted until they lost the French Indian Seven Years War (The French and Indian War) in 1763. The British, who had been trading in the area for well over a hundred years, next moved into the area, followed by the Americans after the Revolutionary War (1776). The British and the later Americans came to the area not in search of gold (like the Spanish) or supposedly (like the French) to save souls, they came to trade for deer skins and other pelts and to eventually take the Indian lands. All of these groups traded extensively with the Creeks, as evidenced by the many artifacts found in east-central Alabama sites. These trade goods consisted of glass beads, iron axes, hoes, knives, cooking pots, firearms and especially smoking pipes. Most of the traded pipes were simple kaolin clay elbow pipes, but a few were made from brass, tinned-iron or pewter.

During an archaeological salvage dig on the Autosse Site (also known as the Atasi Site) near the Tallapoosa River, in Macon County, Alabama, one of the rare pewter trade pipes was recovered in a house floor site. A Dutch made clay pipe stamped with the date 1635 was also found. In addition, two unique American Indian-made copies of seventeenth century British pipes were found.

Depicted above is a dark pipe which is 6 3/16 inches long by 2 1/8 inches in height and was made from a gray-brown shell tempered ceramic material that is typical of the pottery made and used by the American Indians during the Creek cultural period. The light-colored pipe is 8 1/8 inches long by 1 3/4 inches high. It was made from shell tempered grayish-white clay. While both pipes replicate the pewter pipe, the white one is also a copy of the typical white kaolin trade pipes in color.

Rarely were pewter pipes found, and the one found at the Autosse Site was probably the property of a high-ranking member of the Creek society. European and American clay pipes as well as native-made ceramic and stone pipes were most likely used by many tribal members. Why, then, would a Creek Indian artisan make copies of pewter pipes when ordinary pipes were still available? Perhaps it was because of the rarity of metal pipes. Or maybe it was because a nobleman owned it. They could have been made as a funerary offering, but neither of these ceramic pipes show any evidence of ever having been smoked and were not found in a burial context, so they were probably not made as burial objects. We will probably never know why some long dead Creek American Indian decided to copy a pewter trade pipe, but we were fortunate to have found and recorded their history because now we can enjoy these two unique
Alabama Creek Indian pipes.

REFERENCES

Fairbanks, Charles H.

1952, Archaeology of the Eastern United States, "Creek and Pre-Creeks."

Hothem, Lar

1999, Collectors Guide to Indian Pipes

Hudson, Charles

1976, The Southeastern Indians.

Walthall, John A.

1987, Archaeology of Alabama and the Middle South.

TWO UNIQUE ALABAMA CREEK PIPES	Jim Maus
	Advance, North Carolina