Plains Pipe Bags ~ Emblems of Leadership & Diplomacy
19th Century Plains Indian Pipe Bags
August 2013 Exhibit at Morning Star Gallery
Cheyenne Beaded Pipe Bag
c. 1860
33 in. long
Cheyenne Beaded Pipe Bag with Quill Wrapped Fringe
c. 1870
27 in. long
Lakota Beaded Pictoral Pipe Bag
c. 1885
33 in. long
I was recently contacted by an organization called Tennessee Wild, a group of people interested in protecting the forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Because of my interest in history, they asked me to do an editorial in support of the Tennessee Wilderness Protection Act, legislation introduced by Senator Alexander which proposes that certain areas of the Cherokee National Forest be set aside as permanently protected wilderness areas. I was asked to include a few 'historical notes' in article.
My piece appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. A small exert appears below"
"Father Pierre de Charlevoix, a French priest who floated down the Mississippi River in 1721, passed by the western portion of the future state of Tennessee.
"Father Pierre de Charlevoix, a French priest who floated down the Mississippi River in 1721, passed by the western portion of the future state of Tennessee.
The priest stood in awe of the immense forests he observed on his voyage, and, in his journal, he said that there was "nothing in nature comparable to them."
As early Tennessee pioneers were constructing Buchanan's Station several miles south of the present city of Nashville, we are told that they cut down cedar trees more than four feet thick, the nearest limb being 40 feet from the ground."
