What
is Hair Pipe?Hair pipe refers to long hollow
beads usually, but not always, having tapered ends. The term "hair pipe" was likely
coined by early white traders who saw indians wearing the long beads as hair ornaments.
Hair pipe is thought to have been originally
made of conch shell by southeastern Indians (Chickasaw, Creeks, and Cherokee).Some
of the oldest shell hair pipes, discovered in Tennessee, are estimated to be from
4,000 years ago. Hair pipe of bone
appeared around the late 1800s when white traders brought corn cob pipes to the
Ponca Indians of the midwest - the Poncas found that the bone pipe stems made
excellent hair pipes. Later, hair pipe was made of glass, brass, silver, horn
and other materials.
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