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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Why a cigar store Indian? Seems a strange concept to me. I know they were used for advertising outside the store, but why? Was it just something to do with peace pipes or was there something more to it out of American history?
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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I don't know the answer, but thanks for asking it. I'd wondered about that same thing when I was young--and had wondered, too, about the peace pipe connection.
Were there mind-altering drugs, by the way, in what was smoked in those peace pipes? I've wondered about that, too, since we're talking about smoke here.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I found a bunch of sites about cigar store Indians. They apparently began in the 1800s.
We got tobacco from the Indians, but they never made cigars. Cigars require a special
kind of leaf to wrap around the leaves that had the desired flavor. Bel;ieve it or not
there ised to be quite a few tobacco leaf farms in New England. It was shade grown, which
improved its ability to hold the center together. And cigars became popular as a alternative
to a pipe. The stores used the wooden Indian the same way barber shops used the red and
white spiral cylinder as an eye catcher effective at a distance greater than a sign could be.
There was one lousy thing about cigars. They were hand made, and the wrapper leaf was
well moistened by the maker's saliva, which often contained tubercle bacilli. So in the twenties
there was a cigar ad "Spit is a horrid word, But it's worse on your cigar....."
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Tobacco is what was smoked, and still is, in those sacred pipes. I think it had to do with sharing and giving thanks, as Native American tradition requires for many important efforts. To hold one's tongue and contemplate the issue at hand, to let quiet and time reveal meaning....
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thanks for the information everyone. It led me to a site that has some delightful pictures of typical figures of Indian Chiefs and other figures used for advertising: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Index/cigar/figures.html
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tobacco is what was smoked, and still is, in those sacred pipes.
Unless you're a Yaqui Indian, then it's a mixture with a *certain amount of dried peyote... and it still is.
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Joined: Nov 2002
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Perhaps, musick, but I do not believe the Yaquis were the models for the cigar store Indians. I think this idea of smoking mind altering substances is a touchy area for many native peoples...
Anyway, at the bookstore yesterday I did some follow-up.
Tobacco was used in many native american ceremonies, and had medicinal properties as well. It was offered as a blessing at the time of 'planting', and given as thanks to medicine men for their services. When it was smoked in the pipe, the actual smoke itself is believed to rise up and convey the people's thoughts to the spirits. I'm not saying that well, the concept is far more compelling....
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jackie!!! Here's a photo of a Cigar Store Indian insaide a tobacco shop at the corner of Preston and Jefferson in downtown Louisville, Kentucky!  http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cachelog_details.asp?ID=143213&L=823374And there's one there inside a diner in my town, Wildwood NJ, too...I remember seeing that all the time, I just can't place it offhand...gotta find it now.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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