Peace Pipe: How a Symbol Became an Idiom

The peace pipe is the name that became established in Western languages for the ceremonial pipe of North America's Native peoples; it appears in English as both peace pipe and pipe of peace. The name did not emerge from within the tradition it describes, but from the perspective of outsiders looking in.

This is why the term lives on two separate planes today: on one hand it refers to the sacred object known as the calumet, and on the other it has settled into everyday language as an idiom meaning "to end a grudge."

The Origin of the Name

According to the U.S. National Park Service, the name arose because early settlers and soldiers most often saw the pipe at treaty-signing ceremonies; believing the pipe was simply a symbol of peace, they gave it this name. In fact, the ceremonial pipe served functions tied to war just as much as to peace, trade, and social and political decisions; sealing a treaty was only one of the roles it played among the peoples who used it.

The name's one-sidedness is best seen in the pipe tomahawk. This tool, with a tobacco bowl at one end and an axe blade at the other, was made by European and American craftsmen as a trade good and diplomatic gift; carrying both a smoking implement and a weapon in the same object made it a symbol of conflict just as much as diplomacy. Viewed against the world history of the pipe, the name "peace pipe" is considered the lasting result of a misreading born from the first encounter between two worlds.