Indiana's Iowa, Omaha, Osage Oneota Hopewell Sioux Mound Builder Pipes

   Disk pipes of the heavy type have found in the ceremonial bundles of the Iowa, Omaha, and Osage ( Siouan tribes), provided with stems fitted in such a manner that the disks were used for the bowls. This same type of pipe is characteristic of the Oneota culture centering in Nebraska and Iowa and strongly suspected of Siouan identity. We in Indiana are particularly interested in this form, for it was the characteristic one of the celebrated site near the Wabash dug in 1898 by Clifford Anderson. More on the Oneota and Osage IndiansThese pipes, together with coiled-copper ear ornaments, cylindrical copper beads, and a small triangular arrow points, suggest Siouan relationships.

   This is considered a very old type of pipe, no file marks having been found on any specimens examined. Since pipestems were considered so important for decorative and symbolic purposes at the time of discovery, and since the oldest of these disk pipes probably had no stems, it is quite probable that they are very old form. The disk pipe found in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and in the western parts of the Middle Atlantic States.

Pike County Osage Hopewell Earthwork Decoded

Pike County Osage Hopewell Earthwork Decoded

The Great Spirit of the Osage Indian Tribe was Wah-kon-tah, the great mystery spirit or power. In one of their legend of creation, the Osages believed that the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) met with the People of the Land (Hun-Kah) to form one tribe, the Children of the Middle Waters (Ni-u-ko’n-ska).

Osage Hopewell Star Chart. The Key to the Hopewell Earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

Osage Hopewell Star Chart.  The Key to the Hopewell Earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

    None of the younger Osage men knew about these matters and the author was urged not to speak to them on this subject. He observed that several of the elder men, members of the secret order in which these traditions are preserved, had parts of the accompanying symbolic chart (Fig. 389) tattooed on their throats and chests. This chart is a facsimile of one that was drawn for the author by Hada-ɔüʇse. At the top we see a tree near a river. 

This is evidence of the importance of the sun and stars of the Dakota Sioux tribes who once resided in the Ohio Valley and built many of the earthworks aligned to different stars and solar events of the equinoxes and solstices.