Kneeling Figure Effigy Pipe

On this pipe, a male figure is depicted in a kneeling position with his torso leaning forward, hands on shins, and head upright. He is naked except for beaded bands on the biceps and wrists and just below the knees. The elaborate hairstyle includes two coils with braids terminating in knots hanging over the shoulders and a forelock across the forehead, decorated with beads. Scholars suggest that the figure’s posture, nakedness, and hairstyle were associated with shamanic religious practices and that the pipe was likely used by a healer or a priest who smoked tobacco to achieve a trancelike state.