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"Indians used to smoke cannabis in their peace pipes"

I'm sure that this idea will be quite offensive to many Native Americans. What white people tend to refer to as a "peace pipe" is actually a holy pipe or canunpa to Indians, intended for ceremonies and not at all for recreational use. It's not that psychodelic substances are never used in religions, we know for instance that the Native American Church makes use of peyote, but nobody ever takes in any substance to get "high" like the average hippie might do. In fact, it's even quite impossible to be any native American tradition because hemp originates from China and was brought to America by the Europeans, long before it's halucinative effect were even known I have to add.

Some of the American founding fathers were even growing hemp themselves but at the time only industrial hemp was known that was used for clothing, rope, paper etc. Medieval Europeans even used edible hemp seeds in bread. In American propaganda there even have been calls to grow hemp for the "war effort" of WW1 and even indians were asked to grow hemp on their reservations. It wasn't untill the 70'ies of the 20th century that Europeans discovered the psycho-active effects of what at the time was called hashis and was associated with the hippie culture of that time. In India smoking marihuana is part of their culture.

So what did Indians smoke in their holy pipes then?

Basically tobacco (tobacco is often used in ceremonies and prayers) and sometimes herbs or bark. But let's just make this thing clear: spirituality, real spirituality, as opposed to new age make belief, does never concern itself with mindless recreational "trips" but is always a serious matter conducted by responsible initiated people like Pipe Keepers who carry some major responsibilty.

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