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			Contact Us AICTP Division of Epidemiology University of Minnesota 1300 S. Second Street Suite 300 Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015 Phone : 612.626.8574 Fax : 612.624.0315 E-mail: rhode016@umn.edu

AICTP - Traditional Tobacco Use

American Indian traditions tell us to honor the Creator with the spiritual use of tobacco. We believe these traditions will help future generations to honor tobacco and resist tobacco misuse. Our traditions do not include the misuse of tobacco. Tobacco misuse is the recreational or habitual use of tobacco (cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, pipes, and snuff).

Tobacco in our languages:

Ojibwe: asema
Dakota/Lakota: can-sa-sa
Ho-Chunk: da-nee

Traditional tobacco use:

• Smoked in a pipe
• Burned in a dish/shell for smudging
• Offered to other Indians as a sign of respect when asking someone to do something (share knowledge, prayer, sing a song, healing, ceremony).
• Put on the ground, buried, or wrapped in cloth and tied to a tree as an offering to the spirits of (water, plants, animals, ancestors or the Creator) during daily prayer, when harvesting food and medicine, during storms or to give honor to a namesake, clan, or sacred animal.

What is used for traditional use:

• Kinnickinnick (red willow bark with other plants and bark)
  
• Indian tobacco (plants grown for this purpose)
  
• Commercial tobacco (tobacco purchased from the store, e.g. pipe tobacco, cigarettes)

If you have questions about where to get or how to use tobacco, ask an elder.