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Traditional Tobacco Use

  

 
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Traditional Tobacco Use
traditional use
Tobacco plays a very important role in First Nations culture and spirituality.  Along with sage, cedar, and sweetgrass, tobacco is regarded as a sacred medicine.

Tobacco is often smoked in a sacred pipe during certain ceremonies.  Tobacco acts as a communication link between the people and the Creator.  Thus when tobacco is smoked from a pipe or burned as an offering, all thoughts, feelings, and prayers are carried in the tobacco smoke directly to the Creator.
Tobacco is not always burned.  It is also used as a means of giving thanks.  Before and after killing an animal such as a deer, a hunter will often say a prayer while holding the tobacco in his left hand (the one closest to his heart) to give thanks to the Creator and to the animal for giving up its life so that the hunter can feed his family.  First Nations people will also place tobacco on the ground and say a prayer as an offering when picking medicines to give thanks to Mother Earth. tobacco
Sacred Tobacco
Nicotiana rustica

Tobacco is often used as a gift.  As a traditional practice, First Nations people who seek assistance from another First Nations person such as an Elder, will often give that person some tobacco as a gift in exchange for their help.

Despite the prohibition from smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public place in the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, a First Nations person has the right to use tobacco if it is being used for traditional cultural or spiritual purposes.  First Nation residents of hospitals (public and private), long-term care homes and psychiatric facilities have a right to be provided with an indoor area to use tobacco for these purposes.  Click here for more information about the Smoke-Free Ontario Act and traditional tobacco use.

Want to learn more about traditional tobacco use? Visit www.tobaccowise.com
References:

Don’t Misuse Tobacco:  Keep it Sacred.  Assembly of First Nations, 2002.

Offerings:  Traditional Use of Tobacco and Smoke.  Community Health Associates of B.C., 2005.
 

 

 

 

Last Revised/Reviewed
Friday, 2010-03-05 3:32 PM