hair pipe

English
A man wearing a breastplate made with white hair pipes.

Alternative forms

Etymology

Obscure, possibly from hair +‎ pipe, as a description of one of its uses. Earliest known usage from 1767.[1]

Noun

hair pipe (plural hair pipes)

  1. A type of long, cylindrical bead from North America used in the creation of personal adornments, principally by Native Americans.
    • 1850, Caleb Atwater, “Rudiments of the Grammar of the Sioux Language”, in The Indians of the Northwest: Their Maners, Customs, &c. &c,‎, Columbus, →OCLC, page 168:
      Wampum, Weoka / “ hair pipes, Waebosndata
    • 1882, “XXIV: The Bench and Bar of Bergen County”, in W. Woodford Clayton, William Nelson, editors, History of Bergen and Passaic Counties‎, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, page 107:
      About 1850 he, in connection with his brother James, invented a machine for drilling wampum hair-pipe, which is manufactured from conch-shells and clam-shells.
    • 1977, Ronald P. Koch, “5: Native Ornaments”, in Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians‎, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 41:
      The Kiowas used brass earrings, from each of which was suspended a hair pipe, which in turn supported a brass chain with a German-silver ornament at the end.
    • 2012, “Powwow Dance”, in Elizabeth DeLaney Hoffman, editor, American Indians and Popular Culture‎, volume 1, Preager, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 299:
      Straight dancers wear ribbon shirts with bandoliers made of bone hair pipes and beads, generally from one to four strands wide, […]

References
  1. David E. Jones (2004) “The Horse Warriors: The High Plains Culture Area”, in Native North American Armor, Shields, and Fortifications, first edition, Austin: University of Texas Press, →OCLC, page 42: “The first use of the term “hair-pipe” in the Indian trade was recorded in 1767 and referred to silver tubular beads traded to Indians in the Ohio Valley.”

Further reading
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