This earliest known type of smoking instrument in North American is associated with American Indians of the Mid-Archaic period; and is often found with Glacial Kame burials in the Northern states of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
This tapered tubular pipe is made of weathered slate and was found in St. Francis County, Arkansas. Frequently a small pebble was placed in the air-hole, near the mouth end to prevent burning embers from being inhaled. The air holes were hand drilled with reeds using sand as an abrasive. Flint tools may have been used to expand the bowl.
A variety of fragrant barks and plants were probably smoked by these ancients for medical purposes, religious trances, and internal purification by vomiting.