The pipe is a highly respected symbol of Cheyenne and Arapaho traditions. This pipe and pipe bag are personal possessions of guest curator Gordon Yellowman. The bag was handmade by Virginia Old Bear, an Arapaho woman from El Reno, Oklahoma, and the pipe was handcrafted by Terry Simpson of Norman, Oklahoma.

The smoking of the pipe is a solemn religious and personal ceremony. First, the owner touches the bowl to the earth four times and tells the grandfathers to smoke. Then he smokes silently to offer respect to the spirits that live in the four corners of the earth––the holy men of the North, the water creatures of the East, the four-legged creatures of the South, and the birds of the West.

General Custer smoked the sacred pipe with Stone Forehead, Keeper of the Sacred Arrows and leader of the Cheyenne in March 1869. Custer was seeking a truce with the Cheyenne to make them surrender without a fight. An agreement was made through the ceremonial smoking of the sacred pipe.

After they finished smoking, Stone Forehead emptied the tobacco ashes on Custer's boot. He told Custer that if he ever lied to the Cheyenne or went against them, he would become those ashes. In the end, Custer did go against his word. He was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

On September 28, 1877, in the East Room of the White House, Arapaho Chief Sharp Nose presented a pipe and tobacco pouch to President Rutherford Hayes. This was President Hayes's first meeting with a Native American delegation, which consisted of three Arapaho and twenty Sioux people.

On December 5, 2002, Gordon Yellowman Sr. visited the East Room of the White House. He was honored to stand where his great-great-grandfather had stood 125 years earlier. Gordon was excited to be in the presence of First Lady Laura Bush, who reminded him of his mother, June Yellowman.

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