The calumet, so often mentioned in early American records, was not a pipe, but an elaborately decorated shaft, pierced like a pipe stem, to which a pipe bowl was not necessarily attached. The name itself is not of Indian origin, but is a Norman-French word meaning a reed or tube. J. N. B. Hewitt says, “From the meager descriptions of the calumet and its uses it would seem that it has a ceremonially symbolic history independent of that of the pipe; and that when the pipe became an altar, by its employment for burning sacrificial tobacco to the gods, convenience and convention united the already highly symbolic calumet shafts and the sacrificial tobacco altar, the pipe bowl; hence it became one of the most profoundly sacred objects known to the Indians of northern America. As the colors and other adornments of the shaft represent symbolically various dominant gods of the Indian pantheon, it follows that the symbolism of the calumet and pipe represented a veritable executive council of the gods. Moreover, in some of the elaborate ceremonies in which it was necessary to portray this symbolism the employment of two shafts became necessary, because the one with its colors and accessory adornments represented the procreative male power and his aid, and was denominated the male, the fatherhood of nature; and the other with its colors and necessary adornments represented the reproductive female power and her aid, and was denominated the female, the motherhood of nature. “The calumet was employed by ambassadors and travelers as a passport; it was used in ceremonies designed to conciliate foreign and hostile nations and to conclude lasting peace; to ratify the alliance of friendly tribes; to secure favorable weather for journeys; to bring needed rain; and to attest contracts and treaties which could not be violated without incurring the wrath of the gods. The use of the calumet was inculcated by religious precept and example. A chant and a dance have become known as the chant and dance of the calumet; together they were employed as an invocation to one or more of the gods. By naming in the chant the souls of those against whom war must be waged, such persons were doomed to die at the hands of the person so naming them. The dance and chant were rather in honor of the calumet than with the calumet. “The Omaha and cognate names for this dance and chant signify ‘to make a sacred kinship,’ but not ‘to dance.’ This is a key to the esoteric significance of the use of the calumet. The one for whom the dance for the calumet was performed became thereby the adopted son of the performer. One might ask another to dance the Calumet dance for him, or one might offer to perform this dance for another, but in either case the offer or invitation could be declined.