Animal or Effigy style pipes cover a vast domain. Most of the pipes that you see for sale on this website will be a type of Plains style pipe. These are pipes that are most commonly used among the "Plains" tribes. (which include the Sioux Nations) However, you will occasionally see a style that is more common to the Southeastern tribes.
On this site, if you keep checking back, You will see Eagle Claw Pipes, Buffalo Effigy Pipes, Bear Pipes, Turtle Pipes, and a host of pipes with different animal figures on them. They are a favorite of ours to make, but because of the time involved in each piece, it is often difficult for us to keep a large inventory of effigy pipes.
Effigy pipes among the Plains Indians have had special significance, since the coming of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Black Elk mentions in one of his books that the first pipe brought to the Sioux, depicted a buffalo calf on it.
Effigy pipes are often made to be large ceremonial pipes, but we occasionally make effigy pipes that are only 12" long. (including the stem) The smaller pipes present some interesting challenges sometimes that the larger ones don't.
The larger effigy pipes that you'll see on this site will make great pipes for ceremony and the smaller versions of this style are often purchased when an individual wants to gift a personal pipe to someone and they know which animal has special significance to that person. A "personal pipe" generally will be used for prayer by a single individual or maybe occasionally with a close friend.
We love to hear from potential customers who have unique ideas, or who have received a vision of a particular pipe and want to share that with us. When we do hear from people like this, often it is because they want to know if we can help them out by way of working with them to make the pipe of their vision, but sometimes, it's simply to share an idea with us and encourage us to implement it into a pipe that we might be working on in the future. We do like to hear from people like this, because as artists, we sometimes are only as good as the ideas that are presented to us.
If you see a thumbnail of a pipe that interests you, or one that you think you might want to purchase, just click on the thumbnail and you'll be able to get more information about that particular pipe.
Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us and if you decide to purchase an effigy pipe or any other item from us, it comes with a "no questions asked" guarantee. We will refund your money, or replace your item, for up to 6 months on any purchase, as long as it is returned to us in the same condition that it was sent. We want you to be 100% pleased with your purchase and we want to assure you that we stand behind our products!
If you see any specific pipes that interest you and you have any questions that you want to ask before purchasing the item, please
Contact Us and we will return your email or telephone call as soon as we receive it.
If you are interested in more than one item on our site, or are having your item shipped to a country other than the U.S., you can also get a hold of us to get an accurate shipping cost. We are always delighted to combine shipping on multiple purchases, in order to save you some $$$.
