| For some cigar and tobacco shops, a Cigar Store | | | | Using axes, chisels, and mallets on white pine, the |
| Indian sits outside the door. While this can easily be | | | | wooden figures were carved and then painted in a |
| viewed as an unwanted stereotype on the Native | | | | tapestry of folklore, fine arts, and popular culture. In |
| American community, it is also a part of cigar and | | | | addition to wooden Indians, carvers also produced |
| tobacco history. As some of these wooden Indians | | | | wooden sports figures, politicians, high society |
| appear inviting, happily greeting any incoming | | | | women, and Scotsmen. |
| customers, others appear defensive, as if guarding | | | | |
| the store from shop lifters, thieves, and No Smoking | | | | What They Looked Like |
| ordinances. However they appear, they appear often: | | | | The first wooden Indians were both male and |
| Cigar Store Indians have become advertising icons in | | | | female, allowing the seller to choose which gender |
| the world of tobacco. | | | | they wanted to help market their goods. When the |
| | | | wooden Indian craze first began, the female wooden |
| Just like candy-caned barber poles have become | | | | Indian was used four times more often than the |
| synonymous with barber shops, and talking lizards | | | | male wooden Indian. While female wooden Indians |
| have become synonymous with car insurance, these | | | | were occasionally carved with a papoose, and |
| wooden Indians have become synonymous with cigar | | | | donned with a headdress of tobacco leaves instead |
| stores, historically serving as an advertisement that | | | | of feathers, male figures were often dressed in the |
| tells the masses where tobacco is sold. Nowadays, | | | | traditional warbonnets (a ceremonial headdress) of |
| however, the Cigar Store Indian is used less as a | | | | the Plains Indians. |
| form of advertisement and more as a form of | | | | |
| decoration, one that brings dimension and culture to | | | | Present Day |
| tobacco's colorful past. | | | | The height of the wooden Indian fad took place in |
| | | | the 1800's, with a carved statue standing outside |
| How They Began | | | | nearly every tobacco shop in America. However, in a |
| When Native Americans introduced tobacco to the | | | | sad parallel to Native American history, the wooden |
| European populace, they adopted the role as | | | | Indian was often mistreated, damaged by |
| spokespeople for the cigar industry, forever making | | | | passer-bys. Because of this, the beginning of the |
| their culture intertwined with the culture of tobacco. | | | | 1900's marked an end to this popular form of |
| Because of this, a visual picture of an Indian was | | | | tobacco advertising. |
| often used to tell the masses, highly illiterate masses, | | | | |
| where they could purchase tobacco. | | | | In today's day and age, with a greater amount of |
| | | | people literate, the need for a visual advertisement |
| The 17th Century Europe marked the first time | | | | waned, sidewalk obstruction laws, and high |
| sellers of tobacco used a wooden Indian to peddle | | | | manufacturing costs, the Cigar Store Indian is not as |
| their product. However, because those who did the | | | | common as it once was. Some still do stand outside |
| first carving had not actually seen a Native American, | | | | cigar shop doorways, but many others stand inside |
| the first wooden Indians that sat on stoops of the | | | | museums, representing a part of tobacco history. |
| cigar stores of Europe often appeared to be fanciful, | | | | Another reason for their disappearance is the |
| fictional characters. Yet, by the time the wooden | | | | sensitivity of the subject. While some people view a |
| Indian made its way to America, it began to take on | | | | Cigar Store Indian as a stereotype, others view it as |
| a much more genuine, authentic appearance. | | | | part of cigar lore and a laudation for a group of |
| | | | people who introduced the blissfulness of tobacco to |
| How They Were Carved | | | | an unknowing culture.Jennifer Jordan is an editor and |
| While some Cigar Store Indians were made of cast | | | | staff writer for At home in a design firm in Denver, |
| iron, most were made of wood. The majority of | | | | Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer |
| them were made by artisans or professional carvers. | | | | things in life. |