Stogie Commentary: The Cigar Store Indian Mystery

Much like the florescent glowing hue of the neon beer sign calls alcoholics into bars, the wooden cigar store Indian is the siren of stogie aficionados. These three dimensional, often life-sized sculptures are as synonymous with tobacconists as barber shop poles are with barbers. But what’s the story behind this centuries-old, mysterious emblem?

The history of the cigar shop Indian dates back to the early 1600s in Europe. Indians were widely associated with tobacco because they introduced the miracle crop to Europeans. And due to widespread illiteracy among the general population at the time, shop owners made it a habit to link their goods and services to easily recognizable insignia. So it was simply inevitable that tobacconists start using Indian figurines and statues to advertise their products to an uneducated populace.

But because only a handful of Europeans in the seventeenth century had ever really seen a Native American, early cigar store “Indians” looked more like Africans dressed up in Indian regalia. These initial carvings went by the monikers of “Black Boys” and – due to the tobacco-rich Jamestown settlement – “Virginians”. Eventually, as Europeans became more exposed to Native Americans and their culture, the carvings evolved into more accurate depictions of Indians.

Earlier cigar store Indians were almost entirely female (often depicted with a papoose), but it seems as though their male counterparts now dominate the tobacco advertisement industry. And while sidewalk obstruction laws have forced many American tobacconists to move their sculptures indoors (thanks again, paternalistic government, for looking out for our “interests”), today no stogie shop is complete without one.

As factions of a hyper-sensitive society call for the banishment of cigar store Indians (as they do our sports mascots), these intricate carvings remain the proud symbol of an honorable trade – beckoning Stogie Guys into tobacconists the world over.

-Patrick A