Pipestone,
MN In the southwest corner of Minnesota, thousands of visitors
each year take in the Pipestone National Monument's untouched prairie
and its famous red rock.
The
Pipestone National Monument is a compact park, about 300 acres,
loaded with history. Bordering the city of Pipestone, it's mostly
open prairie that looks much like it did before European settlers
arrived.
For
centuries, Native Americans have placed great religious significance
on the pipestone found here. They've quarried and carved the stone
into pipes and other objects, and the practice continues today.
Scattered
across the park's grassland are its famous pipestone quarries --
more than 50 of them. Travis Erickson, who was born and raised in
Pipestone, works in one of them.
"I've
been carving pipes for about 30 years, hand-quarrying the stone
for 35 years," he said.
Erickson's
quarry is one of the largest at the Pipestone National Monument,
17 feet deep and more than 50 feet wide. Other nearby quarries are
much smaller, some just a few feet across.
Quarrying
Only
American Indians can quarry here, and they need to apply for a permit
to do so. Erickson is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton tribe, and
his annual permit allows him to mine as much pipestone as he wants.
But
it's slow, hard work. Crouching at the bottom of the quarry, Erickson
points to a layer of pinkish red rock.
"This
is what I'm after. Pipestone rock, in this section where we're at,
runs between 14 to 16 inches thick," said Erickson.
The
red stone is trapped underneath a rock known as quartzite. As his
ancestors did for centuries before him, Erickson works to remove
that quartzite. He sweeps stone fragments and dirt off the rock
until he locates a crack in the quartzite.
In
ancient times, Indians might simply have dropped large rocks on
this sort of fissure, hoping to crack it open.
Erickson
has better tools. He hammers a steel wedge into the opening, but
the stone refuses to budge. Erickson keeps at it, breaking loose
quartzite until he can free the slab of pipestone.
It
looks like simple physical work, but Erickson says there's a spiritual
component as well.
"It's
very spiritual. Your own personal connection to the earth mother,
to the quartzite, to the pipestone rock," said Erickson. "The
benefit of it all is you get a sense of oneness with everything
here."
That
sense of Indian spirituality is at the heart of the Pipestone National
Monument. Native Americans believe the red pipestone is the blood
of their ancestors. Pipes carved from the rock are used in religious
ceremonies, and the smoke carries prayers up to the Great Spirit.
Herbert
Hoover, historian
Herbert Hoover, a history professor emeritus at the University of
South Dakota, says it was the Sioux Indians of the upper Midwest
who consecrated the location.
"I
think that it's easy to reason, and I've heard many medicine men
say this -- that that is the most important sacred site in historic
Sioux country," said Hoover.
Hoover
has a direct link to Indian spirituality -- his father was a member
of the Ioway tribe. Hoover has visited Pipestone many times, but
he says the most important trip was in the early 1970s.
At
that time, there was a resurgence in American Indian spirituality
taking place. Federal suppression of Indian religious practices
was loosening. Native Americans were revisiting their traditional
ways.
It
was in this climate of change that Hoover drove to Pipestone in
1971 with several Indian spiritual leaders. Hoover recalls the group
had a specific goal as they approached the historic location.
"It
was, in fact, to build a sweat lodge," said Hoover, "and
to reconstruct what had happened, early in the century. Before they
mined the sacred stone, they would have to build a sweat lodge and
pray before they mined it. But that had all fizzled out and stopped."
Hoover
says reconnecting the act of quarrying with spiritual rituals was
an important step, something that continues today at the monument.
He says Pipestone offers to Indians what people of other faiths
feel when they visit an important religious monument.
"When
we went to Pipestone, that was like going to Calvary," said
Hoover. "It was like going back to where Jesus came from, because
this is the sacred pipe, the channel that we have to God."
Sitting
in a booth at the Pipestone National Monument's visitors center,
Travis Erickson is carving a pipe bowl out of a piece of red rock
he's quarried.
"Somebody who makes a pipe and sells it for money is doing
more damage than good."
- Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader
"I
carve the eagle head pipes, I carve a man wrapped in a bear hide.
You can see part of the man's face underneath the bear's nose there,"
said Erickson. "I carve a lot of different things because I
enjoy that."
Besides
the spiritual, there's also a commercial side to pipestone. Erickson
and other quarriers often sell the pipes and other items they make
to the public.
This
business side of quarrying has caused divisions, because some Indians
believe selling pipestone is wrong. Erickson says it's traditional.
He says researchers have found centuries-old items made from Minnesota
pipestone all over the continent.
"Pipestone
rock from this area, as far as we know, was traded throughout the
United States, Canada and even down into Mexico," said Erickson.
But
some traditional Indian spiritual leaders oppose selling the stone.
Arvol Looking Horse is one of them. He lives on the Cheyenne River
Reservation in South Dakota, where he's the keeper of his people's
sacred pipe.
Looking
Horse says the pipestone found in other parts of the U.S. was given,
not sold, to those tribes. He says selling pipestone corrupts traditional
Indian spirituality.
"Somebody
who makes a pipe and sells it for money is doing more damage than
good," said Looking Horse. "Once money is on your mind,
the spirit doesn't come back to help that person."
The
National Park Service has refused to wade into the issue. It says
the quarries are open to all U.S. tribes, each of which follow their
own beliefs on the issue of selling pipestone.
The
Oracle
Glen
Livermont, the monument's current superintendent, says more Native
Americans than ever are applying for a quarrying permit.
"Right
now there's 100-plus names on the waiting list for that permit,"
said Livermont. "And that alone means someone may have the
wait of 10-plus years."
Livermont
says besides quarrying, Indians use the park land for other traditional
practices, including religious ceremonies.
Each
year at Pipestone there are at least two Sundance ceremonies, one
of the year's most important spiritual events for traditional indians.
Sweat lodge ceremonies are held, as well as fasting observances.
The
general public also makes good use of the park. On a late summer
day, several groups of grade school students are at the monument.
The
school kids walk down a path bursting with history. They pause where
artist George Catlin stood in 1836, when he first sketched the quarries
and popularized them in the western world. They pass through a natural
prairie area, brightly colored with more than 100 species of plants.
And
then they walk past a rock formation known as The Oracle. The stones
form a face. Legend says if you're very quiet The Oracle will speak
to you -- about life and about the history of this piece of earth.
All
you have to do is listen.
For
more information about Pipestone National Monument: http://www.nps.gov/pipe/index.htm
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