Monday, May 14, 2007

Pipestone National Monument, a Peaceful Place in Southwestern Minnesota

Pipestone National Monument is located in Pipestone, Minnesota near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For countless generations it has been a place of peace, a neutral zone, where all Indians could come and obtain the sacred red pipe stone for their peace pipes.  Shown here is Todd Lone Wolf, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe of the Great Sioux Nation, a Dakota Sioux, preparing the soft red stone for carving. He makes gift items for the store at the National Monument. For the last 2000-3000 years Native Americans have visited this place. The quarrying of the pipe stone is specifically reserved for Indians of all tribes, under the regulations of the Secretary of the Interior. The National Park Service administers this site; there is a 4-5 year waiting list of Native American tribal members wanting to obtain a permit to quarry pipestone at the Monument.

The artist George Catlin, who visited this site in 1836 was the first Euro-American to visit  Pipestone. He sent a sample of the stone to a geologist for analysis, who named the stone "Catlinite" in his honor. Catlin was a friend of William Clark, who as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, issued him a pass to visit Indian Country. Many of Catlin’s paintings are on display at the Renwick Gallery, a Smithsonian Institution art museum located near the White House in Washington D. C.  The Smithsonian has an excellent website for the paintings of George Catlin, including a gallery of his paintings and classroom instruction.  This link will allow you to view 34 Catlin images, including his portrait of William Clark, and a view of Sergeant Charles Floyd’s grave site near Sioux City, Iowa. Long before it became America’s first national monument, Sgt. Floyd’s grave site was a "must see" destination. To learn more about the nearby area, visit Region Five (Nebraska/Iowa) and Region Six (South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota) of the Lewis and Clark Road Trips website Trip Planner. The area surrounding Pipestone National Monument is well worth a visit of several days. Each year, Pipestone stages an annual outdoor pageant, The Song of Hiawatha, on the last two weekends of July and the first weekend of August. The pageant has been staged annually since 1949. I hope to be able to attend it this year.

Posted by Kira Gale on 05/14/2007 at 09:02 AM

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