Pipestone National Monument is located in southwestern

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, just north of the city of

Pipestone, Minnesota Pipestone is a city in and the county seat of Pipestone County, Minnesota. The population was 4,215 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is also the site of the Pipestone National Monument. History Pipestone was platted in Oc ...

. It is located along the highways of

U.S. Route 75 U.S. Route 75 is a north–south U.S. Highway that runs in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is located at the Canadian border near Noyes, Minnesota, at a now-closed border crossing. From this point, the highway ...

Minnesota State Highway 23 Minnesota State Highway 23 (MN 23) is a state highway that stretches from southwestern to northeastern Minnesota. At in length, it is the second longest state route in Minnesota, after MN 1. This route, signed east–west, runs roug ...

and

Minnesota State Highway 30 Minnesota State Highway 30 (MN 30) is a highway in southwest and southeast Minnesota, which runs from South Dakota Highway 34 at the South Dakota state line near Airlie, west of Pipestone, and continues to its eastern terminus at its in ...

. The quarries are culturally significant to 23 tribal nations of North America. Those known to have actually occupied the site chronologically are the

Yankton Dakota The Dakota (pronounced , or ) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Wester ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, and

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

peoples. The

Quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

were considered a

neutral territory Border control comprises measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it als ...

in the historic past where all tribal nations could quarry stone for ceremonial pipes. The

catlinite Catlinite, also called pipestone, is a type of argillite (metamorphosed mudstone), usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux Quartzite. Because it is fine-grained and easily worked, it is prized by Native Americans, prim ...

, or "pipestone", is traditionally used to make ceremonial pipes. They are vitally important to

Plains Indian Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...

traditional practices.

Archeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeolog ...

believe the site has been in use for over 3000 years with Minnesota pipestone having been found in ancient

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

s across a large geographic area.

History

From the 15th to 18th centuries the

Iowa people The Iowa, also known as Ioway or Báxoje (, "grey snow people"), are a Native American tribe. Historically, they spoke a Chiwere language, Chiwere Siouan language. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes: the Iowa T ...

lived by the quarry. By the late 1700s, the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

were the dominant tribe in the area. On October 11, 1849 the 5th Resolution passed by the

Minnesota Territorial Legislature The Minnesota Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1849 as the legislative branch of the government of the Territory of Minnesota. The upper chamber, the Council, and the lower cham ...

was to send a block of pipestone to the Washington Memorial in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It was collected by Henry H. Sibley. The red stone is referred as in the Dakota/Lakota language. In 1851 the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota signed the

Traverse des Sioux Traverse des Sioux is a historic site in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Once part of a pre-industrial trade route, it is preserved to commemorate that route, a busy river crossing on it, and a nineteenth-century settlement, trading post, and missi ...

treaty ceding southwest Minnesota to the U.S. government including the quarry. However, some of that ceded land was claimed by the Yankton people and they were not present nor signers of the treaty. To protect the site, the

secured unrestricted access via article 8 of the

Yankton Treaty The Yankton Treaty was a treaty signed in 1858 between the United States Government and the Yankton Sioux Tribe (Western Dakota), that ceded most of eastern South Dakota (11 million acres) to the U.S. Government. The treaty was signed in April ...

signed on April 19, 1858. That created a one-mile square reservation, of over 600 acres, which was encroached upon by settlers multiple times. In 1891, the United States took a 100 acre parcel of the Yankton's Pipestone Reservation to build the Pipestone Indian School. As the U.S. government started the process of taking possession of the Yankton Reservation in 1899, the quarry again reached the news. The Yankton tribe contested this seizure as illegal taking their claim to the U.S Supreme Court. The court ruled in their favor in 1926 and ordered that they be compensated. Afterwards, the land came under full control of the U.S. Government. The Pipestone Indian Training School closed in 1953 with the acreage remaining from the school transferred to the

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or Minnesota DNR, is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, rec ...

to create the Pipestone Wildlife Management Area. A boundary change occurred on June 18, 1956 with the original reservation reduced to just 108 acres. The

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

was established by an act of Congress on August 25, 1937, with the establishing legislation reaffirming the quarrying rights of the Native Americans. Any enrolled member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe may apply for a free quarry permit to dig for the pipestone. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

regularly consults with representatives from 23 affiliated tribal nations to discuss land management practices, historic preservation, exhibit design, and other facets of the park's management. The historic area is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

under the heading "Cannomok'e—Pipestone National Monument". Cannomok'e means "pipestone quarry" in the Dakota language. The pipestone quarries within the monument are also designated as a Minnesota State Historic Site.

Pipemaking

The Upper Midwest Indian Cultural Center is located inside the national monument's visitor center, and during the summer months sponsors demonstrations of pipemaking by Native craftworkers using the stone from the

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

. Local Native Americans carve the stones using techniques passed down from their ancestors. Many of the demonstrators are third or fourth generation pipe makers. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian has an extensive collection of 705 catlinite objects that it attributes to the Pipestone quarry, 585 of which are pipes. Image:Pipestone-NM.jpg, Historic pipestone quarry Image:Inlaid Pipe Bowl with Two Faces, 50.67.104 profile PS9.jpg, Inlaid Pipe Bowl with Two Faces, collected at Fort Snelling 1833-36 Image:PipeStone_NM_Minnesota_USA.jpg, Pipestone crafting demonstration at Pipestone National Monument Image:NPS Ranger Ben Butterfield holding a pipe at Pipestone National Monument. Image Number 72-289-3. (5d888c19588e4cf3b639abb64697856a).jpg, An NPS ranger holding a pipe at the quarry

Attractions

Visitors can walk along a three-quarter mile (1.2 km) self-guided trail to view the pipestone quarries and a

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

. A trail guide is available at the visitor center. About of the national monument has been restored to native

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...

. Monument staff burn prairie parcels on a rotating basis to control weeds and stimulate growth of native grasses. This habitat hosts many native wildlife species, including bird species such as

bobolink The bobolink (''Dolichonyx oryzivorus'') is a small New World blackbird and the only member of the genus ''Dolichonyx''. An old name for this species is the "rice bird", from its tendency to feed on cultivated grains during winter and migration. ...

and

eastern kingbird The eastern kingbird (''Tyrannus tyrannus'') is a large tyrant flycatcher native to the Americas. The bird is predominantly dark gray with white underbelly and pointed wings. Eastern kingbirds are conspicuous and are commonly found in open areas ...

. A larger area of restored tallgrass prairie and a small

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

herd are maintained by the Minnesota DNR at

Blue Mounds State Park Blue Mounds State Park is a state park in Rock County, Minnesota, United States, near the town of Luverne. It protects an American bison herd which grazes on one of the state's largest prairie remnants. The state park is named after a linea ...

, to the south. The visitor center features exhibits about the natural and cultural history of the site, including a display of the

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s found around the quarry. There is also an orientation video about the history of the pipestone quarries. Image:Pipestone NM Sign.jpg, Park entrance sign Image:1872 Plat of Yankton Sioux Pipestone Reservation.jpg, 1872 Land plat of the Yankton Sioux Pipestone Reservation held by the National Park Service Image:pipe_Winnewissa_falls.jpg, Winnewissa falls Image:Souix Red Quartzite cliffs of pipestone national monument.jpg, Red quartzite cliffs along the trail Image:Visitors taking photos in front of a Buffalo skin teepee in Pipestone National Monument. Image Number 74-333-23. (138db3bc9d3e493c9d99e74f639b2bdf).jpg, Visitors taking photos next to a tipi

References

External links

*
National Monument Holds Ancient Pipestone Quarries
(travel article) * {{authority control 1937 establishments in Minnesota Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Dakota Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Lakota Museums in Pipestone County, Minnesota National Park Service national monuments in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Pipestone County, Minnesota Native American history of Minnesota Native American museums in Minnesota Pipe smoking Protected areas established in 1937 Protected areas of Pipestone County, Minnesota Quarries in the United States Religious places of the Indigenous peoples of North America

History

Pipemaking

Attractions

See also

References

External links