What is Pipestone all about?
For hundreds of years Native Americans came to the quarries, (George Catlin called the place the ‘Red Pipe Stone Quarry’) where the Pipestone National Monument is today, to dig for the red rock (Catlinite) from which the bowls of their Sacred Pipes are made. They would make long journeys to get to the Sacred land from all over the country, and would stop and pray to the Great Spirit four times on the journey, the last time just outside of Pipestone. They would pray that they would be successful in their quarrying. All weapons would be buried before they reached the area, because it was an unwritten law that no fighting should go on in Pipestone, it was and still is a beautiful place of peace.
