Pipestone Quarry

From ancient times to the present, a pipestone quarry in southwestern Minnesota has been a sacred gathering place for Native nations from all over North America. Modern highways following traditional migration routes used by indigenous people intersect at this venerated place, designated a national monument in 1937. Dakota people called it―and still call it―Inyan Sa K'api, [the place where] they dig the red stone.

Many roads that run across North America began as the original trade and migration routes frequented by indigenous people. Highway 75 marks the trade corridor that ran southward from Canada to Mexico; Highway 30 runs east to west from Wisconsin to Wyoming. These highways intersect at Pipestone, Minnesota, a place that has come to be known as "the crossroads of the Indian world."

Since the 1700s, the quarry has been particularly important to Dakota people. Oral tradition holds that it was used before that by the Mandan, and, between 1200 and 1300 CE, by the Iowa. These and other groups mined pipestone and traded flint, obsidian, and dried meat for pipestone items.

Pipestone pipes and artifacts have been found across North America, from as far north as Manitoba to archeological dig sites at Tremper Mound in southern Ohio and Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia. In 2012, University of Illinois scientists analyzed some of the artifacts, showing that their chemical makeup matched the stone from Pipestone. This proved that trade networks extended for hundreds of miles—or that people traveled an equal distance to quarry and trade pipestone.

Europeans called the soft, red stone at the quarry catlinite after artist George Catlin, who visited the area and collected samples for analysis. It is commonly known as pipestone because of its traditional use in the creation of sacred ceremonial pipes.

Contemporary Indigenous people maintain the tradition of hand-quarrying stone using only sledgehammers and wedges as tools. Native artisans carve peace pipes both for prayer rituals and for sale. They are taught to use all the quarried stone, if possible, or return it to Mother Earth.

Pipestone has been a sacred place for millennia. Native nations agreed that fighting, warfare, and disputes of any kind would not be tolerated there. Because of the site’s cultural significance, the people of Pipestone worried about protecting its resources.

According to the National Park Service, the idea of establishing a national park at the quarry gained traction in 1890, when local advocates petitioned the U.S. Congress to create a school for Native people nearby. The bill that created the school, however, did not include language that created a park. Another bill, proposing "The Indian Pipestone National Park," was introduced in Congress in 1895, but died in committee.

An 1858 treaty between the U.S. and the Yankton Dakota had reserved the quarry specifically for Yankton people, who continued to mine pipestone there. In 1899, Congress failed to ratify an agreement between the Yankton and the U.S. government that would have ceded the land around the quarry to the U.S. After the government obtained clear title to the land, it drafted another bill in 1932 that would have created an 81.75-acre park and grant quarrying rights to all Native nations.

Superintendent James W. Balmer of the Pipestone Indian School took the proposal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) but met with objections. As a result, the local planning organization, composed of both white and Native American advocates, was renamed the Pipestone Indian Shrine Association. Its focus shifted to the historical significance of the site and its economic value to Native people. After receiving a positive response from the BIA, the National Park Service began to consider creating the proposed park.

The Civil Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps–Indian Division, under Superintendent James W. Balmer's direction, improved the quarry and surrounding area in the 1930s. Workers built roads, installed a dam, and planted trees. Senator Henrik Shipstead introduced a bill to establish the area as a National Park in 1934 and again in 1935, but neither effort succeeded.

In 1937, Congress approved a National Park bill with a provision that granted Indigenous people exclusive quarrying rights. On August 25, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill to create the 116-acre Pipestone National Monument.

In the 2010s, the quarry continues to be a gathering place. It draws an average of 75,000 visitors from all over the world each year.