370 ANCIENT ABOEIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



worked without difficulty and resists the fire very well."* Leaving aside the 

 incorrect description of the locality and of the character of occurrence, 

 the stone here mentioned corresponds exactly to that of Coteau des Prai- 

 ries, the latter being, indeed, very often marked with lighter (though 

 not white) spots, which give it a perfectly porphyritic appearance. 

 I have seen many raw pieces of the red pii)estone and have some my- 

 self, in which this peculiarity is prominently exhibited. The unworked 

 stone is usually of a dull pale red, the heightened color appearing only 

 after the process of polishing. 



Carver, who explored the region of the Upper Mississippi in 1766-'68, 

 mentions the red stone, but does not seem to have visited its place of oc- 

 currence, which he marks on his map as the "Country of Peace." He 

 also states distinctly in his work that ev^en individuals belonging to hos- 

 tile tribes met in peace at the "Red Mountain," where they obtained the 

 stone for their pipes.t This shows that, at his time, the neutrality of the 

 district was still respected. This laudable regulation, it also appears, 

 had not yet become obsolete in the beginning of the present century, 

 for on the map accompanying the work in which Lewis and Clarke 

 describe the territories explored by them in 1804-'6, the locality in ques- 

 tion is thus designated : "Here the different Tribes meet in Friendship 

 and collect Stone for Pipes." Yet, about forty years ago, when Catliu 

 visited the Coteau des Prairies, the warlike Sioux or Dakotahs had 

 usurped the exclusive authority over the quarry, not permitting their 

 enemies to provide themselves with stone. Catlin and his English 

 traveling companion encountered at first difficulties on their way to the 

 quarry, a band of those Indians trying to prevent them from going 

 there. "As this red stone," the warriors said, "was a part of their 

 flesh, it wofild be sacrilegious for white men to touch or take it away; a 

 hole would be made in their flesh and the blood could never be made to 

 stop running."! When, subsequently, after Catlin's return from the 

 quarry, an old chief of the Sacs saw some pieces of the red stone in the 

 traveler's possession, he observed: "My friend, when 1 was young- I 

 used to go with our young men to the Mountain of the Ked Pipe and dig 

 out pieces for our pipes. We do not go now, and our red pipes, as you 

 see, are but few. The Dakotahs have spilled the blood of the red men on 

 that place and the Great Spirit is oftended."§ 



Mr. Catlin is of opinion that the Indian quarrying operations at 

 Coteau des Prairies reach back into far remote times, basing his view 



* Du Pratz, Histoire de la Loiiisiaue, Paris, 1758, Vol. I, p. 326. The passage in 

 question is not quite clear. It remains doubtful whether DuPratz, in speaking of the 

 stone resembling ^lorphyry, relates what he has heard himself, or alludes to the jour- 

 ^nal of M. de Bourgmont, to which ho refers on the preceding page. The last-named 

 cavalier undertook, in 1724, an expedition to the country of the Padoucas, or C'o- 

 mauches. The erroneous account may be due to the natives, who purposely misplaced 

 the locality of the quarry. 



+ Carver, Travels, p. 78. 



t Catliu, Vol, II, p. 166. 



5 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 171- 



