ANCIENT ABOEIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 3G9 



charming "Song of Hiawatha." Even hostile tribes met here in peace, 

 tor this district was, by common consent, regarded as neutral ground, 

 where strife and feuds were suspended, that all might resort unmolested 

 to the quarry and supply themselves with the much-prized red stone. 

 This material, though compact, is not hard, and therefore easily worked, 

 and, moreover, capable of a high polish. It consists chiefly of silica 

 and alumina, with an admixture of iron, which produces the red color. 

 American, and probably also European, mineralogists call this stone 

 Catlinite, in honor of the zealous ethnologist and painter, Catlin, who 

 was the first to give an accurate account of its place of occurrence, and 

 to relate the traditions connected with the red pipestone quarry.* This 

 locality is the only one in Korth America where this peculiar stone is 

 found, and it is doubtful, indeed, whether in any other place on both 

 hemispheres a mineral substance is met which corresponds in every re- 

 spect to the one in question. 



The enterprising Jesuit missionary, Marquette, whose name is for- 

 ever linked with the exploration of the Mississippi, smoked already in 

 the year 1673 the pipe of peace with the Illinois Indians, and gives the 

 following exact description of that important utensil, the bowl of whicb, 

 it will be seen, consisted of the red stone of Coteau des Prairies. "It 

 is made of a polished red stone, like marble, so pierced that one end 

 serves to hold the tobacco, while the other is fastened on the stem, 

 which is a stick two feet long, as thick as a common cane, and i)ierced 

 in the middle ; it is ornamented with the head and neck of different 

 birds of beautiful plumage; they also add large feathers of red, green 

 and other colors, with which it is all covered."t His ecclesiastical suc- 

 cessors also frequently mention the red pipes in their writings, but none 

 of them, as far as I know, alludes to the locality where the stone was ob- 

 tained. The first notice referable to that place, I found in the " History of 

 Louisiana" by DuPratz, and even his statement is totally erroneous as far 

 as the situation of the quarry is concerned. " On the bank of the Missouri," 

 he says, " there is to be seen a pretty higli cliff (ecore), which rises so 

 abruptly from the water that the nimblest rat could not climb it. From 

 the middle part of this cliff projects a mass of red stone, which is 

 marked with white sx)ots like i)orphyry, from which it differs, however, 

 by inferior hardness, being almost as soft as tufa. It is covered by an- 

 other kind of stone of no value, and rests upon the same sort of earth 

 that forms the other hills. The inhabitants of the countrj', knowing 

 the appliciibility of that stone, are in the habit of detaching pieces of 

 it by arrow-shots, which pieces, falling into the water, are recovered by 

 diving. From fragments of sufficient size they make calumets, using 

 their knives and awls in manufacturing them. This stone can be 



■* Catlin, North American Indians, London, 1848, Vol II, Letters 54 and 55. 

 t Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, New York, 1852, p. 35. 

 24 s 



