262 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



There is a general impression among those who have Avritten on 



the snbject that tlie discovery and use of the red 



Antiquity pipestone by the tribes is of comparatively recent 



date, and this is no doubt correct; but it is equally 



certain that it was in use before the arrival of the whites in the 



Northwest. This is made clear not only by history and tradition but 



by the appearance of the ancient quarry excavations, and especially 



by the presence in burial mounds in various sections of the country 



of pipes and other objects made of the stone by aboriginal methods. 



This quarry is usually referred to as the sacred pipestone quarry. 



According to statements by Catlin and others, the site 



Tiie Quarry Neu- ^^ \ie\([ in much supcrstitious regard by the aborigi- 



tral Ground ^ i t -i • i i 



nes. Traditions ot very general distribution lead 

 to the belief that it was, in the words of Catlin — 



held and owned in common, and as a neutral ground amongst the different 

 tribes who met here to renew their sacred calinnets under some superstition 

 which stayed the ti»mnhawk of natural foes always raised in deadly hate and 

 vengeance in other iilaces.^ 



Xicollet states- that Indians of the surrounding nations made an 



i'.nnual pilgrimage to the quarry unless prevented by 



Property of the ^^..^^.^ ^^. jisseusions. Siuce the earliest visits of the 



SlOl'X ... 



white man to the Coteau des Prairies, however, the 

 site has been occupied exclusively by the Sioux, and Catlin met with 

 strong opposition from them when he attempted to visit the quarry 

 about 1837. 



Tlie following facts regarding tlie historic occupancy and owner- 

 ship of the pipestone (juarry are extracted from a 

 Government Con- statement verv geuerously furnished by Mr. Charles 

 II. Bennett, of Pipestone: 



On April 30, 1803, the region was acquired by the United States through the 

 Louisiana purchase. On July 23, 1851, the lands, including the quarry, were 

 relinquislied to the United States by the Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux, and on 

 August T) they were relinquished by the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Sioux, 

 and 64 chiefs and head warriors who had also a claim. A treaty with the 

 Yankton Sioux, ratified April 19, IS-IS, specities that " the said Y^ancton 

 Indians shall be secured in the free, and unrestricted use of the red pipestone 

 quarry, or so nuich thereof as they have been accustomed to frequent and use 

 for the imrjiose of procuring stone for iiiites; and the United States hereby 

 stipulate and agree to be caused to be surveyed and marked so nmch thereof 

 as shall be necessary and projier for that inu'pose, and retain the same and keep 

 it open and free to the Indians to visit and procure stone for pipes, so long as 

 they shall desirt." In ISnO, 1 square mile, including the quarry, was surveyed 

 as a reservation. 



^ Catlin, North American Indians, ii, 201. 



- Report to Illustrate a Map of the llydrographkal Uasiu of the Upper Mississipiii 

 River, p. 15. 



