Pipestone National Monument: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Pipestone National Monument
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2024. Pipestone National Monument: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Pipestone National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 501118. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: Pipestone National Monument is a roughly 300-acre site, located near Pipestone, Minnesota, dedicated to the culturally significant landscape that has been used since time immemorial by Native Americans to obtain the soft, red pipestone from which they make pipes. The cultural landscape embraces rituals, both physical and oral, about the pipe. Because the pipe and the red pipestone itself are so sacred, the prairie landscape and distinctive rock formations found at the Pipestone Quarry constitute a sacred place for many Native Americans. The Pipestone National Monument, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Cannomok’e, holds significance for its association with the traditional beliefs and practices of various Plains Indian tribes regarding pipestone and the ceremonial use of pipes. The site's importance lies in the sacredness of the place, predating the quarrying of pipestone, with multiple epic narratives maintained within the oral traditions of affiliated tribal communities. These narratives encompass human origins, the connection of pipestone with the flesh and blood of Native Americans, and the initiation of pipe-related ceremonies. The cultural continuity of Native Americans tribes is sustained through the ongoing awareness of the sacredness of the site, manifested in the traditional practice of quarrying pipestone and the establishment of ceremonial sites. The monument also holds historical significance for its association with the Nicollet and Catlin expeditions of the 1830s, providing detailed mapping and ethnographic information about the region's Native American tribes. The establishment of the Pipestone Reservation in the Treaty of 1858 with the Yankton Sioux Tribe also adds to the historical significance of the monument. The Pipestone Reservation was taken by the U.S. government to establish the Pipestone Indian School in the northeast section, which opened in 1891. The goal of school, like other Indian schools created at the same time, was to forcibly assimilate Native American youth by separating them from their families, culture, and language. Much of the curriculum was built around job training and manual labor, with the academic content increasing over time. While historic structures and features from the school are no longer extant, many extant features were impacted by the school until it closed in 1953 including the creation of Winnewissa Falls, the damming of Pipestone Creek, and agricultural use of the land by the students at the school. Additionally, the monument reflects two eras in park design and development, notably the CCC-ID development in the 1930s and the Mission 66 and Parkscape USA programs in the 1950s and 1970s, respectively.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2024-12-19
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- MWR , PIPE
- Keywords
- American Indian, archeology, architecture, Arikara, art, Cannomok'e, CCC, CCC-ID, ceremony, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Civilian Conservation Corps, community planning and development, conservation, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, cultural tradition, entertainment-recreation, ethnic heritage-native american, ethnographic landscape, Expressing Cultural Values, Flandreau Santee Sioux, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, glacial erratic, Hidatsa, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, landscape architecture, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Sioux Indian Community, Mandan, Minnesota, mission 66, Native American, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Omaha Tribe, Otoe-Missouria Nation, Parkscape, Pipestone Indian Reservation, Pipestone Indian School, pipestone quarry, politics-government, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Indian Community, quarry, quartzite, religion, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Santee Sioux Tribe, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, Spirit Lake National, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Sun Dance, tallgrass prairie, Three Affiliated Tribes, Three Maidens, Transforming the Environment, Upper Sioux Community of Minnesota, Yankton Sioux
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 501118: Pipestone National Monument