Yes, Pipestone was Indian Country, Sioux Land to be precise, 150 years ago. The land was pristine, the water pure and the air fresh and clean.

Back then if you walked over the prairie, overflowing with wild flowers and herbs, you would see butterflies and dragonflies floating above your head, all you would hear would be songbirds, and the buzzing of insects........ watch out for mosquitos though, they are nasty!

You could walk easily thru the terrain close to what is now Pipestone, the area was fairly flat and mostly grassland. Suddenly you hear voices, and wonder where they are coming from, you draw closer....... As you get nearer the sound you see a number of people milling around a campsite, tipis are set up around a fire that is smoking well, children are throwing silvery plants into the fire and you wonder what is going on.

You can clearly see that these people belong to a Native American Tribe but you don't know which Tribe. You can hear them speaking to one another and you recognise the language as Dakota Sioux.

As you watch you see women preparing hides and what is probably a meal, all the time they are keeping close to the smoke. Soon men begin to come into the campsite, they look tired and grubby, they sit down around the firepit and begin chatting to the women.

It looks very peaceful, and you wonder if you should go and try to join them, maybe you will find out more, but you are scared, you have heard all sorts of stories about Indian people, and you don't know if you should believe them or not. Your fear gets the better of you and you back off away from the area.

You circle around some trees and hear water running, the sound is refreshing, and so you decide to go towards it. Once there you follow the stream and come across a rock face, which is unusual in such flat ground. Climbing up on the top carefully you can see all around, you lie flat on the ground and watch.

You notice different groups of people scattered in campsites, all of them Indian. Closer to the rock face you are amazed to see people in small openings in the ground, they are breaking away some of the stone that surrounds them and to you it looks like hard work.

Suddenly you hear a loud whoop and you see a man holding up something that looks red in color. He then falls to the ground and then again holds his arms up to the sky. It looks like he is praying. Others joined him, then they all walk away, back to one of the campsites..........

What you just experienced was the way quarrying has been done thru the ages. The men would quarry and the women would camp with the children away from the quarry area.

The boys would hunt for small game and the women would prepare the food.

Small children would collect a certain plant and throw it on the fire, because the smoke would then keep the flies and mosquitoes away from the people. In the summer biting flying insects can make life really miserable, and this smoke was a boon.

Indian people always prayed before, during and after quarrying. They would often work in small groups and they hoped that the Great Spirit would smile on them and provide the pure red stone so that they could make Pipes for their Tribe.

The stone lay under a very hard rock and it was difficult to get to. They worked very hard for their stone. They still do.

Today the Pipestone Quarries are still available for Native American people to come and dig for their stone. The same tools and basics are used to reach the Catlinite stone. It can take weeks to reach.