Minnesota Profile: Pipestone

By Mary Hoff

Characteristics

Pipestone, also known as catlinite, is a fine-particled version of the type of rock known as metamorphic claystone. It lacks silt-sized particles and consequently is soft and can be readily carved with harder stone or metal tools. Pipestone's color ranges from brick red to mottled pink and gray.

Where Found

Metamorphic claystone is found throughout the Midwest. The best known location in Minnesota is at Pipestone National Monument in the southwestern part of the state. Here the pipestone is found one to six feet or deeper beneath the surface in several layers sandwiched between layers of Sioux quartzite.

Geological origin: The story of Minnesota's pipestone begins between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion years ago. Slow-moving water, probably in a lazy river or along an ocean shore, deposited fine, clay-sized particles containing iron in what is now the southwestern part of the state. Over millions of years, heat and pressure transformed these particles into rock.

Uses

American Indians from three dozen tribes quarry pipestone and carve it into ceremonial tobacco pipes. The Indian people regard the site and every bit of pipestone as sacred. They use only hand tools to quarry and carve the stone. Pieces left over from pipe carving are sometimes made into small bear or turtle effigies. The Minnesota deposit is considered particularly valuable for carving because it is fine textured and close to the surface, making it easy to obtain and work. Archaeologists have found evidence that people were using pipestone from the southwestern Minnesota site as early as A.D. 900. During the 1800s the North West Company carved and distributed some 2,000 pipes throughout the upper Missouri River basin.

Lore

American Indian legends recorded by early American artist George Catlin say that the Great Spirit fashioned a pipe from pipestone and gave it to his people, telling them that they were made from this stone and that they too should make pipes from it. Catlin also noted that the Indian people who used the Minnesota quarry considered it sacred.