This first link gives some of the early history of colonization of the Pipestone area and quarry .
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(edited to fix dead links and add additional info )Pipestone Administrative History
CHAPTER II:
CLEARING FEDERAL TITLE 1858-1928
http://web.archive.org/web/20040905041939/www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/pipe/adhi2.htm
In the next link below , there is a history of how several Native families in the area of Pipestone MN , turned to selling souveniers and trinkets to tourists to make a living , and how this economic activity has been encouraged by the largely non native values of the National Parks Service . It also gives a detailed explanation of the conflicts that have come up , as this has grown into a cultural industry that desecrates the values of many traditionalists .
CHAPTER VI:
"AN INDIAN-ORIENTED PARK": NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE MONUMENT
http://web.archive.org/web/20050906051350/www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/pipe/adhi6.htm
As this was written by the National Parks Service which controls the quarry , I think in some areas , the article might be a bit biased , but for the most part I found it really informative .
NPS article chap. 6
In 1986, the first inkling of a movement to restore the quarries to Native American hands surfaced. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a resolution to prohibit the sale of objects and pipes made of pipestone. Their complaint was that the material from the quarries was sacred, and treating pipestone as a commodity instead of religious material was sacrilegious. The following year the Yankton Sioux took this concept further. Victor Provost, vice-chairman of the tribe, filed a petition with Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, that cited the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in an effort to wrest the monument from NPS control.
NPS article
The position of the Park Service differed from that of the Yankton Sioux. The organic legislation that established the monument preserved the right to quarry for all Indians, not just the Yankton.
NPS article
The legal settlement in 1928 extinguished Yankton claims to the land. As a result, religious traditions other than the Yankton were represented among quarriers at Pipestone. Some of these had no problem with the marketing of artifacts.
NPS article
The Yankton perspective dated from the end of the eighteenth century, when they established hegemony over the quarry and prevented others from using the stone.
NPS article
From the Park Service perspective, the agency served as a guardian of the place, preventing internecine cultural conflict from affecting its use. With the NPS at Pipestone, all Native Americans had equal access to the quarry.
NPS article
The Park Service had successfully maintained a neutral position in what had become an inter-Indian cultural dispute
I noticed this article repeatedly alleges that the Yankton Sioux , who were objecting to the commercial use of the Stone , had prevented other tribes from using the Stone .
This allegation seems to conflict with other information . For example ;
http://www.utulsa.edu/law/classes/rice/USSCT_Cases/Yankton_Sioux_v_US_272_351.htmYankton Sioux Tribe of Indians v.United States.No. 250.Argued Oct. 7, 1926. Decided Nov. 22, 1926
“The pipestone quarries are of great antiquity. There the tribes, from time immemorial, have been wont to gather, under solemn truce, to quarry the stone, which is of a quality and texture not found else *357 where, and mold it into pipes – the Indian symbols of peace. A great store of Indian myth and legend is associated with the spot, and it always has been regarded by the tribesmen with sentiments bordering upon religious reverence. “
http://www.pipestoneminnesota.com/museum/history2.htm Another account was recorded by author George Catlin during his visit to the quarry in 1836:“At an ancient time the Great Spirit, in the form of a large bird, stood upon the wall of rock and called all the tribes around him, and breaking out a piece of the red stone formed it into a pipe and smoked it. He then told his red children that this stone was their flesh, that they were made from it, that they must all smoke to him through it, that they must use it for nothing but pipes; and as it belonged alike to all the tribes, the ground was sacred and no weapons must be used or brought upon it.
It seems other tribes were always allowed to access this stone for religious purposes, and I am not sure why the NPS is alleging the Yankton prevented other tribes from doing this . The dispute mainly seems to be around using this Stone commercially . As the NPS has actively promoted this commercialization for decades , I don't think it is accurate for it to try and claim it is in a "neutral position" .
There is also quite a few people in the area , who descended from a Dakota family, that made their living quarrying Pipestone and selling this and Pipes .
http://www.littlefeathercenter.com/ Unlike the "Keeper" group, these folks don't try and say the stone itself isn't Sacred , and instead they use this as a part of their sales pitch.
What they are doing is obviously controversial , as most of the website is dedicated to trying to defend selling Pipestone and Pipes . As Debbie mentioned , it must be really difficult for the current generation to understand , why people feel this is wrong , when their families have been doing this for generations .
I'm not sure when these sales became openly contentious , or what was thought of this when it first began .
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(edited to reduce rambling and include additional information )
I guess in any society there is different types of people , and some groups of people tend to be more Spiritually inclined than others so , I'm not sure it is right to try and say that the actions of a few impoverished people , who lived in a mostly non native community, and who went through the cultural disruption of being put through boarding schools , can rightly pointed to as an example of what Elders generally saw as the respectful way to distribute and use this stone .
Prior to the 1960's , most of the strangers who bought these items , would never have used them in an imitation of a Sacred Ceremony. Probably no one at the time could have imagined these commercially produced Pipes , being used in inappropriate ceremonies , would ever seriously intrude on the basic value structure of the culture .
There is also the fact that up until 1978 , it was illegal to Pray in traditional ways , so whatever people who retained their traditional values felt about commercialization , it is doubtful they would have felt safe to express those feelings .
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:kPyblWijxYMJ:www.sacredland.org/resources/bibliography/
Irwin.pdf+before%22Indian+Religious+Freedom+Act%22+Pipe&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=ca“Perhaps the most suppressive laws regarding religious freedom were those promulgated by the Bureau of IndianAffairs for the Indian Courts, known as the Indian Religious Crimes Code. These laws were first developed in 1883 by Secretary of the Interior Henry Teller as a means to prohibit Native American ceremonial activity under pain of imprisonment. (con..)
“Medicine men—
Any Indian who shall engage in the practices of so-called medicine men, or who shall
resort to any artifice or device to keep the Indians of the reservation from adopting and following civilized habits and pursuits, or shall use any arts of conjurer to prevent Indians from abandoning their barbarous rites and customs, shall be deemed guilty of an offense, and upon conviction thereof, for the first offense shall be imprisoned for not less than ten days and not more than thirty days: Provided that, for subsequent conviction for such offense the maximum term or imprisonment shall not exceed six months. 27
"Missionary zeal specifically targeted Native religions as the bane of all civilized Christian ideology. Subsequent missionary activities caused “fractions, feuds and schisms, discredited popular leaders and imposed new ones on the Indians and in scores of ways undermined and weakened the unity of the tribes.28
"Indian ceremonies were banned, religious practices disrupted, and sacred objects destroyed or confiscated "
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These people who are selling this stone say that their skills are needed to quarry the stone . The say because of the large amount of time and commitment to a particular quarry , the people who do this work , need monetary compensation to pay their living expenses for the time they spend working. If this is true , and these people who work in the quarries on a regular basis are the only people who have the necessary skills to access this stone , needing enough money to cover living expenses , when their time is taken up working at this , seems to be a very reasonable requirement . But this still doesn't explain why they are creating work for themselves that doesn't need to be done , by actively encouraging people who have no cultural need for a Pipe or Pipestone , to buy this anyways.
It sounds like this Dakota group might have more of a connection with the local traditional people, than the group which calls itself "The Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipe Makers ". The descendants of the Dakota in the area , are at least attending council circles with recognized community Elders who have concerns about the commercialization that is happening .
http://littlefeathercenter.50megs.com/councilcircle.htmlI think it is most important to support the traditional people who wish to see the protocols around the use of this Sacred Stone respected , but reading through all this , I can see it is a complicated situation , which gradually evolved over time , and there seems to be a lot of confusing gray areas .
The "Keepers" group is discussed in more detail in the link below ;
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=332.0
