A Message from Garcia: Gift of the Sacred Pipe

Orvil Looking Horse, Green Grass, South Dakota is the keeper of the Sacred Pipe. How the Seven Council Fires (Oceti Sakowin) received the Sacred Pipe has been passed down for generations.

The bowl of the pipe is made from Catlinite a soft stone obtained from a quarry located near Pipe Stone, Minnesota. The keepers of this site were the Yankton Sioux Tribe but were forced to sell it to the United States Government, who created a Federal Park. The story starts with the Great Flood who drowned people all over the world, because The Creator was disappointed in the way humans were living, not praying and fasting as they were instructed to do. The Red Stone is from the blood of the original people. Over this red layer is a cap of Quartzite representing the bones of the bad humans who drowned. Only Indigenous people are permitted to mine the Catlinite. They cannot use power tools, but sledgehammers and recking bars. Once this red stone is exposed to the air it begins to harden. However, anyone can purchase art objects and pipe bowls made by local Dakota craftspeople at the parks gift shop.

In a You Tube video which featured Keven Locke, a respected elder, he relates the narrative of how a sacred woman brought gift to the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires). Many, many moons in the past a band of Lakota were starving, they could find nothing to eat. Keven Locke explains in not so many words that something was wrong. The great plains were teaming with wildlife, especially buffalos. Perhaps humans were not following the Creators guidance. This band of people sent out two scouts, young men, who traveled many miles ahead, searching for something to eat. They spotted something way off in the distance. One said it must be an enemy, the other said no, the lone object is coming towards us. Slowly but surely the object came on as the two scouts stood waiting. It was a beautiful woman; she was seen as vulnerable to attack. One of the scouts approached her with an evil mind and was enveloped within a white cloud. When the cloud dissipated a pile of bones was seen. The other scout became scared, the woman spoke saying she had a sacred gift for his people. Telling him to run to his people and prepare for her coming. The scout reported to this Lakota band what happened, and they all prepared by getting the camp presentable as well as themselves. She quickly arrived carrying an object wrapped in a bundle. She gave the bundle to the leader / chief named Tatanka Wosula Najin, (Buffalo Standing Upright). The gift was the Ptehincala Canumpa, (Pipe of the Buffalo Cow). She said her name was Ptehincala Skawin (White Buffalo Cow Woman). She told the people how to care for the pipe, its rules and regulations. She then started to depart and turned into a White Buffalo Cow (Ptesanwin) telling the people she would return (Told by Wica Isnala [Lone Man] Teton Sioux Music)

To be continued.