Catlinite

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Native American, Plains (unidentified). Pipe Bowl representing Owl, early 20th century. Catlinite or pipestone, 3
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3/4 x 5
3/8 in. (9.5 x 13.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum WLA brooklynmuseum Native American Plains Pipe Bowl representing Owl.jpg
Native American, Plains (unidentified). Pipe Bowl representing Owl, early 20th century. Catlinite or pipestone, 334 × 538 in. (9.5 × 13.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum
Protohistoric Catlinite pipe, probably late 17th century Ioway, from the Wanampito site in Iowa. Iowa catlinite pipe wanampito.jpg
Protohistoric Catlinite pipe, probably late 17th century Ioway, from the Wanampito site in Iowa.

Catlinite, also called pipestone, is a type of argillite (metamorphosed mudstone), usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux Quartzite. Because it is fine-grained and easily worked, it is prized by Native Americans, primarily those of the Plains nations, for use in making ceremonial pipes, known as chanunpas or čhaŋnúŋpas in the Lakota language. Pipestone quarries are located and preserved in Pipestone National Monument outside Pipestone, Minnesota, in Pipestone County, Minnesota, and at the Pipestone River in Ontario, Canada.

Contents

Name

The term Catlinite came into use after the American painter George Catlin visited the quarries in Minnesota in 1835; but it was Philander Prescott who first wrote about the rock in 1832, noting that evidence indicated that American Indians had been using the quarries since at least as far back as 1637.

Catlinite properties and quarries

Ceremonial pipe bowl of catlinite used by Black Hawk, on display at Black Hawk State Historic Site in Illinois. Black hawk calumet.jpg
Ceremonial pipe bowl of catlinite used by Black Hawk, on display at Black Hawk State Historic Site in Illinois.

Minnesota catlinite is buttery smooth and can be cut with a regular hacksaw or even a knife. It comes out of the ground a pinkish color often with a cream layer protecting it from the hard quartzite. It is weaker and more subject to breaking under stress than Utah pipestone. [1] Most catlinite deposits exist beneath the level of groundwater or are in deep enough layers where the soil is constantly moist as the iron compounds which give catlinite its red color quickly convert into iron oxides when exposed to the elements and the stone degrades and breaks down.[ citation needed ]

The red catlinite from the Pipestone, Minnesota quarries is a soft claystone bed which occurs between layers of hard Sioux Quartzite. [2] Only hand tools are used to reach the catlinite so it takes a long time to get to it. Only enrolled Native Americans are allowed to quarry for the stone at the Pipestone National Monument, and thus it is protected from over-mining. Another quarry is located near Hayward, Wisconsin on the reservation, which the Ojibwa have used for centuries. The stone there is harder than the stone from Pipestone National Monument.[ citation needed ]

High grade red pipestone from Delta, Utah. Pipestone1.jpg
High grade red pipestone from Delta, Utah.

Utah pipestone has a more variable range of hard and soft forms, since it occurs as layers between deposits of harder slates. Utah pipestone is a by-product of slate mining in Delta, Utah, and several natural deposits have been mined and used for pipemaking by Native Americans in the area for millennia.

The Canadian quarry is no longer used, although there are quarries in Canada where another type of pipestone, black stone, is gleaned. The Ojibwe use both the red and black stone for their sacred pipes.

Catlinite is often used to make the hollow tubes in pipeclay triangles.

Other varieties of pipestone

A large range of pipestones exist, not just those in Minnesota, and numerous Native American tribes use a variety of materials in addition to catlinite for pipemaking.

Pipe clay

Smoking pipes molded from wet clay are different from those where the bowl is carved from solid pipestone and then fitted with a wooden stem (as is the case with Catlinite pipes).

The Eastern Band Cherokee are social smokers, and use molded clay pipes for this purpose.

In the United Kingdom, since the 17th century "pipe-clay" has meant a pale, whitish clay. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "fine white kind of clay, which forms a ductile paste with water". It is traditionally used for all sorts of polishing and whitening purposes as well as for making tobacco pipes and pottery.

Notes

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pipestone, Minnesota</span> City in Minnesota, United States

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Pipestone may refer to:

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Pipestone National Monument is located in southwestern Minnesota, just north of the city of Pipestone, Minnesota. It is located along the highways of U.S. Route 75, Minnesota State Highway 23 and Minnesota State Highway 30. The quarries are culturally significant to 23 tribal nations of North America. Those known to actually occupied the site chronologically are the Yankton Dakota, Iowa, and Omaha peoples. The Quarries were considered a neutral territory in the historic past where all tribal nations could quarry stone for ceremonial pipes. The catlinite, or "pipestone", is traditionally used to make ceremonial pipes. They are vitally important to Plains Indian traditional practices. Archeologists believe the site has been in use for over 3000 years with Minnesota pipestone having been found in ancient North American burial mounds across a large geographic area.

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Pipeclay may refer to:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux Quartzite</span> Type of quartzite rock

The Sioux Quartzite is a Proterozoic quartzite that is found in the region around the intersection of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa, and correlates with other rock units throughout the upper midwestern and southwestern United States. It was formed by braided river deposits, and its correlative units are thought to possibly define a large sedimentary wedge that once covered the passive margin on the then-southern side of the North American craton. In human history, it provided the catlinite, or pipestone, that was used by the Plains Indians to carve ceremonial pipes. With the arrival of Europeans, it was heavily quarried for building stone, and was used in many prominent structures in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and shipped to construction sites around the Midwest. Sioux Quartzite has been and continues to be quarried in Jasper, Minnesota at the Jasper Stone Company and Quarry, which itself was posted to the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1978. Jasper, Minnesota contains many turn-of-the-century quartzite buildings, including the school, churches and several other public and private structures, mostly abandoned.

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Cresson is an unincorporated community located in Pipestone County, Minnesota, United States. The elevation is 1,673 feet. Cresson appears on the Elkton SW U.S. Geological Survey Map.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">World's Largest Peace Pipe</span>

The World's Largest Peace Pipe is a statue of a ceremonial pipe in Pipestone, Minnesota, United States. It began with a vision shared by three spiritual people: one Lakota and two Anishinaabe. The pipe stands on the grounds of the historic Rock Island Railroad depot near the entrance to Pipestone National Monument, home to the Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers. The location of the giant peace pipe is significant; the pipestone quarry nearby is known as "the crossroads of the Indian world." The soft red catlinite from the quarry has been used by American Indians for thousands of years to create ceremonial peace pipes.

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