Road Trip '07 - Day 10

More Sacred Ground - Pipestone, MN
Back in Minnesota we decide to make one more stop on the way home. Pipestone National Monument is among the more important cross-tribal sites. The Pipe is one of those commonalities with many different tribes in many different parts of the country.

Pipestone from this Minnesota quarry has also been found in many places far from here. It is one of many indications that the Indian cultures had a great deal of trade and communication across wide distances.

That bottom layer, the dark reddish stone, is Pipestone. This unique Pipestone is also known as catlinite, named after the white explorer who first reported on it. Unlike other red pipestones, catlinite contains no quartz. It is considered sacred - and hence appropriate for the use in pipes - because it is said to be made from the skin and blood of the ancestors.

The tall grass prairie Is a special part of the Pipestone Monument. There is restoration going on trying to bring some of t back to some of its old glory.

The moment we walked out of the visitor's center we knew we were in a special place. There was a quiet that was more than just the absence of noise. It was a quiet that was the presence of something - history, spirit, ancestors. The smell of a fresh dry prairie, the feel and sound of the breeze. We walked slowly and spoke in whispers.

The silence enveloped us with the birds and around the bend in the tree stand- water. There is a special sound of water running and rumbling over rocks. For me it is a childhood sound. But it is deeper than that- at the level perhaps of prehistory. It is the sound of refreshment and potential shade and perhaps even food. All of this in this relatively small area built on top of a deep layer of red clay transformed by time - and perhaps mystery? - into a sacred stone. You go there and, if you stop and listen, you will hear it.


Around the far end of the walk through the prairie is Winnewissa Falls.

Sadly for our walk it was at the falls that a group of three tourists caught up to us. They weren't walking slowly - nor quietly. It was almost as if they were on a race to see how much they could see in a short time. They talked about all kind of things- none of which was where they were. Well, not quite true. They talked about getting a picture and if they had missed a turn-off to get to the top of the falls. They stood around and took pictures and talked as we walked on. Eventually they passed us on the return leg of the prairie and things got quiet again.

In the visitor's center were several displays about Sacred Ground, which by now you know is important to me.

I felt sorry for the three fast-walker/talkers. This is what they missed. Or maybe they didn't because they weren't looking for this and may not even have known what it was if they came across it. Maybe, just maybe, one of them will look at the pictures they took today and feel something moving or see something unseen that will touch them in a new way. The spirit can move where it will.


But then what is the effect of tourist on sacred places. Will it turn them into the ancient museums like some of the cathedrals of Europe? Will it turn it into just another place to leave our Mt. Dew bottles when we are finished with them?

Or maybe not. Perhaps the rootedness of the Spirit in places like this will outlive us. On the Pipestone grounds are two rock formations that have been part of the spiritual life of the place. these are The Oracle - and - The Old Stone Face.

From the looks of it they have been around a long time and have withstood many things. Can they withstand human invasion, the growth of Touristan, and consumerism that finds things like this cute or quaint? I have a hunch that some tribal council of some as yet unknown tribe of some type of human may in some distant millennium still be looking for the spirit and the holiness at this sacred ground. If not, we will all be held accountable, I am afraid.

Those Prairie Skyscrapers
Traditional


postModern

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Back Home Again
Well we made it. We are home. None the worse for wear- and actually better that we have been there. Here are some of the roundup thoughts bringing it all back together.

• No fast food restaurants. For a whole week! What a change. What a welcome change. And not a bad meal all week.
  


• Nor did we shop at a Wal-Mart or a Target or even Walgreens. I think we drove by one or two of them a couple times. But don't quote me on that.


• No radio or talking books. We brought them along thinking we would need something to help us pass the day. But the scenery, the land, from the Twin Cities to Wyoming and back, was never dull, never unworthy of watching. To have to listen to something on the speakers would have been to distract from the life we were watching as we traveled. As a friend of mine used to say: the scenery was too loud for me to be able to listen to the radio. If we had spent our time in the car listening to even a good book, we would have been just traveling to get somewhere instead of letting the trip be enjoyable in and of itself. (Of course we didn't have any children with us and both of us are quite comfortable with silence and introversion-type thinking.


• We often think of "The Old West" as being out in the southwestern deserts. In reality this northern high prairie was just as much "The Old West." And it was just as wild. Actually the whole part of the country from Canada to Mexico was The West. It still is. It has a different feel than even those few hundred miles east where I live. Geography is amazing.


• When we got to Sioux Falls yesterday I realized that we had left "Touristan" and re-entered civilization. The gold rush mentality still manages to control what goes on. Today it is aimed at the tourist, not the hoped for settlers to replace the Indians. Casinos, billboards, neon, wide roads, admission prices, etc. Yet, even through that the Black Hills have their own spirit and their own life. We didn't even scratch the surface of it- we were in Touristan. But we didn't miss it entirely.

• To bring all to an end, (for today, anyway) a poem written earlier in the week. It may be the theme of this trip:

Sacred ground; Holy ground
Black Hills
A Rocky Tower or Gods Acres
Prayer Bundles or Memories

But why? Why here?
The Spirit needs to be grounded...
A place to connect.
A place that is so unique that
Only Spirit
Can be felt.

That makes no sense, my brain tells me...
But pneuma and ruach and
All other names for spirit need not
Make sense. They are beyond sense-
They are Sensual and
Spiritual and
Phenomenal.

They are holy because they have always
Been so.
Those with discernment have seen and heard
And felt it.
They have told the rest of us so
We might come here
Or go there
And become en-thused-
En-theos
In God

and filled with

God's Spirit
By whatever Name
She is called.

Me? I am not a mystic.
I don't see visions
I don't hear voices
I simply look for the next right thing
To reveal to me the Will of God.
I stumble and
I fall and
I invent and
I fail and
I create and lose sight
Of reality.

Then I stop. I go to the
Thin places and Holy sites
and Sacred grounds.

And I sit.

I write.

I ponder and look.

Within my soul it begins to grow.
Do I know what it is?
Of course not. I am too
Blind, too human to
Understand. All I know is
I am better than before I came
I am more filled than empty
I am still in the arms of
The Creator.

Miles today: 215. Total miles on Road Trip '07: 1860