$531 Linda Rodefer, Buffalo Woman (Santee, 20th century) Carved
Catlinite Pipe Bowls, lot of 3, carved of classic designs and imagery; all signed or hallmarked, length 4.5 in., 8.5 in., and 9 in., 20th century.
The kit includes two quartzite hammerstones and an unfinished possibly
catlinite bannerstone, found on what seems to be a production floor.
Before the area became a national monument, we always took home a few hunks of
Catlinite to carve.
What captured my imagination was a nearby "living museum" at a
catlinite stone quarry.
While, again, smoking tobacco and other non-intoxicating herbal mixes is fairly ubiquitous in classical Indian Country contexts, the specialized pipe of the Plains, consisting of a long (usually eight to eighteen inches, with the longer being the standard) thin stem made from hollowed cottonwood, and a separate, carved stone (a red soapstone known as
catlinite is standard) t-shaped or elbow bowl, is most often found in urban Indian contexts.
"Since Dad's been away," said Mam with mounting anger, "you haven't written once." And she reminded him of some of the presents Dad had sent: a Red Indian peace pipe made of red stone "
catlinite", after a visit to an Indian Reservation; a jacket each, American style, with four pockets and a zipper (a great novelty, this) down the front; small specimens of gold ore from a gold mine in the Rocky Mountains...
An object may be at the same time a
Catlinite disc pipe but also an object worthy of respect because of its placement within a Native culture.
The stone, called
catlinite after explorer George Catlin but simply pipestone by the first people of this land, has unique qualities that make it ideal to carve and use.
Every summer at powwows and festivals across the country, hordes of white wannabes appear wearing buckskin and embroidered headbands, brandishing buffalo skulls and
Catlinite pipes, eager to participate in sun dances, vision quests and sweat lodge ceremonies.
Display often pipe tomahawks and one
catlinite pipe; each with a typed description, average length of tomahawk 5.5 in.; included is "Special Award" ribbon from Alicia & Don Bullock's Santa Monica Indian Ceremonial, January 23-24-25, 1976, framed 17.5 x 15.25 in.