Pipestone Quarry and Westward Expansion: Whose Rock is This Anyway?
Objectives: Students will be able to:
Skills Addressed: Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal.
Interdisciplinary Connections: History, Geography, Sociology, English/Language Arts.
Length: Five to six fifty-minute class periods.
Materials: Internet access; for the timeline portion, students provide their own art materials. For a class-wide timeline instead of a group timeline, provide a big piece of butcher paper or an accordion of white paper taped together in a long line (this can be stretched out or compressed into a book).
Products: Several journal entries, collaborative timeline.
Content Introduction: By examining several primary documents, students will seek to understand the events at Pipestone Quarry and what may have caused them. Pipestone Quarry in Pipestone, Minnesota, bears the mythic red Sioux quartzite called Pipestone or Catlinite. From this sacred rock, peace pipes are wrought for a variety of Plains Indian tribes. Pipestone Quarry is still considered a sacred site by the Indians, and today it is part of the protected lands of the National Park Service. The site is accessible to a regulated number of Native American rock harvesters.