For over 3,000 years, Indigenous peoples have quarried the red stone (catlinite) from this site to make smoking pipes. Used exclusively during prayer and ceremonial occasions, the carved stone pipes are part of a millennia-old tradition that has endured into modernity.

According to Native American beliefs, the people and the pipestone were made of the same material – now, only those from the tribal nations affiliated with the quarry can remove its stones for this purpose.

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