Patricia,
Since time immemorial, Tribes have used C’an O’he (now known as Pipestone National Monument) for sacred ceremonies, prayers, sweat lodges, sun dances, and quarrying stone by hand to carve ceremonial pipes. They still do.
It’s the only place with sacred red pipestone quarry, which Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse, keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and Bundle, explains is “the blood of our people” and a “tool to heal and to doctor.” He affirms that “this is our holy land.”
With your support in 2024, our flood of public comments delayed a fossil fuel pipeline that threatened this sacred place.
Now we need to speak up again to protect Pipestone National Monument. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission opened a new public comment period for the next stage of the pipeline process, and they need to hear from you.
Will you submit a public comment opposing the oil pipeline that could destroy the sacred Pipestone National Monument?
This is an area of extreme cultural and spiritual significance for hundreds of Tribes across Turtle Island, including the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, and Ojibwe peoples. Their ability to continue their ceremonies is at risk.
We’ve partnered with the Yankton Sioux (Ihanktowan Dakota) Tribe and the Brave Heart Society, a traditional women’s society on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, in defending their ceremonial grounds from the Magellan pipeline. We are supporting the grassroots movement of Tribal leaders and Native communities across the Dakotas and Minnesota who have formed the Redstone Movement.
The 1858 treaty signed by the Mdewakanton, Sioux, and Wahpekute secured “free and unrestricted use of the red pipestone quarry.” The proposed pipeline -- with routes within and adjacent to Pipestone’s lands and waters -- would violate this treaty.
It would also violate Tribes’ inherent sovereign right to make decisions about their ancestral homelands. In addition, any pipeline rupture, leakage, or other contamination would harm the local community and nearby ecosystems, including rare and endangered species like the Topeka shiner. It would affect the health of the largest aquifer in the U.S., which 74 percent of people in South Dakota rely on for drinking water.
Back in 2024, we submitted over 25,000 official public comments to lift up the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s objections to the Minnesota Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) inadequate environmental analysis, and 24,000 sign-ons in support of the Tribe’s official request to appeal the Commission’s decision to approve the project.
The Minnesota Public Utility Commissioners said that massive public opposition to the project was an important reason why they reversed course and rescinded their approval of the pipeline’s permit.
The PUC required the Magellan Corporation to coordinate with Tribes on cultural and archeological surveys of the area -- and to center Tribes in future decision-making.
This was a major victory. But the Magellan Corporation is violating these state orders, excluding Tribes and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council from their cultural survey. What they’ve submitted is woefully incomplete and inaccurate, lacking cultural knowledge and leaving out sacred sites.
We only have until the afternoon of Monday, June 22 to submit public comments urging the MN Public Utilities Commission to reject the corporation’s unacceptable survey and deny the pipeline’s permit.
Please sign now to submit a public comment calling on the Public Utilities Commission to protect Pipestone National Monument by denying the oil pipeline permit.
Hawwih (thank you) for taking action today to protect this sacred place and defend Tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, and Mother Earth. Please spread the word and forward this email to your friends.
Here’s a photo of one of our National Organizers, Lonnie Provost (Ihanktonwan Oyate), with the Brave Heart Society and members of the Yankton Tribal Historic Preservation Office at Pipestone National Monument, on the same day they made public comments against the Magellan pipeline project:
Together we will continue to support the movements against corporate polluters that try to desecrate our lands and waters for profit. We will keep partnering with Tribal Nations to win and defend victories, while growing the collective power that we need in order to keep winning.
Judith LeBlanc (Caddo)
Executive Director
PROTECT SACRED PLACES
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