Solstice in Pipestone 2001

They came from New York, Illinois, South Dakota (one via New Mexico!), Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, Washington State and Misssouri. They came to pray and see Pipestone all in their own way. What a wonderful group of people, everyone got on, and we all enjoyed each other's company and stories.

At sunrise people did their own thing, some joined Chuck Derby (Dakota) and myself (Gloria - English) in our ceremonies, others did prayers in their room, tent, under a tree or close to the sacred quarries. One lady did an eclipse Ceremony during the night, so we honoured the sun and the moon between us.

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The night before I had found a very large part of a tree that was about to be burned, it was hollow and it seemed to call to me to save it. I asked some of the Dakota Community to help me with it's removal, and as we were struggling with it another man turned up at the burn pile and asked if we needed help..... we did. So he got some chains from his vehicle and put it through the tree and Chuck pulled it out with his vehicle. When we actually got to see it we found that there were small shoots growing from it so part of it was still alive. We took it to the powwow grounds. It was here in the hollow that I placed my ancestors photos and items, (trees are sacred to Druids and the old ones of England,) Chuck followed suit and others put items on the bark of the tree. The tree part that was supposed to be burned became our altar and the Center of our Ceremonies.

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Exactly as the sun rose I did a Druidic ceremony from my land, I invited the ancestors to join us for our ceremonies during the day and welcomed the Sun on the day of it's highest point, by the time I had finished others had joined us. Chuck then did a Pipe ceremony and invited those with us to join him, which they did. He asked for Peace on Earth, and for the Earth Mother, and we joined our prayers with his as we smoked the Sacred Pipe.

Just as we had finished and Chuck had shaken hands with us all, we looked up as it had started to sprinkle lightly with rain and we saw that a rainbow had appeared, one end was close to us and the other end looked as if it was in the Sacred quarries. Of course everyone was thrilled, such a beautiful end to the ceremonies that had taken place and many photos were taken that early solstice morning by people who didn't mind the rain and were full of Spirit that emanated from that place and the Ceremonies that had been done.

It rained quite hard at that point a gift from the Creator and so after feeling the refreshing, life-giving, water on our faces we all took shelter in the long house structure until it decided to stop, we drank coffee and chatted, marvelling at the beautiful rainbow that had stayed for so long, at one point it threw a reflection of itself out and we just all stood and stared.

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Once the rain had stopped we all went for breakfast at Gannons. (Thank you Gannons for the great food, and for allowing us to stay for so long!) From there everyone visited the Little Feather Center for a while to learn about the local history and the Original Native Americans who have lived in Pipestone since 1927. It was fun showing them around the Museum and pointing out pictures of Chuck's ancestors, one of whom had come to Pipestone with her family to quarry when she was 12 in 1862. They were shown the steps to quarrying and pipemaking and they were amazed at the work that it entails. Once the Museum tour was done we went to visit friends who were quarrying, this was a great visit as none of the people had ever seen a quarry before and were amazed at the work that had to be done to reach the stone. Like the quarrier said, 'That's why there are no five dollar pipes!'.

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Before we knew it it was almost midday and time for the final part of the Ceremonies, so we all went back to the Spirit of Peace grounds to complete the ceremonies in the traditional way.

Before we started we again looked up and there was a eagle flying above us, just circling, we welcomed the winged one and thanked it for it's presence. We continued with the Ceremonies, first I did the mid-day Druidic tradition, (both sunrise and noon Ceremonies have been performed in Stonehenge in England on the Solstice, our highest religious day of the year, for many thousands of years,) and then Chuck did another Pipe ceremony again inviting all those present to join in. As the Ceremonies ended we looked up to see what had happened to our Eagle friend and saw him flying away to the west, he had stayed around watching us while the Ceremonies took place and then went back to where he lived in the west.

The People did the same thing, some left straight away, some browsed around Pipestone, some came back to the Center and some just stayed at the grounds and relaxed.

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It was a wonderfully fulfilling day, we made great friends, and performed powerful Ceremonies. Ancestors were with us as was the rainbow and eagle.

Thank you to all who travelled so far to be here for this special time, one of the people present said friends were saying to her that she didn't need to travel so far to pray she could do it where she was, but she said she would never have found what she did find had she not come to Pipestone.

We hope to do this again next year, so keep watching this space as the saying goes.

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Barbara it was great actually getting to meet you, after months of emails and phone calls.

I hope all who attended had safe trips home and that you will all return again to visit with us.

Blessed Be! Mitakuye Oyasin!

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Thanks to the Calumet and Super 8 for the hospitality they showed our guests.