Note 28 — LETTER—No. 54.
Reading edition
On my return from the Pipe Stone Quarry, one of the old chiefs of the Sacs, on seeing some specimens of the stone which I brought with me from that place, observed as follows:—
“My friend, when I was young, I used to go with our young men to the mountain of the Red Pipe, and dig out pieces for our pipes. We do not go now; and our red pipes as you see, are few. The Dah-co-tah’s have spilled the blood of red men on that place, and the Great Spirit is offended. The white traders have told them to draw their bows upon us when we go there; and they have offered us many of the pipes for sale, but we do not want to smoke them, for we know that the Great Spirit is offended. My mark is on the rocks in many places, but I shall never see them again. They lie where the Great Spirit sees them, for his eye is over that place, and he sees everything that is here.”
Ke-o-kuck chief of the Sacs and Foxes, when I asked him whether he had ever been there, replied—
“No, I have never seen it; it is in our enemies’ country,—I wish it was in ours—I would sell it to the whites for a great many boxes of money.”