Dakota pipemakers are worried that important tribal traditions will be lost unless a younger generation takes interest.

Gloria Hazell and Chuck Derby, husband and wife, actively quarry in Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. They want to pass their teachings to other Dakota people but no one responded when they sent letters to 30 tribes.

"The younger generation doesn’t want to do it,” Hazell told .The Worthington Daily Globe “When (the current quarriers) go, I don’t know what’s going to happen to the pipes. Without the quarrying, we won’t have a pipe, and the pipe is integral to all Native American ceremonies.”

It takes about a month to learn how to make pipes and to understand their significance. “We’re losing quarriers, pipe makers, and at the same time we’re losing spiritual leaders,” said Derby.

Only members of federally recognized tribes can obtain a permit to quarry in the monument.

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Pipestone honors its traditions (The Worthington Daily Globe 7/27)
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