Runners trek 800 miles to Pipestone Monument in Minnesota

Friday, June 17, 2011  

A group of tribal members from South Dakota are wrapping up an 800-mile run to the Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota.

The group started on the Yankton Sioux Reservation on June 5. They've made their way through blistering heat and torrential rains on the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Lower Brule, Crow Creek and Flandreau Santee Sioux reservations.

The runners will reach the monument today. They will present a position paper to the National Park Service, calling for a ban on the sale of sacred pipestone for commercial purposes.

"It's like a desecration of someone's religion," runner Dennis Rouse told The Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "(Pipestone) is not to be used for anything other than ceremony."

The Yankton Sioux Tribe supports the position paper but other tribes have different views on the sale of the pipestone.

Get the Story:
Tribal group runs with purpose (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 6/17)