Keepers Gathering
Annual Meetings
The Dates
July 25th – 29th with the 28th being a pow wow
We hope to have many members coming this year. Since I didn’t hear from anyone with objections or ideas I set up a loose schedule of themed get togethers for visiting, trading, working on projects (arts & crafts) and eating one of my favorite activities.
Wednesday July 25 12:00PM Prayer, craft circle, members lunch, talking circle
Thursday July 26th 12:00PM Prayer, Stone & Pipe Stem Carving / Sharing Circle/Workshop
7:00PM Welcome Dinner in Garretson for Members & Guests
Friday July 27th 12:00PM Prayer, Talking/Sharing circle, pot luck deserts (buffalo stew) 4:00 trade circle 6:00PM Keepers meeting
Friday Night Sweat Lodges Sundown
Saturday 12:00PM Prayer, Pow Wow grand entry 2:00PM booth space available all Drums & Dancers welcome
7:30PM Feast for Participants, Spiritual Leaders, Volunteers, Drums, Dancers and Elders
Saturday Night Sweat Lodge area available
Sunday 10:00am Three Maidens Prayers Quarries Ceremonies Pot Luck Feast
After ceremonies at quarries Keepers Open Meeting
Culture Camp sign in all participants
Starting Sunday after the prayers at the quarries we will plan to do sign up for the culture camp. The camp will run till Aug. 3rd We will be offering the Culture Camp to Keepers members at a reduced price. First 5 members to sign up pay only $100.00 each, additional discounted spots may be available in July. We will keep a list of members interested and can call you back if space is available two weeks before gathering. Also Keepers members if you would be willing to volunteer your skills for the camp we would love to have you.
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Lodging plan ahead for the gathering?
Lodging in Pipestone
Arrow Motel 507-825-3331
Calumet Hotel 507-825-5871
Super 8 507-825-4217
RV Campground 507-825-2455
Spilt Rock Park 507-348-7908
Also if you do not mind driving from Garretson, SD which is 25 miles from Pipestone there is a little city campground right on the river and it only costs $12.00 a day camping. I do not know if you can make reservation or if they have electricity, but this is a beautiful spot. Also Royal River Casino in Flandreau, SD. is only 18 miles from Pipestone.
Keepers Gift Shop & Gallery Hours
Monday by Appointment
Tuesday by Appointment
Wednesday 12:30 - 5:30
Thursday 12:30 - 5:30
Friday 12:30 - 5:30
Saturday 12:30 - 5:30
Sunday by Appointment
We can make arrangements to be open hours other than those posted call 507-825-3734 office
605-376-5712 Rona’s cell
Michael Yeoman’s has all his paperwork in and should be approved by the state of HI by end of May. We will then have a chapter of Keepers on the Big Island of HI.
Meeting info. & Keepers Events Page 1
Current Hours Page 1
Current Fund raising/help needed Page 2
Nothing-Random Page 2
Histories / Stories Page 3
Bead patterns / Press Release Page 4
Ojibwa drum Story Page 6
Comments to think about Page 7
Membership form / more events info. Page 8
Thanks to all those members who sent their dues and a special thanks to those that also sent a donation

A couple donations came in from members to fund the aboriginal elder, healer, and artist from Australia. (Picture above)
$1500.00 from Russ Young
$1500.00 from Bud & Rona Johnston.
The tickets have been paid for with a cost of more than $7,000.00 if you can make a donation to help pay the credit card bill for the ticket it is urgently needed. We will also need to come up with some kind of honorium to give him before he heads home. He will be arriving July 5th and staying through Aug 3.
Help at the Pow Wow
Here are some jobs, which we could use a motivated outgoing and focused member to make sure they get done. All jobs will start and end on Saturday.
Raffles sell a ticket to everyone
Arena director tell everyone what to do
Assistant MC help bud MC pow wow
Security keep eye out for problems & assist
Set up of pow wow area & clean up
Food feast for dancers, drums, & members
Someone to serve elders meals be meal host
Assistant for vendor setup tell vendor where to go, sign up, and collect vendor fees.
There are also jobs to be done Sun. – Tuesday before gathering. We appreciate any help.
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Things needing work at Keepers
Members Database that works
Set up scan system
Remodeling back room
Electrical work
Plumbing
Planting flowers
Re-staining deck
Painting doors
Articles or comments or prayers
We have continued to expand the inventory that the Keepers can buy and have been working to move the office to the back leaving more room for displaying inventory. We now have micro planes a kind of file great for carving stems. Travis uses them to carve his beautiful sumac stems with the twists. We also have more bead colors. What would you like to see in the store?
Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long
string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most
seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline
structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune,
what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence
of one astonishingly frigid winter after another.
Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and
obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going
precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that
when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying
through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be
certain.
And yet there is a wonderful anarchy, in that the milkman chooses when to arise,
the rat picks the tunnel into which he will dive when the subway comes rushing
down the track from Borough Hall, and the snowflake will fall, as it will. How
can this be? If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can
there be free will? The answer to that is simple.
Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be
determined. No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant, and
time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance the enormous and
detailed canvas that we have been given - so we track it, in linear fashion,
piece by piece. Time, however, can be easily overcome; not by chasing light, but
by standing back far enough to see it all at once.
The universe is still and complete. Everything that ever was, is; everything
that ever will be, is - and so on, in all possible combinations. Though in
perceiving it we imagine that it is in motion, and unfinished, it is quite
finished and quite astonishingly beautiful.
In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter how small,
is intimately and sensibly tied to all others. All rivers run full to the
sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the
dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in
golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is perceived in
such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes apparent not as something that
will be, but as something that is.
By Mark Helprin
Endymion
Here is the myth of Endymion and Diana, as told on the shores of Saginaw Bay, in Michigan, by Indians who never heard of Greeks. Cloud Catcher, a handsome youth of the Ojibway's, offended his family by refusing to fast during Page 3
the ceremony of his coming of age, and was put out of the paternal wigwam. It was so fine a night that the sky served him as well as a roof, and he had a boy's confidence in his ability to make a living, and something of fame and fortune, maybe. He dropped upon a tuft of moss to plan for his future, and
drowsily noted the rising of the moon in which he seemed to see a face. On awakening he found that it
was not day, yet the darkness was half dispelled by light that rayed from a figure near him--the form of a lovely woman. "Cloud Catcher, I have come for you," she said. And as she turned away he felt impelled to rise and follow. But, instead of walking, she began to move into the air with the flight of an eagle, and, endowed with a new power, he too ascended beside her. The earth was dim and vast below, stars lazed as they drew near them, yet the radiance of the woman seemed to dull their glory.
Presently they passed through a gate of clouds and stood on a beautiful plain, with crystal ponds and brooks watering noble trees and leagues of flowery
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meadow; birds of brightest colors darted here and there, singing like flutes; the very stones were agate, jasper and chalcedony. An immense lodge stood on the plain, and within were embroideries and ornaments, couches of rich furs, pipes and arms cut from jasper and tipped with silver. While the young man was gazing around him with delight, the brother of his guide appeared and reproved her, advising her to send the young man back to earth at once, but, she flatly refused to do so, he gave a pipe and bow and arrows to Cloud Catcher, as a token of his consent to their marriage, and wished them happiness, which, in fact, they had. This brother, who was commanding, tall, and so dazzling in his gold and silver ornaments that one could hardly look upon him, was abroad all day, while his sister was absent for a part of the night. He permitted Cloud Catcher to go with him on one of his daily walks, and as they crossed the lovely Sky Land they glanced down through open valley bottoms on the green earth below. The rapid pace they struck gave to Cloud Catcher an appetite and he asked if there were no game. "Patience," counseled his companion. On arriving at a spot where a large hole had been broken through the sky they reclined on mats, and the tall man loosing one of his silver ornaments flung it into a group of children playing before a lodge. On of the little ones fell and was carried within, amid lamentations. Then the villagers left their sports and labors and looked up at the sky. The tall man cried, in a voice of thunder, "Offer a sacrifice and the child shall be well again." A white dog was killed, roasted, and in a twinkling it shot up the feet of Cloud Catcher, who, being empty, attacked it voraciously. Many such walks and feasts came after, and the sights of earth and taste of meat filled the mortal with longing to see his people again. He told his wife that he wanted to go back. She consented, after a time, saying, "Since you are better pleased with the cares, the ills, the labor, and the poverty of the world than with the comfort and abundance of Sky Land, you may return; but remember you are still my husband, and beware how you venture to take an earthly maiden for a wife. "She arose lightly, clasped Cloud Catcher by the wrist, and began to move with him through the air. The motion lulled him and he fell asleep, waking at the door of his father's lodge. His relatives gathered and gave him welcome, and he learned that he had been in the sky for a year. He took the privations of a hunter's and warrior's life less kindly than he though to, and after a time he enlivened its monotony by taking to wife a bright-eyed girl of his tribe. In four days she was dead. The lesson was unheeded and he married again. Shortly after, he stepped from his lodge one evening and never came back. The woods were filled with a strange radiance on that night, and it is asserted that Cloud Catcher was taken back to the lodge of the Sun and Moon, and is now content to live in heaven.
Beadwork pattern buffalo

Beadwork pattern Rose
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This has been circulating on the Internet and thought our members might be interested. It might be something that you want to investigate further
PRESS RELEASE
A meeting was convened by the Sicangu Lakota Grass Roots Oyate on October 21st,
2006, at the Rosebud Casino Conference Room located on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Reservation in South Central South Dakota. Approximately 100 people were in
attendance from the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Oyate which included Naca Itahcan
Ominiciye, Traditional Chiefs and Headsmen, Treaty councils, Tetuwan Sioux
Nation Treaty Council, Spiritual leaders and other organizations and lineal
descendants of our chiefs, elders and First Ladies of our Nation.
The highlight of discussion included: Exploitation of Sacred Ceremonies with
Wolakota Foundations' overall coordinator and promoter, Paula
Horn-Mullen and her questionable activities. Speakers on this issue were:
Vivian High Elk; lineal descendant of the pipe keepers, an enrolled
member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Stacey Low Dog, former volunteer for Wolakota Foundations' World Peace
and
Prayer Day activities, and an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux
Tribe.
Martina Looking Horse, eldest female sibling to the Keeper of the pipe,
and
an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
Francis Zephier; a concerned member of exploitation issues and an
enrolled
member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.
Vivian stated the issue being presented is an internal issue for our people and
needs to be addressed by our concerned Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation. She
expressed concern that the Protection of Sacred Ceremonies Proclamation wasn't
being adhered to by Wolakota Foundations' overall coordinator Paula Horn as the
Sacred Pipe is the center of their fund
raising activities, and that Wolakota Foundation is a non-profit, 501©(3) and is
a United States sanctioned corporation, which is a blatant violation
of our Traditional Law, which many of our ancestors fought and died for. It is
the most Precious and Sacred of all things that is for our Nation and
our Way of Life. It has been observed that the administration of this has been
for the benefit of a few individuals that surround Paula Horn.
Exploitation of the Canunnpa has been going on for years and must be
stopped.
Stacey Low Dog offered documents as evidence of the amount of monies
Paula solicited in the name of Arvol and our Sacred Bundle. She raised the
question: is the Keeper a Spiritual Leader or a Corporate Leader? As he's being
manipulated to allow this activity of exploiting the Bundle and
himself by his partner and the monies that only benefit Paula and her family.
That if anyone questions her activities she labels them trouble
makers and enemies of Arvols' and uses character assassinations to deter them.
Wolakota Foundation, under the guidance of Paula Horn has used the
Cannunpa as a marketing tool, and money making scheme that benefits none of our
people, or the youth she proposes to work with, and it is only benefiting her
and her family, as she is operating this foundation as it is a personal bank
account to do as she sees fits. She writes fraudulent proposals and acts like a
telemarketer as she is on the phone 24/7
soliciting donations for Arvol and the foundation, and shields all the calls
coming in. The financial records show Paula as the main beneficiary
of these activities.
Martina Looking Horse presented the dissension Paula has created among
her family and the accusations she has made against Martina. She has been aware
of Paula's' activities for a long time. Support was offered against the
exploitation against the bundle.
Francis Zephier stated the exploitation is not isolated to only Wolakota
Foundation and talked of ceremonies including white people. She has been
waiting for exploiting of our ceremonies to be stopped for years and that the
Cannunpa belongs to all of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation. She
stated that people with money should not be the only ones allowed to have access
to the ways of our Cannunpa. She read a written Petition being
offered to the people in attendance which was read and accepted to be put into
action immediately. She offered support against exploitation.
The Petition will be shared with the Ikce icasa/Win for signatures to be
collected. Further discussion will take place in another scheduled meeting to be
held November 18th, 2006 on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Reservation in St. Francis,
South Dakota where it was decided upon that Arvol and his partner will be
invited to attend to answer the allegations in question.
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Alfred Bone Shirt who moderated the meeting states, "She manipulated the
Keeper to engulf the Cannunpa in the laws of the United States government as it
is the basis of their 501©(3) corporation which is signed by the Keeper and
promoted by Paula Horne in a despicable, money making, marketing scheme to raise
money that only benefits her and her family, and to further her own personal
agenda. The Cannunpa is subject to the U.S. government laws as their corporation
is based on it, as well as Arvol being subjected to these laws as well."
Even though he is a recipient of a United Nations Peace award the people
presenting the award did hot do any investigations or talk to our people to see
if he is living his work among his people. The people have been living a life of
duress and poverty and there has been no easement of it through his
organization. By Paula remaining in that Sacred Area, she continues to bring
Wa'asbya to our Bundle with all of her negative attitudes and energies' she
displays. The Cannunpa is a spirit and you can't have
negative thoughts, feelings and energies' around it. The emails she puts out is
record of these energies as she's less than a 100 feet away from the pipe house.
PETITION
Whereas, on October 21st 2006, a meeting was held on the Rosebud Sioux
Tribe Indian Reservation, against the exploitation of our Sacred White
Buffalo Calf Pipe located on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in a
community called Green Grass, South Dakota and,
Whereas, on March 8th & 9th, 2003, a meeting was held on the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe Indian Reservation to protect our sacred ceremonies, due to
the different types of abuse held in our ceremonies and,
Whereas, by the imposition of Paula Horne, this meeting was hosted by the
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in support of the proposal drafted by Paula
Horne for her partner, Arvol Looking Horse, to call upon all spiritual leaders
on these issues of abuse and,
Whereas, a Protection of Ceremonies Proclamation was readily drafted and
adopted on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation without a consensus
and,
Whereas, Arvol Looking Horse took it upon himself to end this meeting on
his own consensus and,
Whereas, Paula Horne, the partner of Arvol Looking Horse
has well exploited the Cannunpa by using it as a marketing tool to capitalize
for her own personal wealth and gain, as well as for her children and,
Whereas, Paula Horne has been known by personal knowledge of family
members, relatives, Tribal and Community members of her manipulation, lies,
distortion, her negative personal traits ( arguing, condemning people, condoning
to alcoholism and drugs around the Sacred area.) and also not
respecting the laws by her keeping negativity around the sacred area and
remaining next to the Sacred Cannunpa while is in her menstrual state and,
Whereas, Paula Horne is not any person with respect toward the Sacred
White Buffalo Calf Pipe that belongs to we/all the people as a whole and,
Whereas, by the consensus of the People at this meeting, October 21, 2006
to hold Paula as a perpetrator of abuse of our ceremonies and,
Therefore, by consensus of this docket, we demand that any official by
law protect our Sacred Cannunpa and prevent Paula Horne be held accountable to
the exploitation of our Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and that she banned from
all attendance and connections to our sacred ceremonies that lie on
the LAWS and basis of our Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe and,
Therefore, be it that all signatures below agree to this petition and
shall be laid as an IKCE Wicasa/Win law to uphold this docket on this 21st day
of October, 2006.
For more information
Alfred Bone Shirt 605-208-4955
Vivian High Elk 605-856=4858
Stacey Low Dog 605-415-2721
Frances Zephier 605-491-4077
1350-1600 AD
Bandelier’s Puaray,
LA. Turtle pipe.
Los Aguajes, LA.
Feather pipe
Both excavated by
WPA in 1934
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Ojibwa Drum
We have a legend about our drum too. It's more of a story, a history of how we got our drum.(1) Like with Winibozho and Windigo we kids liked hearing about how we got the drum. We'd always ask the old folks, "Grandma," "Grandpa," tell us about how we got the drum. And most generally they'd tell us the story
Once upon a time, in the way back of the Anishinabe, the Indians, the people worked making arts, crafts, boats, canoes, beadwork, and tanned hides. One time the chiefs(2) were sitting together and everything was so quiet that one chief spoke up: "Why don't we make day-way-i-g^n, a drum? We'll make a drum, and dry it, and hit it. If anyone knows how we might make a drum he can tell us and we will all work together on it."
"What do you want a drum for?" one said.
We're getting too lonely. People are separating away from us. We want the group to stay with us. We know some songs, but we have to have a drum to sing them with. We'll have to make a drum. And we'll gather by that drum. We'll send scouts(3) out to invite the people we never met. We'll send scouts out to tell everyone that we have a new drum which was made for the purpose of gathering for acquaint ness. The scouts will go out and give tobacco, and tell the people it was made to see new friends from the surrounding area.
That happened somewhere. It isn't any story when they say the chief said, "We're getting too lonely. We'll have to make a drum." It happened. I can't tell you exactly where it happened. It's so old a story that no one can remember the spot where it took place, but it happened by a lake somewhere. See, everybody traveled by canoes those days. No one traveled by horses, or wagons, or by a saddle, or by big boats. They paddled in to wherever they were going. I think it happened more or less on Leech Lake somewhere, ya, more or less on Leech Lake. Maybe it was by the Great Lakes, I don't know. It was by big waters anyhow.
Right there, by the big waters, they decided to make a drum. They had the meeting, and sent out the scouts to notify those in the surrounding area that they were going to have a drum ready at a certain day. The Indian scouts, osh-kah-bay-s^g, the younger class, went out to give an invitation to this doing they were going to have at a certain place, at a certain time, on a certain date.
The scouts went out and said to those they met, "We all wish to meet you there. We'll have a feast for all."
It didn't take the chiefs long before they made rawhide for the drum out of moose hide. The chiefs dried that moose hide, then sun-cure it. They weather-cured it, tanned it, and sewed it together over a round wooden frame. They stitched the two sides of the drum with rawhide string all around the round wooden frame. Then they made drum beaters, sticks with buckskin on the end.
They sent the scouts out again to go as far as they could, and to tell the people to take plenty of our tobacco. The women-folk had already made the tobacco that was ordered. We believe in smoking. Most of that tobacco was ki-nik-i-nic. It was a very mild tobacco; after the later days when they got a hold of real smoking tobacco, they used it in a mixture with ki-nik-i-nic. That mixture is a peaceful smoke.
So the day came when the drum was made and they had a big session. They gathered food and the women-folks cooked. They had places for their campers to come. For those that didn't have camps, they had a place to sleep. They had a grand opening on the drum. And on that drum they sang nah-gah-mo-wIn, special songs. It was very interesting when the great chief was speaking about these songs. They had weather songs, and songs for the four-legends too. They sang a brave song, and a war cry. They sang a friendly song -- an Indian love call -- a friendly call.
Some of these songs were so peppy on the drum that the people got up and danced. They danced to the time-beat of the drum and of the singing.
They called one song a gift song. And at that gift song they had presents to exchange with one another. They all wanted the drummers to play the gift song. That's how they got acquainted. All would join hands in a circle, friendly, and dance. Before they joined, they would give presents to one another. Whoever you want to dance with, you go and give them a present -- stranger or no stranger to you at that time. You give them beadwork or whatever you have to give. That was the gift song, and they sang and sang it. Later on we called it the "calico dance" because we liked to give and get calico. Each and every one paid one another back. After they paid back in return for what they got from somebody else, they could give another gift to another party on the next gift song.
And between the gift songs, while the people were resting and thinking over other gift songs, the drummers had more brave songs. They had dance songs for the chiefs and the scouts. These were the regular songs that the men-folks danced to. Also the women danced. Sometimes the men-folks danced
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with their wives in the step of the drum. It looked so beautiful with the costumes they had on, and it was very interesting
Shows Keepers will attend
May 26-28 Hilo HI. Pow Wow
July 5 Gnarnayarraghe & family arrive
July 14 Spiritual Gathering in WI.
July 25-29th Keepers Gathering
July 29th –Aug. 2 Culture Camp
Sept.7-9 Indian Summer Milwaukee, WI.
More information for the gathering
You may want to bring a carving, scrap booking, needlepoint, knitting, painting, beading, leatherwork, or what ever you do for fun to the craft circle or carving circle. We hope this will be great opportunity for all members to sit around visit, munch, share, and learn from each other. I am hoping that Argus will again bring his inlay stuff so I can finally sit down and learn about inlaying.
Thursday we will be having a welcome dinner for members and for our friends from Australia. Bud and Rona will make a dinner for everyone. Members are welcome to bring a donation, gift, or other offering for our far away guest Gnarnayraghe, Karen his wife, and their 8-year-old daughter. You are also welcome to bring your favorite dish or desert to share but it is not necessary.
Friday I just planned a talking/sharing circle to give everyone a chance to brake out into groups interested in specific subjects or just sit around and visit with each other. The trading circle gives us all an opportunity to trade for stuff we want for some stuff we have plenty of. Bring craft supplies, raw materials, finished crafts of all kinds, books (I will have a box of books on American Indian history, spirituality and more), pow wow CD or whatever you think someone might want to trade for. We will each set up our stuff on a table or blanket, sit by it and wait for someone to make an offer or place a nametag and then walk around and find something to trade for
Also Friday we have a Keepers voting meeting we will voting on new voting members and discussing the direction the organization is going. If you want to be more involved in what Keepers is doing and want to become a voting member you will need to come to this meeting. Call Bud or Rona for more information. Friday night there will be at least one sweat lodge for member and any invited guests. Remember Keepers do not pay these people for what they do. We as a group are responsible to give what we can to help pay their expenses.
Ideas from members are needed on how to thank all our new members to the Spiritual Board of Advisors.
Look forward to seeing all of you in July. Everyone needs to know no hotels are currently available in Pipestone if you haven’t already booked a room sorry. Rooms might still be available in Luverne, MN. (25 mile) and Brandon, SD. (45 miles). Luverne has a Super 8 and Brandon has Holiday Inn Express and a Holiday Inn with a big water slide. We will have the tipi set up at the depot and you can contact Bud & Rona for more ideas about where to stay.
Also The Gathering of the Sacred Pipes Sundance is July 27- Aug 5 in Pipestone.
As a member of Keepers
I believe in preserving the sacred tradition of the pipe to all Native Americans by assuring free access to the Great Pipestone Quarries of Minnesota by members of all tribes, as they have been for time immoral and support the art of pipemaking.
I would like to be or continue to be a member of Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers.
I believe that the Great Pipestone Quarries and the Three Maidens should be maintained as a sacred site for peace among all nations. I also believe it is important to preserve each tribes unique culture, arts and stories for future generations.
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Pipes made at pipemaking class in Switzerland April 2007 Rona and Camas ran the class because Bud’s passport was lost in the mail.
The students made some beautiful pipes