Chanunpa, the Sacred Pipe
Mythological Narrative
The chanunpa is kept in two parts and becomes a sacred instrument only when joined: a bowl carved of catlinite, the red claystone quarried at Pipestone, Minnesota, standing for the earth and the flesh and blood of the people; and a wooden stem standing for all that grows. The holder fills it with a blend that includes red willow bark, points the stem to the four directions, to the sky, and to the earth, and the rising smoke is understood as visible prayer traveling straight to Wakan Tanka. Lakota tradition holds that this instrument was placed in the people's hands by White Buffalo Calf Woman in a year of famine, together with the Seven Sacred Rites, from the sweat lodge to the Sun Dance, each of which turns on the pipe.
The original Calf Pipe she left is said to have passed down an unbroken line of keepers. It rests today at Green Grass on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota with Arvol Looking Horse, the nineteenth keeper, who received the charge in 1966 at the age of twelve and who established June 21 as a World Peace and Prayer Day.
The pipestone quarry is itself sacred ground: for thousands of years the Plains nations have cut stone there for pipes, and even warring parties meeting at the quarry were bound to keep peace. The site became Pipestone National Monument in 1937 and Native quarrying rights continue there. The painter George Catlin depicted the quarry in the 1830s, and the stone's scientific name, catlinite, preserves his own.
Academic Discussion & Critique
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