A TIME TO WATCH THE EARTH
Rex Burress
I've been watching earth-things since March 9, 1933, when I was born on my Grandfather's farm in Grundy County, Missouri.
When Dad rented a farm of his own three years later, I began watching the earth more intently for nature neighbors living around adjacent No Creek. The soil seemed so simple in those days of sod-buster plows pulled by horses, and there were no pipeline complications in the deep loam, although an Indian 'peace pipe' or arrowhead artifact might be uncovered.
Thus it was that 'pipes' came to mind, fueled by the possibility of a new pipeline right here in our Butte County soil! Paradise is trying to figure out what to do with their increasing sewage, and a pipe from Paradise to Chico disposal facilities is being considered. Sewage and waste is a major problem of heavily-populated cities, and often the solution is a pipeline. Of course we know about oil pipelines and the conflict with modern Native American water supplies near their reservation in North Dakota, but even under my house there are not only sewer pipes, but water pipes and gas pipes and probably some pipes I don't know about. The trouble is pipes are not forever and tend to leak from rust and rumble.
I wonder if all parties in the North Dakota skirmish have sat down in a ceremonial circle and passed the peace of a Ceremonial Steatite Peacepipe? We know steatite more as soapstone, consisting mostly of the mineral talc. My shelf is full of soft soapstone seals that I've carved with my pocket knife. On the 1-10 scale of rock hardness, 10 being diamonds, pure talc is number 1. Soapstone is metamorphic and can also contain chlorite, mica, and magnesium.
The soapstone I used was found on Mill Creek that feeds into the Feather River Canyon. The stone is spiked with serpentine and other minerals that give it interesting color and a degree of hardness, but still feels waxy like soap. Some of my 'seal on rock' carvings are on display in the Feather River Nature Center as well as a large soapstone bowl that you can see when the Center reopens. The road is closed until the flood-damaged pavement is repaired, sorry to say.
A type of red soapstone called catlinite is found near Pipestone, Minnesota, where the soft rock was quarried by various tribes to make ceremonial pipes. It was neutral territory where all indigenous peoples of the Americas could mine, and was designated as Pipestone National Monument in 1937.
On my computer desk sits a dull red cut block of the pipestone, sent to me by my cousin Al Tolle when he once visited the monument. We both grew up in rural Grundy County, MO with a keen interest in Indian artifacts, and he thought I could carve a figure on the already drilled piece he bought near the monument. While easy to work when wet, the aged piece has hardened too much for carving, but nevertheless it is a sample of that environment.
The ceremonial pipe ingredients for smoking included wild tobacco, along with other herbs such as red willow bark, dogwood bark, bearberry leaves, white sage, and sumac, a mixture called kinnikinnick.
Two native tobacco plants that were used in pipe ceremonies grow in Butte County, including the coyote tobacco, Nicotiana attenvata, and Indian tobacco, N. bigelovia. A third Nicotiana “Tree Tobacco,” is a tall invasive plant from South America, and some grows along the Diversion Dam trail. All three species are pungent and poisonous, members of the nightshade family that includes the deadly Datura jimson weed and Solanum nightshade.
“Smoke the pipe of peace, bury the tomahawk, and become one nation”--Zebulon Pike
“The dose makes the poison; the dosage makes everything either a poison or a remedy.” --Paraceisus