Quest for the Pipe of the Sioux, by Wilbur A. Riegert
My grandfather Wilbur A. Riegert, who wrote this wonderful book, passed away before he saw this work published. He passed the rights to my mother, Jean M. Fritze, and together she and I represent his book.
Although we are Ojibwa from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, Wilbur had cultivated a greater affinity for our brothers and sisters of the Lakota. He spent his life collecting artifacts, stories, images much of which had been housed in the museum at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, the most memorable home of my childhood.
In this book Wilbur shares the story of his journey to understand the power of the Sacred Calf Pipe and the wisdom of the White Buffalo Maiden who gifted this remarkable pipe to the People.
We have a limited number of copies available. They are $30 each (includes handling) plus $4.80 for Flat Rate domestic shipping.
Quest
for the Pipe of the Sioux - As viewed from Wounded
Knee by Wilbur A. Riegert, Chippewa - published
posthumously. This page is managed by Wilbur's
granddaughter, Adrienne Fritze. You may e-mail her: quest@adriennefritze.com
Partial reprint of "Quest for the Pipe of the Sioux, As Viewed from Wounded Knee" copyright 1975 - permission kindly given by Adrienne Fritze Riegert and Jean Riegert
As Floyd
Hand tells it, a beautiful lady in a rainbow colored dress
appeared to him in a vivid dream May 1997 and said she soon
would bring a message of peace and unity to mankind.
Statement by Floyd Hand
Nothing is more real than the woman's
superiority.
It is they who really maintain the tribe, the nobility of
blood, the geological
tree, the order of generations and conservation of families.
In them resides all the real authority: the lands, the fields
and all their harvest
belong to them; they are the soul of the councils, the
arbiters of peace and war,
they hold all the taxes and public treasure; it is to them
that the slaves are entrusted;
they arrange the marriages; the children are under their
authority; and the order of succession is founded on THEIR
blood....
The Council of Elders which transacts all the business does
not work for itself.
It seems that they serve only to represent and aid the women
in the matters in which decorum does not permit the latter to
appear or act....
The women choose their chiefs among their maternal brothers or
their own children.
Quote
Father Joseph-Francois Lafitau
Customs of the American Indians
compared with the Customs of Primitive Times (1724)
Cannunpa wakan wan
oyate wicakahi kin heon,
Tokel econ wicasi kin hena ohinniyan ecunk'onpi kte,
Taku sica kin etanhan yuheyab unyuhapi kta.
Lecel ecunk'onpi kta ohinniyan awauncinpi kte.
Pilamayaye lo, Wakantanka.
The Sacred
Pipe she gave to Our people
Will always be used as she did tell,
To keep it away from those of evil
To use it in the light of Wakantanka.
This we will strive to do.
Pilamayaye lo Wakantanka.
~~Lakota Prayer
AIM could not have existed without funding and support from certain quarters of the government.
