Federal rule change may pressure Minnesota’s historic Pipestone quarry, advocates warn 

Tribal and historic preservationists across the Upper Midwest are lining up against a proposed federal rule change they say will make it easier for the government to disregard Native voices in discussions over projects near sites sacred to Native people.

They’re concerned especially about Pipestone National Monument, the ancient red rock quarry in southwestern Minnesota, where a company is seeking to reopen a fuel pipeline that runs near the quarry.

In July, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal agency that oversees historic places, voted to rewrite rules that currently require federal agencies to consider a site’s historic significance before a project moves ahead.

The draft rule, however, strikes current language on the expertise of tribal nations. Agencies would still need to consult tribes but would not have to act on what they hear. Advocates say that could effectively silence Native voices in discussions around Pipestone and other sacred sites.

“It’d be like going to Egypt and not surveying the pyramids” before breaking ground on a new building, said Faith Spotted Eagle, a Dakota elder who directs the Brave Heart Society, a group dedicated to protecting Native culture and cultural sites, including the Pipestone quarry.

Minnesota utility regulators last year rescinded a permit they had already granted and ordered Magellan Pipeline Co., owned by Oklahoma-based ONEOK Inc., to coordinate with tribal nations on an archaeological study along two possible routes, both more than 2.5 miles from the quarry.

While state regulators will have the final say on the pipeline reroute, the federal rule changes working their way through Washington now have Native leaders worried their concerns will be swept aside on future questions of commercial development near Pipestone or other sacred sites.

‘Blood of our people’

Pipestone National Monument preserves active and sacred quarries that Native people have used for thousands of years. The soft red stone is carved to make pipe bowls and works of art.

“We, like many people, have been taught that it is the blood of our people,” said Spotted Eagle, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and part of the coalition fighting the reopening of the pipeline near Pipestone.

“The color red of the pipestone came from some of our origin stories. Just like other religions have prophets that have brought them their ways, Ptesanwin or White Buffalo Calf Woman brought us the canupa, the pipe.”

The 300-plus acre Pipestone National Monument consists of pipestone pits surrounded by a tall grass prairie. Created by Congress in 1937, the monument is administered by the National Park Service, which consults with 23 tribal nations on decisions that could affect the sacred quarry.

Spotted Eagle said the consultation process has never been perfect but it’s proved to be a good faith effort at cross-cultural dialogue. When the proposed rule change for section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act opens for public comment, she plans to oppose it.

States have been consulting on projects since the law was passed in 1966. Tribal nations got a seat at the table in the early 1990s on discussions over construction on federal land, federally funded projects and private development that might require a federal permit or license.

The revised rule, if it is finalized, would narrow what triggers that review, and federal agencies would no longer have to weigh the damage a project adds to damage already done. Instead of working out an agreement with tribes and states, an agency could write its own decision and move on

The revised rule also sets tests for what a federal agency has to take into account. A site would have to be “compact,” and something would have to be built there. A graying schoolhouse on a county road would likely clear that bar. A geographic feature like a mountain, a river, or what tribal nations sometimes describe as a cultural landscape would not. The draft does not define what “compact” means.

The current rules say agencies must consult tribal nations about sacred places wherever they are, on tribal land or not. The draft strikes that language.

‘Gut sacred sites?’

Spotted Eagle says the 1858 treaty between the Yankton Sioux Tribe and the United States would still carry a federal trust responsibility to protect the quarry. But she says she has watched agencies and private developers decide for themselves what matters.

Observers say they’re particularly frustrated that the draft language would make consultation with state governments optional.

“This is what’s so maddening about it,” said Erik Hein, executive director of the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. “The whole thing was meant to be a conversation. It was meant to be giving everybody an opportunity to provide some input so that federal agencies could make better decisions before they proceeded.”

The Magellan pipeline crossed through federal land until 2022, when the U.S. Interior Department declined to renew the right-of-way. The reroute moved the project onto private land, where it is permitted by the state of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission expects to take up the reroute question in November, said Cori Rude-Young, a commission spokesperson, adding that any federal obligations would be handled by the responsible federal agency.

Magellan’s contractors walked both proposed routes last year and recorded 61 previously unrecorded archaeological sites. Magellan said it moved the pipeline’s path to avoid nearly all of them.

They also said their contractors concluded that pipeline work would not disturb the Pipestone National Monument site, although under the draft rule a federal agency would no longer have to take those potential problems into account anyway.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation said in a statement that the Trump administration directed federal agencies to review all existing regulations and that Travis Voyles, the council’s vice chair, wants to ensure the council’s rules are “a reliably useful tool.”

The council declined to answer questions from MPR News about who wrote the draft or what tribal nations were told about it.

Last month, more than 600 tribal governments, state and local agencies, preservation groups and businesses signed an open letter asking Congress to reject the rewrite. The letter says the case for changing the rule does not hold up. It cites a survey of 40 state preservation offices that handled more than 94,000 projects.

“If a data center is going up in your backyard and it needs a federal permit, you should know about it, and you should have a chance to ask for design changes if it’s going to lessen the impact on your community,” said Marion Werkheiser, an attorney in Washington who signed the letter. Her firm has been tracking the changes, including its impact on tribal consultation.

If a pipeline could affect a tribal sacred site, “the tribe should learn about it far in advance and have a seat at the table to negotiate how that project is going to go and how their sites are going to be protected,” Werkheiser said. “This change makes that process optional.”

The proposed rule changes are under review at the White House budget office now. Once they are published in the Federal Register, the public will have 30 days to comment.

With no final decision in place, Spotted Eagle hopes there is still time for Native people to explain in detail that to tribal nations this is more than just a bureaucratic rule change.

“We’re available in person to teach cultural literacy,” she said. “Because why would you do this to gut sacred sites? Because the only thing I can think of is that you lack cultural literacy. We’re here. We can share that. We can teach.”

This story comes from the Upper Midwest Newsroom, a public media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Prairie Public in North Dakota and Minnesota Public Radio News made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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