The Women's March

My late husband Chuck Derby was asked to make a Ceremonial Pipe, by the woman who was going to make all of the Prayers for the Women during each year's March, Phyllis Redday Roberts. This he gladly did. While he was making it he called me to come and see something that had emerged from the stone of the Pipe. I looked and recognized what it was I then went and looked through the photos I had, knowing who it was I looked for. Eventually I found it. Maybe you will recognize it as well if you have been reading all of these web pages this week.

I will show part of the Pipe here. (the whole Pipe will not be shown due to the sacredness of it)

It is a reversed image of the one that was shown the other day.

I will be using the word Pipes in this so everyone will know what I am speaking of.
(Canunpa, (various spellings) is the word used by the Dakota people for the Pipe.)

Sometimes when a Sacred Pipe is being made, an image will show itself to the person listening to it and making it. It often happened when Chuck made his Pipes, I believe it was because he did it in a very sacred manner, always praying and sage always alight. He would let the stone tell him which piece wanted to be for a specific person, sometimes he would reject that piece, due to size or color but then later go back to it, knowing that it was the one piece that called to him. It always amazed me the connection he had to the Catlinite stone that he quarried, and the Creator, just unbelievable.

These images were put into this stone, (which is a metamorphic clay,) that lays beneath the Sioux Quartzite in the Pipestone Quarries, (not Jasper) by the Creator. Catlinite is the second softest rock in the world, Sioux Quartzite is the second hardest, so it is being kept safe by the Quartz. The World was being built by the Creator who knew that one day, billions of years down the line, someone special would come along that needed an extra Spiritual sign, and so the Creator added an image into the layer of Catlinite. As the Pipe maker worked making these beautiful red stone Pipes, sacred to the Native people, so the image would gradually appear. Chuck would often show me the images, because he never knew if they would disappear as he filed the pipe shape. I don't think they ever did. I was always in awe of them.

Anyway to think that the young woman in this image would be forever held as sacred, she had already been held as sacred by the Creator, so much so that he put her image into the stone billions of years before she was even born, and then I recognized her when she emerged, it is something that is incredible, an actual miracle. I will never get over it.

In case you haven't recognized her she is Winona, the young woman in the Camp at Fort Snelling. I recognized her because I had been working with the photos of the 1862 history in various historical and educational aspects since 1982, 20 years before the March started. She and the others in any of the photos were well known to me. Maybe this was why I did the work and got to love those Dakota people.

The rest of the story was that when Chuck handed the Pipe over to Phyllis and the women of the March we also gave them the photo of Winona, so they could also see who she was. She became the face of the March, and was shown on various publicity items, along with Apistoka, who you have already met this week.
Gloria Hazell Derby

This is Winona

This is both women on the Comfort station that accompanied the women on the March in 2006.

Phyllis in the white with the Pipe Bundle being held by the woman next to her as they walk into Fort Snelling, in 2006.

Day 9 December 18th 2019

Prayer for today

Blessings on this beautiful day. Gratitude to Creator for another day to receive the breath.
May everyone rest today, receive warmth for body and spirit, good food, quality shelter and hay for the horse nation, and have some activities to release the mind.
We thank each and everyone involved in this journey. Unless we are out there we have no idea what the experience really is so I offer prayers and smoke up, tobacco down.. Creator knows what is needed and I humbly ask that it is received by each of you.
May our prayers and thoughts continue and may our warriors feel those so their body, mind, and spirit can continue.
Love, hugs, honour, and respect
A'ho
Mitakuye Oyasin
Mo

Route for today.

The Little Feather Indian Center, Pipestone, where my sister-in-law, Alice Erickson and her Team will be serving Dinner today and Breakfast in the morning.

This is how it used to look before Chuck passed away, the paintings have gone now.

This is where Chuck and I worked and he made his Pipes, including the Pipe I have spoken about above. We had 2 exhibit areas,
one for general Dakota history (Ancient Tracks) and one about Native Women who had achieved a first accolade in their world. (Ancient Voices) (There is a web site for the Women's Museum if you would like to see it please contact me for the URL)
Mitakuye Oyasin. Gloria

Before they set off from Flandreau the Riders will visit the grave of Little Crow in the Flandreau cemetery to pay their respects to him

The Ride goes from Flandreau, SD to Pipestone, Minnesota. 17 miles. Dakota Homelands have been reached. Before going to get their horses settled the Ride visits the Pipestone National Monument where the Genuine Sacred Catlinite stone is quarried by Natives only and prayers are said there..

Tonight the Riders will stay back at the Royal River Hotel in Flandreau and the horses will be staying at the Pipestone fair grounds.

Breakfast will be provided at Eastman Hall, Lunch will be provided by Pam Bird and family. and dinner tonight will be by Alice Erickson and her team of family and friends at the Little Feather Center, Pipestone. Wish I was there!

In Memory of Elizabeth McCabe who passed away in April, she is buried next to Chuck. Elizabeth always helped in Pipestone on the Ride. She was my friend for almost 30 years and worked with the Dakota History alongside me through the years. She worked in the Pipsetone County Museum. Greatly missed.
Gloria Hazell Derby

From our Members:

Robin Jensen Rust
This prayer is so real.
When I first learned of this ride last week, air temps in MN were a little above or below zero.
It’s warmed a little and hopefully will continue to as the ride moves East.
I pray for protection, warmth and safety for all. 2 leggeds and 4 leggeds.

Ramona D Gerber
No snow here in SE Alaska - good morning Warriors, have a safe journey today - our Ancestors are with you.

Photos from the Ride:
Copyright of the photos belongs to the photographer. A list of those who supply the photos will be given on a page on the website at the end of the Ride.

As it was rest days for the Ride the past 2 days there are no photos of them actually riding.

For the Women who Endured.