Located on the magnificent northshore and within the boreal forest of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota, Grand Portage National Monument preserves a vital center of 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century fur trade activity and Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) heritage. The monument is enclosed entirely within Grand Portage Indian Reservation, which Anishinaabeg families have called home for centuries. Kitchi Onigaming, "the Great Carrying Place" or Grand Portage, connected the summer headquarters compound of the North West and other French and English fur trade businesses on Lake Superior to smaller posts located on the Pigeon River eight and one-half miles away which also linked to the pays d'en haut, the up-country of northwest North America. At the historic site overlooking Lake Superior, a stockade wall, and a great hall and kitchen complex have been reconstructed over their original archeological footprints. Nearby, a canoe warehouse protects vessels on exhibit, crafted from birch, cedar and spruce raw materials, which were so essential for travel along the east-west fur trade routes.

The story of this stone and the pipes made from it spans four centuries of Plains Indian life. Inseparable from the traditions that structured daily routine and honored the spirit world, pipes figured prominently in the ways of the village and in dealings between tribes. The story parallels that of a culture in transition: the evolution of the pipes influenced - and was influenced by - their makers' association with white explorers, traders, soldiers, and settlers. Plains Indian culture has undergone radical change since the era of the free-ranging buffalo herds, yet pipecarving is by no means a lost art. Carvings today are appreciated as artworks as well as for ceremonial use. Once again, as commanded by the spirit bird in the Sioux story of its creation, the pipestone here is quarried by anyone of Indian ancestry. An age-old tradition continues in the modern world, ever changing yet firmly rooted in the past.