FOUR CORNERS CLAMOR ®

A southern Cheyenne medicine man has identified The Pipe which has been missing since 1870. It is part of the bundle known as The Sacred Buffalo Hat, which also contains other religious articles such as scalps, roots, and tobacco. It has been compared to the Holy Grail.

In 1870 a dispute arose as to who was the proper keeper of The Pipe and it vanished. The last known keeper was a Cheyenne named Burnt All Over. The Oklahoma State Museum has been housing The Pipe since 1911, as part of the Mrs. Goit Collection, but this was unknown until recently. Museum registrar Keith Tolman said that they have no idea who Mrs. Goit is.

John Sipe, a Southern Cheyenne traditionalist of Norman, OK, explained that The Pipe is part of two sacred covenants, the other being The Sacred Arrows. These objects are used in religious ceremonies such as sun dances.

Sipe and Clifford Long Sioux, of Busby, Montana, were instrumental in bringing together Oklahoma State Museum officials and Northern and Southern Cheyenne traditionalists to discuss and identify The Pipe.

Long Sioux is the fifth great-grandson of Cheyenne chief Dull Knife, and a headsman in the Elk Horn Scraper Society, which is one of the five traditional war societies of the Cheyenne.

Before releasing The Pipe the museum has required transcripts of oral histories and official approval from the Northern Cheyenne government. This is being complied with.

The Cheyenne people believe that the removal of The Pipe from The Hat in 1870 was a desecration and has brought bad medicine to the tribe.

John Sipe stated that the goal is to pull the culture and the people back together. He said, "We have never been the Northern and Southern Cheyenne. We are the Cheyenne people."

New Mexico tribal leaders have protested to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit about the new gambling compacts approved by U.S. legislature this year.

The law states that casinos must pay a tax of 16 percent of their net profits. The tribes insist that this is the taxation of a government by another government and is illegal.

Tea, anyone?