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Chetac Spirit Rock...
Is the "Pipe of Manitou,"
the axe shaped granite rock now in the State Historical Museum, Madison
really a Spirit Stone?
The rock was found at Lake
Chetac, Sawyer County, and according to the legend of the Lahcootahrae
Chippewa Band, was placed there by the Great Spirit. Members of the
tribe, when in trouble, were said to place tobacco on the Manitou's Pipe
so that the incense might gain his favor. The pipe was considered
the most potent Spirit Rock of the Chippewas.
Several years ago, the Spirit
Rock was removed and soon appeared in the Missouri State Historical Society
Museum, St. Louis. At the request of Wisconsin State Historical Society
Museum, it was returned to its own state.
Now Thomas Bracklin, an
Indian who has lived in the Lake Chetac region for more than 60 years,
says he never heard of any Indian really worshiping this stone. The
story probably started with "an old Indian, Chin-nin-nie," who use to go
from Rice Lake to the religious gatherings at Lahcootahrae. Chin-nin-nie
painted an image on a large stone near his camping place one night to aid
him in preparing for the religious ritual. As the stone marked a
convenient stopping place on the trial, passing Indians often smoked a
pipe there and developed the habit of leaving a little tobacco on the rock
for the next traveler. The white man, Bracklin says, thought the
tobacco was an offering to the Manitou. He admits that the Indians
probably gave the white man false accounts of the Spirit Stone. - University
Press Bulletin
--Transcribed from Rice
Lake Times - November 25, 1920...