. 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...