Significance Today

Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the Nineteenth Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf, held a pipe ceremony at Pilot Knob in 1999 and again in 2009. Looking Horse is pictured here the third from the left.

Photo Credit: Bruce White

Oheyawahi continues to have cultural and religious significance for the Dakota. Michael Scott, former chairperson of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community (MMDC), has been one of many Dakota people who go to the bluff to participate in pipe ceremonies and sweat lodges. Arvol Looking Horse, the nineteenth generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe at the time, also held a pipe ceremony on the bluff in 1999 and again in 2009. Chief Arvol Looking Horse has served as a spiritual leader among the Oceti Sakowin, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota peoples. During the 2009 ceremony, he reiterated the importance of Oheyawahi as a sacred site. ¹

The site is also historically significant to broader Minnesota history.  In addition to being the site of the 1851 Treaty, Pilot Knob was once nominated to be the Minnesota territorial capitol. Furthermore, early settlers considered it a key navigational landmark. Its English name, Pilot Knob, refers to this navigational usage. Finally, Oheyawahi’s distinctive geography, the commanding view from the bluff, and the view of Pilot Knob from below, made this site an important part of the landscape of Fort Snelling, the first American military post in this region.”