Moses, his wife Estella and their 11 children, including Aileen Bird of Pipestone, were among the first Indian people to live in Pipestone. Actually, Moses was invited to Pipestone by his sister, Julia Taylor and her family.

"My father was looking for a steady job and heard about the Indian School," Aileen, who now lives at Nokomis Apartments said recently. "First he worked at the dairy barn and then at the power house."

He worked there until his death in 1938 from a lingering lung illness. He died at the Indian School hospital.

Aileen remembers her father as a very hard-working person who sought odd jobs when his work at the Indian School was over. She said he and other family members were well-accepted in Pipestone, a very predominantly white community, and that white people helped Moses with decisions he made throughout his time in Pipestone.

Julia Taylor and her family helped introduce Moses and his family to quarrying at what is now the Pipestone National Monument. At that time, the area was a reservation.

"He was also musical," Aileen said of her father. "He played a bugle and drums and at one time, I was told, had a dance band. He had real musical ability."

Through the years, he made what were then called "trinkets" out of pipestone rock and with other Indian people, sold them to people coming through Pipestone on the train. Some of the things he made were ash trays, arrowheads and other items. He never made pipes, his daughter said.

"All of us quarried," Aileen said. "I started in 1965 and worked for years with my sister, Ethel Derby. I did turtles. I loved working at the quarries. I miss it." She worked at the Monument until five years ago, when she developed health problems.

Moses, who was Santee Sioux from Niobrara, Neb., "seemed to get along with people" in the community, his daughter said. Her mother Estella remained in Pipestone following her husband's death in 1938 until her death in 1988. Aileen said her mother had carved some horses of stone, but that none of the horses can now be found.

"We liked it here," Aileen said of her life in Pipestone. "A lot of (Indian people) say they didn't get along with the people, but we did." Aileen said the family growing up did not put much time into learning about Indian heritage. She said her parents' philosophy seemed to be that "it was a white world and you should learn to get along with each other."

Her father, she remembers, was "strict and stern --- you had to listen to him. He would plant his garden and then we had to take care of it. We worked hard for all that we had."

She believes the Indian people in the community today should be able to quarry pipes, as they have done for years and years. "They shouldn't take it away now," she said.

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