On Saturday, November 13, 1999 I visited In-yan ce'-ki-ya which Paul Durand indicated can be translated as "(1) stone (2) to pray to." This Dakota sacred stone is located on the north side of Sand Creek in the area where it enters the Minnesota River south of Shakopee Minnesota.It is about 1/2 mile upstream from the mouth of Sand Creek and in the vicinity of the Little Rapids Village described by Janet Spector in her book "What This Awl Means."
I visited the site with Paul Durand, Paul Maravelas, Mikeal Smith and Bruce Dowlin.
Inyan cekiya is approximately 15 feet tall, 39 feet long on its long axis, and 29 feet 4 inches on its short axis. There is a 2 1/2 foot wide crack in the stone which allowed us to climb up on top of the rock.
There was a red spot where it looked like someone had made a small fire. The stone would have been a good vision quest spot. We saw no petroglyphs or pictographs. According to Ted Moyer who stopped by, the stone is Morton Gneiss and the second oldest rock material on the planet. I have been to the Morton Gneiss quarry and this stone looks like granite and another material swirled together.
There are natural circular features that looked like "eyes" in the stone. The crack is in a north - south orientation. Unlike most glacial erratics, the long axis of the stone is on the east / west axis rather than north / south, suggesting the possibility that this is is an eroded plug of harder material. A geologist would have to answer the question of the rock's geological origin.
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