In traditional Lakota lore, it is well-known that powerful spirit beings—what some contemporary pagans would call wights—reside in certain large stones.

One such sacred stone—called in Lakota Eyá Shau, “Red Rock”—is located in the town of Newport, about 10 miles south of the city of “St.” Paul, on the grounds of the Newport United Methodist Church.

And thereby hangs a tale.

Red Rock is a granite glacial erratic boulder measuring about 2 x 3 feet, weighing roughly a ton. In this sedimentary landscape of sandstone and limestone, its unusual composition marks it out as mysterious and powerful.

For centuries, traveling Lakota would stop at Red Rock, then located near the banks of the Mississippi, to make offerings and pray; the rock was named for the custom of ruddling the rock with red ocher.

In time-honored Christian tradition, Methodist missionary to the Lakota Benjamin Kavanaugh set up shop beside the Red Rock in 1839. (Religions come and go, but holy places tend to stay the same.) The town that grew up around this mission—later renamed Newport—was in fact originally called Red Rock. In later years, the church that Kavanaugh had founded changed location several times. Interestingly, with each subsequent relocation, they took Red Rock along with them.

The Red Rock is now located on a grassy lawn in front of the church, on a slope above the town. When last I was there several years ago, the stone had recently been re-reddened (with paint, alas, not with ocher). A braid of sweetgrass lay beside it; strips of red cloth and several tobacco ties hung from nearby trees.

On July 10 of this year, in an act of repentance and reconciliation, the church council of Newport United Methodist Church voted to return Red Rock to the Lakota people.

The future location of Red Rock has yet to be announced.

Local residents, who naturally enough have come to feel a certain affection for the Rock, hope that it will remain in Newport.