bud johnston

Bud Johnston current President was elected Keepers President in 1996. Bud is a storyteller, a teacher, an artist and an elder. Bud began quarrying and carving pipestone about 1985 after he was transferred to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was working in Wichita, Kansas and want a trasfer to anywhere. While checking for a transfer he saw that United was going to start flying to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He had no idea where Sioux Falls was and didn't care. After working in Sioux Falls for a few weeks he checked in a man carrying a long paper bag with what looked like a pipe stem. Bud asked him about what he had in the sack. He was told it was a pipe and he got it at Pipestone which was only about an hour away. Realizing how close he was to the quarries Bud took his next day off and went to Pipestone to sign up for a quarry and began quarrying stone.

Many years before that Bud worked as a counselor at the Indian Center in Fremont California. There was an old Lakota Spiritual person who worked with the children, teaching them songs on the drum. A year after this man's death, there was a big pow wow to honor him and to send his spirit to the spirit world as is Lakota tradition. It was a huge gathering of Native people but no one had a pipe, so his spirit was sent with a cigarette. Back in those days many American Indians separated from families by the Indian School policies and the relocation policies were rediscovering their spirituality and cultural identity.

Bud said," It was hard to believe that an important part of our culture was missing from such a large group of people, and if he ever got back to the Pipestone he would make pipes available to who ever needed them.

Employed by United Airlines for 37yrs with positions ranging from ramp service, load planner, operations planner, load planner, customer service, service director. Worked in many parts of the United States. During this time also had many other business interests including auto mechanic, welder, carpenter, pilot and heavy equipment operator.

Bud is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and has been learning the ways of his people most of my life. He has carried a pipestone and making pipes for over 20 years. Prior to that he was vice president of Oyata Ho Indian club in Fremont CA. He helped develop class plans and taught leather craft and did volunteer counseling. He also formed a non-profit dance group and had monthly pow-wows in the Bay area. Today he does pipemaking classes, Tribal storytelling and American Indian history.

Bud has helped organized and take Native American dance groups to France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany numerous times in the past 20 years. He also shared his culture and history through pipemaking classes and storytelling. Bud is also the executive producer of two award winning Native American Videos “ The Pipemaker” and “ The Medicine People”.

Bud believes in volunteering in the community to make it a better place for everyone and serves on number boards. He served on the board of the Pipestone Indian Shrine Association for many years and was elected Chairman twice. He was the co-founder and current elected president of the Keepers of The Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers since 1996. He is also the current chairman of the Pipestone Convention and Visitor Bureau and has served on this board for a number of years. He is the International tourism committee representative for the Pipestone County Business Retention and Expansion board and he been working with the Pipestone County Child Welfare on a SW Minnesota Collaborative to help kids a risk get a variety of needed serves.

Bud continues to coordinate the Keepers annual gathering since 1996 with the valuable help of many volunteers including my wife Rona . This Includes creating advertising and press releases as well as organizing artist demonstrations, vendor booths and locating dancers and drums for our pow wow.

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