In 1988, Sandy resident Ron Kierstead was traipsing through the backcountry of Chihuahua, Mexico, looking for gold when he stumbled upon an unusually smooth, chocolate-colored stone.
"I stuck it in my pocket and carried it around for years as a worry stone," Kier-stead said. "It came to mean a lot to me."Especially after he engraved upon the stone the image of Kokopelli, a hump-backed flute player, a symbol sacred to Pueblo Indians as the harbinger of peace, harmony and fertility.
"I'd show it to people, and they were captivated by the idea of spreading peace through the flute," he said. "It is a romantic concept, and they kept after me to make them one, too."
Kierstead has decided to make more than just a couple. His new company, Rock Art Reproductions, is now marketing "harmony stones" across the nation, and the fledgling Sandy business is booming. "People love the idea," he said, pausing to fill orders from as far away as Massachusetts and North Dakota.
Kierstead has pledged profits from the venture toward building a new Museum of Native History in Panguitch - a state-of-the-art museum with robotics depicting American Indian cultures of Utah. Federal grants have been promised, but private matching funds have not yet materialized.
To some, the marketing of an Indian religious image might seem sacrilege. Kokopelli is a Hopi and Zuni religious figure with a tradition rooted in the prehistoric Anasazi culture of the Four Corners. The image of the humped-back flute player is found in Utah rock art from Vernal in the Uintah Basin to Bluff on the Utah-Arizona border.
To head off potential controversy, Kierstead met with Wil Numkena, director of the Division of Indian Affairs and a Hopi Indian, about the idea. Numkena liked the concept and even suggested they be called "harmony stones."
"He also felt that because I was capitalizing on a Native America cultural symbol that it would be a good idea to dedicate part of the profits to an Indian scholarship fund," Kierstead said.
"Our main goal was to create funding for the museum in Panguitch. But he was so convincing, we've decided to do both."
To keep the harmony stones within the
spiritual context, an Indian spiritual leader named My-Yah-Suja blesses the stones, which come from an undisclosed location in
Arizona, in a traditional ceremony.
Kierstead then engraves the Kokopelli symbol into the pocket-size stones with a patented sand-blasting technique. For those willing to shell out $20 for a stone, a leather pouch and a cassette tape of flute music by Douglas Spotted Eagle, the harmony stone is just the ticket.
The harmony stones have caught the attention of celebrities like Willie Nelson and Willard Scott, and producers of "Northern Exposure" have even suggested a script centered around the concept. "They wanted us to submit the script, though, and none of us are writers," Kierstead winces.
The response has been overwhelming and almost all of it has been positive, Kierstead says. About 40 American Indians have ordered stones.
"We've had some calls from people wanting to know if we're ripping off the Indians," he said, "but once we explain to them what we're doing and where the money is going, they usually end up ordering one.
"In fact, we need more phone lines to handle all the requests," he added.
For more information, call Kierstead at 562-5148.