Some Photos by Jerry Zani (RI)

 and a few quotes etc.

Some Will Tell You

 

Milky quartz stone

Framed by other stones

In the camera’s frame

The professor’s quotation in the caption reads:

“This remnant of single wall construction in Lyme, New Hampshire, shows a variety of features: Shapes are blocks, slabs, and pillows; sizes are mainly two-handers, with one one-hander; order is stacked, rather than laid or tossed; structure is a single-tiered, un-coursed wall one-on-two-and-two-on-one, with one error; lithology is mainly granite and gneiss.”

 

Some will tell you

 These Stones are

A monument to Yankee Exceptionalism,

Overnight sensations that brought civilization

Into a pristine howling wilderness

Where savages roamed like foxes and beasts

 

Some will tell you

These Stones

Couldn’t have been the work of the Original Owners who belonged to the land,

Couldn’t have been an aspect of their religion and culture,

Both banned early on by those Yankees, those English,

Who forbid the speaking of the old languages and the practice of the old religion

Up to the days of the 1970s Proto-Disco Era legislation that finally legalized

The freedom to practice Native American religions

Just in time for the Bicentennial Celebration, one might add...

Maunumuet – “where someone gathers it” Stone prayer place, in the singular, in the plural, ceremonial stone landscape (maunumuetash).

 

 

Kodtonquag(kash), kodtuhquag, kahtoquwuk - Means ‘heaped up by placing on top’ or more properly “it is raised construction” and is arranged in courses around a semi-open center by those who invest them with prayer and then raise them up together. 

 

These are placed directly on the ground.  Made of the roundest available large cobbles or tabular stones.

 

Stone Prayer - “Invested with prayers for the balance of the universe”

 

https://www.ethicarch.org/post/understanding-stone-prayers-in-the-northeasterncultural

 

Nomadic you say??

 Someone is explaining "New England Indians" to me again,

Telling me all about

Those nomads wandering in the wilderness again.

 

Someone is explaining "New England Stone Walls" to me again

Telling me all about

Those settler colonists taming the wilderness again.

 

Me, I woke up on Turtle Island again:

The sun rose behind clouds in Nonnewaug again,

I still drive from one old village site to another old village site

Where the modern towns and cities are now

Along some roads that are thousands of years old,

Along an old mastodon migration trail, another Great Path

Along those smaller roads where those stones that were placed long ago remain,

Along another Great Stone Snake, composed of thousands of smaller effigies...

 

Someone is explaining New England to me again

Telling me all about

Those mythical things I’ve heard before about the wilderness again…

And then, thankfully,

Some young person of Indigenous ancestry I know

Pipes up with a quote from somewhere

That goes like this:

"Algonkian towns were located along waterways where fertile soil and fresh water were available...(And)

Native peoples developed sophisticated agricultural technologies for farming a variety of crops, harvesting seafood, and managing forests and landscapes..."

Thanks Drew Shuptar Rayvis!

Evaluations of qusuqaniyutôkansh (colloquially known as “stone walls”)

 

 “Evaluations of qusuqaniyutôkansh (colloquially known as “stone walls”) by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast Algonquian cosmology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Rituals of Renewal on Ceremonial Stone Landscapes are doing, at best, only 3% of an investigation,” remarked Sherlock Stones to his associate, famed Rocket Surgeon John Possum.

   “Call it “The 97% Solution,” Sherlock continued. “For thousands and thousands of years -roughly at least 97% of the total human history time span of the area - the Indigenous Peoples of what is thought of as quaint “New England” certainly had a greater opportunity to shape the landscape, using fire and stone than the post contact Euro-American Settler Colonists and their slaves, indentured servants, employees, and their exceptional descendants with their “Merino Sheep Walls” in the remaining 3% of the human history of the region. The example of the use of LiDar in Central and South America to reveal and discover Indigenous Stonework in a place where “true civilization” was thought impossible to exist in a “pristine jungle” serves well. If those southern regions were transformed into some of the world’s largest gardens, then why would it be impossible that the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern gate of Turtle Island could create one of the “World’s Largest Rock Gardens,” my dear Possum?”

    Dr. Possum sighed and remarked, “Well Stones, what is the truly more advanced civilization – one that creates a sustainable system of coexistence with the ecosystem or one that degrades it to such a degree that, if continued without change, in all probability leads to extinction?”

    Both men paused, pondering this...

"Is it ethnic erasure or Ethnic Cleansing to ignore the Indigenous creation of Stonework and attribute the majority of the stonework to the settler colonists who arrived in the years around 1620?" asked Possum.

"You may be merely "splitting hairs," as the saying goes, my dear Possum," replied Stones.

Potuccos Ring Road (Wolcott CT)

 

 "Patucko's squaw," ought to interest us especially as the source of one of the place-names that have survived to the present day. One would hardly suspect a connection between Tucker's Ring, in the northwest corner of the town of Wolcott, and this Indian “proprietor," but such a connection exists. A suggestion of it is found in the name Ptuckering Road, and in a deed of 1731, cited in Dr. Bronson's "History of Waterbury," Potucko's Ring; is definitely mentioned. If the story is true that he "kindled a fire. in the form of a large ring; around a hill, in hunting deer, and perished within it," that may account for the place-name....”  https://archive.org/details/historyofwaterbu00bron

Patucko By Florence Goodman

Wolcott Historical Society News - November 2023

 Last month on Facebook someone asked how Potuccos Ring Road received its name. A high school classmate of mine, Diane Mazzafarro asked me about it, so I thought I'd revisit the legend that explains the naming of this road.

 Our town was a common hunting ground used by the Mattabesec and Tunxis tribes. On August 26, 1674, the Tunxis signed a deed that recorded the sale of certain lands to be called "Mattatuckoke" along the Naugatuck River to settlers from Farmington, CT. The first Native American to make his mark was Nesaheagin, their sachem, or chief. The ninth Native American to affix his mark to the deed was Patucko. Since these aboriginal inhabitants did not "own" the land in the sense that the European settlers understood, numerous deeds were often obtained for the same land. Thus, the original settlement of Waterbury or "Mattatuckoke," was sold four times by two different tribes, each time for approximately nine pounds sterling.

 The second deed for this land was signed nearly ten years later, on April 29, 1684. Patucko was the first Native American to mark the deed and just six months later, a third deed was signed, but Patucko's name was absent; his son, Attumtacko and his "woman" made their marks. The following legend is about that sachem, Patucko and why his name was absent from the third deed.

 It was believed that Patucko, whose name means "round" or "circle" was renowned as a fire-hunter. He would build a fire in a circle and leave an opening large enough for small animals or deer to escape. He would situate himself at that opening of that "ring of fire" and kill his prey as they tried to escape the fire, thus having plenty of food for his tribe. This legend has been shortened from its original format to fit into my monthly article.

 Patucko stepped quietly into the dark interior of Nesaheagin's lodge. He walked slowly toward the old man who lay on a bed of skins. The old man was dying and wanted to speak to Patucko about deeding over their land to the settlers. Patucko listened intently to the wise, old chief, but did not want to sign the deed. With great effort Nesaheagin convinced Patucko that it was best for his tribe to do so. Patucko listened to his dying father's request and signed the deed, but by the following spring, he knew he had made a mistake. His hunting grounds were slipping away as more settlers moved onto the land. Days and nights passed and Patucko began to fast and walk his land looking for a sign; finally, from exhaustion, he fell to the ground. Looking up through the green leaves, the late morning sun filled the spaces with brilliant light and the leaves seemed to glow. Suddenly his trance was shattered by the sound of geese in the sky behind him. The enormous birds cast a shadow upon him, and their huge wings created gale force winds around him. The leaves were ripped from the trees and the ground seemed to shake. Had this been the sign for which he was searching?

 Patucko returned to his village empty handed; his people expecting him to be laden down with food were confused. He explained that he had been hunting but found no food. Early the next morning he left his village again to find food, but this time he would use his fire-hunter skills to catch his prey. Sadly, he climbed the hills to the north of his familiar hunting grounds and began placing the kindling to circle the peak. The day was bright and dry and the slight breeze from the east would cause the fire to spread around rapidly, cutting off escape in all directions, and assuring success. He would usually ignite the fire by friction, but this time he had brought his ceremonial flint. The fire was lit and soon the breeze caused the flames to race on either side of him; Patucko turned and walked deliberately to the top of the hill. By the time he reached the summit, the fire had already closed the ring. He could see the valley, but the river looked sluggish and black through the onrushing flames. Patucko sat quietly while above him the sun disappeared in the smoke.

 Patucko was gone and though a few settlers knew the legend, Patucko's Ring was soon corrupted through casual speech to "Tucker's Ring". It was given as a name of a road in Wolcott near the hill where Patucko was believed to have died. At sometime early in the 20th century, someone changed the name to Potuccos Ring Road, as it remains today.

 Chestnut Hill Reservoir which is found in the southwestern part of town was also call Arrowhead. It received this name from the many arrowheads that were found there over the years. The Wolcott Historical Society has a wonderful collection of arrowheads at our Center School History Museum.

 In 1990 at Alcott Middle School when I taught Project Explore, three of my students Patric DelCioppo, Stephen Cortigiano and Steven Jasulavic created a pop-up book about this legend that can be found at our Stone Schoolhouse Museum.

https://web.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/news202311.html

* So called from Potucko, an Indian, who having fired a ring of brushwood to surround and catch deer and other game, was himself entrapped and consumed. So says tradition.”

The history of Waterbury, Connecticut; the original township embracing present Watertown and Plymouth, and parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. With an appendix of biography, genealogy and statistics

by Bronson, Henry, 1804-1893 (Page 462)

https://archive.org/details/historyofwaterbu00bron/mode/2up?q=Potucko

  "...a certain tract of land at Mattatuck, lying on both sides of the Naugatuck River, ten miles in length from north to soutli, and six miles in breadth from east to west, butting east on Farmington bounds, south on Pegasset, (Derby,) west on Pegasset, Pomperang, (Woodbury,) and Potatuck, (Southbury,) and north on the wilderness. The consideration was thirty-eight pounds in hand, and "divers good causes," and the deed bore date Aug. 21st, 1674. It may be found in the second volume of the Waterbury Land Records, page 224, and is signed (by marks) by Caraachacpio, James, Putteko, Atumtacko, Alwaash, Spinning Squaw, Nosaheagon, John Compound, Queramousk, Chere, Aupkt. The witnesses are Samuel Willis, Benjamin Fenn and Philip Lewis." P 10

      Not exactly a "Ring of Brushwood," and probably not a picket fence, here's an Indian Game Drive based on a description or observation by Champlain: 

Another old image:

And I'm thinking stone bounded roads and stone bordered enclosures and about this place

and "burning rings of fire:"

Indigenous Peoples Day 2025

 

No presidential proclamation,

But when I Woke Up On Turtle Island today

It was still Indigenous Peoples Day

Here at Nonnewaug,

In Pootatuck,

In the Paugussett Homeland,

 Where the spirits of countless eels

Are about to pass by the spirit of a stone fish weir

Once again in the dark of the moon…

Evaluations of Stonework (New England)

 

CSLs:

"Evaluations of máunumúetash* by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast Algonquian cosmology and rituals are doing, at best, only half an investigation..."

*(Máunumúet(ash) - place(s) of ceremonial gathering (ehenda mawewink, Lënapeuw, mawighunk, Mahhekanneuw). Themes of connectedness, reciprocity, prayerfulness and continuity are expressed through máunumúetash.) 

Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling - The Bulletin of Society for Connecticut Archaeology (2018)
https://www.academia.edu/40876479/SCASubmission

 

(Longer than wide “stone wall/fence-like”) Rows of Culturally Stacked or Laid Stones:

“Evaluations of qusuqaniyutôkansh (“stone walls”) by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast Algonquian cosmology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Rituals of Renewal on Ceremonial Stone Landscapes are doing, at best, only 3% of an investigation,” remarked Sherlock Stones to his associate, famed Rocket Surgeon John Possum..."

 

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-97-solution.html

 

 https://www.ethicarch.org/post/understanding-stone-prayers-in-the-northeasterncultural