Friday, November 28, 2014

Snow Day Thanksgivingish 2014


     Early Thanksgiving morning, after the snow fell, I was looking at a photo collection called “The Meandering Stone Wall,” taken a couple years ago on Martha’s Vineyard, tagged Chilmark, MA, USA. They are quite nice photos, found here:

     It was way to look at what just about everybody calls a stone wall, a way to take a virtual walk when I knew that day I couldn’t, a snowy day when I traditionally do a bunch of cooking. But I am me, prone to look for those Indigenous patterns of stacking stones, on a long pile of stones that in part just might have functioned as a fuel break that was a way to control the fires that those Indigenous Peoples used to tend a landscape marveled at by those earliest of post contact visitors to what’s now called New England.
     In Ed Thrayes fine photos I was looking at what stones where chosen to build that collection of stones, how they were placed on others, perhaps mark or pit a hint of some possible human enhancement of the cobble or boulder, softened by couple hundred years (at least) of weathering. I was looking for effigies you could say, examining each stone or group of stones in that longer than wider stacked segment of stones, looking for zoomorphic or animal-like qualities, even anthropomorphic or human-like ones, conducting my ever evolving Waking Up On Turtle Island Test.
      Is that stone placed like that because it resembles the head of an animal culturally important to Indigenous People, such as a bear or a deer? Are those marks in the stone natural or did someone work that into the stone, sometime in the past so that the effigies’ eyes or mouths were represented, a sort of sculpture you might say?

      Is that a combination of stones placed so to resemble a turtle?
 http://d1l1ifh5i7l9sd.cloudfront.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/23/files/2013/07/DSC_0582-See-through-meandering-stone-walls-Marthas-Vineyard-Massachusetts-USA-940x612.jpg

 Is that a stone turtle head and two stone turtle forefeet beneath a stone turtle shell?


Is there a large boulder end stone to the row, possibly reminiscent of snake head?
There’s another gallery here: http://edtrayes.com/2012/08/stone-walls-of-chilmark-marthas-vineyard-massachusetts-usa/, where I find I have seen Ed’s work before as I see a photo of a gateway I was just looking for, adding another possible indicator of possible Indigenous Stonework: the use of quartz, particularly as a head stone of a turtle (petro?)form.



      I somehow stumbled into an article about New England Stone Walls (where there is absolutely no mention of Indigenous People inhabiting the landscape or the last 15,000 years or so) during an image search using meandering stone walls in the search field.
      An excerpt or two:
     “Although New England’s stone walls are popularly associated with the Colonial era, there weren’t actually many rocks lying around in the soil at that time. As evidence, Thorson cites Swedish botanist Peter Kalm, who toured New England in the mid-1700s. In his “Travels in North America,” Kalm observed of its forest soils, “[T]he Europeans coming to America found a rich, fine soil before them, lying loose between the trees as the best in a garden. They had nothing to do but to cut down the wood, put it up in heaps, and to clear the dead leaves away.”
     Likewise, Colonial-era books on farming, encyclopedias and recorded observations do not mention stone walls, Thorson notes. Instead of stone walls, Colonial farmers used rail and zig-zag fences made of wood — far more abundant at the time than stone — to pen animals. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 18th century that early stone walls were first widely constructed in New England. Even then, other than in long-farmed interior areas such as Concord, Mass., the stone was typically quarried or taken from slopes rather than from fields.
      The region’s stones lay deep in the ground, buried under thousands of years’ worth of rich composted soil and old-growth forests, just waiting to be freed by pioneers clear-cutting New England’s forests — a process that reached its peak across most of New England between 1830 and 1880.”
        “These stones weren’t conducive to farming, so, aided by their oxen, farmers hauled the stones to the outer edges of pastures and tillage lands, typically unceremoniously dumping them in piles that delineated their fields from the forest. (Some of these so-called “dumped walls” would later be relaid more intentionally when improved tools and equipment made rebuilding easier.) In the early days, artistry in stone wall building had to wait. The first priority was survival, which meant clearing land to grow crops and raise livestock.
    The types of stones and their abundance may have been familiar to those early farmers, who were mainly from the British Isles, Thorson says, because rock in New England is similar to rock in England and Scotland. England and New England have similar natural landscapes because both lands have a similar geologic history. Millions of years ago, England and New England were formed within the same mountain range near the center of Pangaea. So, he says, “the similar fieldstones on opposite sides of the Atlantic were created practically within the same foundry.”
But there was one important difference between these New World and Old World stones: Britain had long been deforested, with its subterranean stones brought to the surface, so its stone walls had been constructed hundreds, if not thousands, of years…”
     “A March 2014 study in the Journal of Archaeological Science offers a fascinating glimpse of what lies beneath the forests that now envelop many New England farms abandoned in the latter half of the 19th century.
     Using a laser mapping technique called lidar that can see landscapes even through dense forest cover, University of Connecticut geographers Katharine Johnson and William Ouimet conducted aerial surveys of the heavily forested areas of three southern New England towns. The researchers found remnants of a former “agropolis,” vast networks of roads and stone walls that have been hidden for more than a century beneath the dense cover of oak and spruce trees….”
     Well, I wondered if there was some LiDar of the Vineyard, so I tried another search that brought me - in an entirely different direction - to Belize: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/9/8671/htm
And this image (that I first thought might be New England in that little preview that comes up):
      I thought back to another bunch of LiDar images I’d seen, back to a series of blog posts I’d seen here: http://www.retired--nowwhat.com/2014_05_01_archive.html
     Even some “on the ground” photos of some featured stone constructions: http://www.retired--nowwhat.com/2014/05/stone-walls-photo-addendum.html and a link to the source of the photos:
      Putting the photos to the Turtle Test isn’t easy because of the size of the photos; I don’t see lots of details. But I see a similarity to some “stone walls” that are featured to some others that I have seen close up that pass the Turtle Test (that includes far more cultural symbols and representations than just turtles).
Like here where I just happen to have kindly been given a LiDar image and have links to “on the ground photos:” http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/11/serpent-gateway.html


Monday, November 24, 2014

Serpent Gateway

CANTO III.
     "Wake, children of Ge-nun-de-wah! The tradition of the Seneca Indians, in regard to their birth, is, that they broke out of the earth from a large mountain at the head of Canandaigua Lake, and that mountain they still venerate as the place of their birth; thence they derive their name, "Ge-nun-de-wah," or Great Hill, and are called, "The Great Hill People," which is the true definition of the word Seneca. The great hill at the head of Canandaigua Lake from whence they sprung, is called Ge-nun-de-wah, and has for a long time past been the place where the Indians of that nation met in council, to hold great talks, and to offer up prayers to the Great Spirit, on account of its having been their birthplace; and also in consequence of the destruction of a serpent at that placce in ancient time, in a most miraculous manner, which threatened the whole of the Senecas, and barely spared enough to commence replenishing the earth. The Indians say that the Fort on the Big Hill or Ge-nun-de-wah, near the head of Canandaigua Lake, was surrounded by a monstrous serpent, whose head and tail came together at the gate. A long time it lay there, confounding the people with its breath. At length they attempted to make their escape, some with their hominy-blocks, and others with different implements of household furniture; and in marching out of the fort, walked down the throat of the serpent. Two orphan children, who had escaped this general destruction by being left some time before on the outside of the fort, were informed by an oracle, of the means by which they could get rid of their formidable enemy; which was, to take a small bow and a poisoned arrow, made of a kind of willow, and with that shoot the serpent under its scales. This they did. and the arrow proved effectual; for on its penetrating the skin, the serpent became sick, and, extending itself, rolled down the hill, destroying all the timber that was in its way. At every motion a human head was discharged, and rolled down the hill into the lake, where they lie at this day in a petrified state, having the hardness and appearance of stones; and the pagan Indians of the Senecas believe that all the little snakes were made of the blood nf the great serpent after it rolled into the lake. To this day the Indians visit that sacred place to mourn the loss of their friends, and to celebrate some rites that are peculiar to themselves. To the knowledge of white people there has been no timber on the Great Hill since it was first discovered by them, though it lay apparently in a state of nature for a great number of years, without cultivation. Stones in the shape of Indians' heads may be seen lying in the lake in great plenty, which are said to be the same that were deposited there at the death of the serpent." (page 354)
The Poetical Works of William H. C. Hosmer, Volume 1 (Google eBook)
William Howe Cuyler Hosmer
Redfield, 1854 - Indians of North America

Another Possible Serpent Gateway
Washington CT
(Looking East)

Above:1965 aerial photo.
Below: 1965 photo with a little enhancing of the rows of stones and the Gateway.



The Gateway: it is possible that the large stone has been moved from the center of the gap, blocking the view of the head of the possible snake effigy to the left or north of the gateway gap. It is possible that on the other side of the gap, some might interpret the large rounded stone as similar to an egg in the jaws of another possible Great Serpent or perhaps as the Serpent's tail…


Slightly more than half a kilometer, over a third of a mile, you could say the area outlined in yellow above is close to 2,000 feet worth of a stone wall perimeter with some very interesting features, such as capstones that more resemble petroform turtles rather than quarried blocks of stone.

Does it keep something in or does it keep something out?
Could it work as a hunting trap? Was fire used inside to drive animals out ward toward the gap? Was fire used outside of the rectangle to drive animals into the trap?
Was it a resource zone of a certain plant, herb, or tree? A certain animal?
Did it surround a house site?
 Was it defensive in nature?

LiDar image crop:

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Cranberries

I have observed many zigzag stone borders around many riparian zones over many years, considered how they may have been Indigenous made fuel breaks that kept a green cover over streams and around swamps, even considered them as containing a fire that burned over those riparian zones sometimes, maybe, all things being possible. There’s also been cases where a linear row travels through a swampy area, the stonework looking less like the bricks and blocks of post contact constructions and more like the style I suspect to be Indigenous in nature, containing possible effigies and strikingly beautiful stones.
Below: a combination of zigzag and linear, crossing the lowest and wettest point of a small valley, linking an outcrop with a rhomboidal boulder perched on its N/S row of stones connecting with an E/W row that could possibly be a representation of a Great Serpent - or two or more (http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-beautiful-zigzag-stone-row-and.html):
I have wondered many times just what could have been happening in these places, what was possibly or most likely gathered or collected or better yet what was tended in those wet and boggy places 300 and 400 years ago by Indigenous People. I’ve looked many times to see if I could find perhaps cranberries growing among the sphagnum moss as I’ve read it does, but I’ve never found one since…
(See here for something by people with better luck finding them: http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2013/10/wild-cranberries-identified.html)

(And here, where this image above is from: http://honest-food.net/2012/12/23/wild-cranberry-sauce/)
Now it’s barely ten days since I happened upon an estimated 100 feet or more of interesting stonework shown in this post: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/11/serpent-to-serpent-to-entrance-of.html and just a couple days since I took a second look at more of what leads to and from that interesting stone structure that has many details that I consider markers of an Indigenous origin, shown here: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/11/other-side-of-tail-part-one.html
Since this little tributary stream flows into a place called Cranberry Swamp and Cranberry Pond, I’ve begun to wonder if this stonework was somehow used to control the flow of water into the Swamp to encourage the growth of this food resource at some time or other that could include the pre-contact.
I can find a metric ton or two of information about modern methods used to grow and harvest cranberries, but no hint of a possible method used by Indigenous Peoples everywhere an Indigenous word for cranberry exists. It is simply stated that the cranberry was gathered in the wild by Native Americans.

Cranberry references and links:
"The cranberry, along with the blueberry and Concord grape, is one of North America's three native fruits that are commercially grown. Cranberries were first used by Native Americans, who discovered the wild berry's versatility as a food, fabric dye and healing agent. Today, cranberries are commercially grown throughout the northern part of the United States and are available in both fresh and processed forms.
The name "cranberry" derives from the Pilgrim name for the fruit, "craneberry", so called because the small, pink blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill crane. European settlers adopted the Native American uses for the fruit and found the berry a valuable bartering tool..."
How Cranberries Grow: "Cranberries 101" - Water Use
The Massachusetts Growing Season...
The old rule-of-thumb states that cranberry vines need approximately an inch of water a week to grow. Growers use water to protect cranberries from frost and hot weather in summer. As a general rule, each acre of cranberries will use seven to ten feet of water to meet all production, harvesting and flooding needs. There are two main ways cranberry growers bring water onto the bogs – through sprinkler systems and through flooding…
Flooding
The other practice when cranberry growers use water on the bog is flooding. Flooding is so important in cranberry cultivation that bogs where flooding is not possible are no longer considered profitable. Cranberry growers use flooding as a management tool to protect the plants from the cold, drying winds of winter, to harvest and remove fallen leaves and to control pests.
Winter Flood
Cranberry vines may be injured or killed by severe winter weather. This injury, winterkill, is prevented by protecting the vines with a winter flood. The winter flood may be applied as early as December 1 and remains on the bog as long as winterkill conditions are present or forecasted. Generally, growers hold the flood no later than March 15.
Late Water
Another flooding technique cranberry growers use is known as late water. Late water floods have been used since the 1940’s and have been used to protect the bog from spring frost and to provide some pest control. In modern cranberry production, holding late water refers to the practice of withdrawing the winter flood in March then re-flooding the bog in later April for one month.
The Freetown Swamp Wildlife Management Area (WMA) consists of 337 acres of shrub swamp, Atlantic white cedar swamp and cranberry bog reservoir, with small areas of mixed upland forest in the Town of Freetown. The property was acquired in 2006 by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and is managed for fisheries and wildlife habitat and open space. Common vegetation on the WMA includes red maple, sweet pepperbush, highbush blueberry, leatherleaf, swamp azalea, sphagnum moss and Atlantic white cedar, with uplands dominated by white pine, red oak and common greenbrier. Cotton grass, sundew and other bog plant species are also present.
History
The Freetown Swamp Wildlife Management Area contains one of the largest remaining shrub swamps in southeastern Massachusetts. The WMA and abutting private cranberry bogs were likely once part of a much larger Atlantic white cedar swamp than what exists today. Historic topographic maps of the area show two perennial stream channels winding throughout the area, which likely supported wild brook trout populations prior to the disturbances to the area caused by the creation of cranberry bogs. Native Americans and early settlers likely made use of the Atlantic white cedar trees for construction of shelters and fence posts. Jacob’s Mountain, which is more of a hill located nearby, would have been a likely area for Native Americans to set up seasonally because it overlooked the large cedar swamp and provided a good area to access the area’s natural resources.
Within the remaining cedar and shrub swamp there are several very large glacial erratics (boulders left behind by receding glaciers) that can clearly be seen on aerial photos of the WMA.
" Although the native Americans did not cultivate it (called sasemineash by the Narragansett tribe), they gathered berries and used them in pemmican, a mixture of dried meat or fish and berries that was pounded into a pulp, shaped into a cake and dried in the sun. They were the first to make it into a sweetened sauce using maple sugar. The berries were also eaten raw. Cranberries were used as a poultice for wounds and when it was mixed with cornmeal it was an excellent cure for blood poisoning. The juice was used as a dye to brighten the colors of their blankets and rugs. 
In North America, Native Americans were the first to use cranberries as food. Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, especially for pemmican, wound medicine, and dye. Calling the red berries Sassamanash, Algonquian peoples may have introduced cranberries to starving English settlers in Massachusetts who incorporated the berries into traditional Thanksgiving feasts. American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall is credited as first to farm cranberries in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816. In the 1820s cranberries were shipped to Europe.[10] Cranberries became popular for wild harvesting in the Nordic countries and Russia. In Scotland the berries were originally wild-harvested but, with the loss of suitable habitat, the plants have become so scarce that this is no longer done.
In 1550, James White Norwood made reference to Indians using cranberries. In James Rosier's book The Land of Virginia there is an account of Europeans coming ashore and being met with Indians bearing bark cups full of cranberries. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is a 1633 account of the husband of Mary Ring auctioning her cranberry-dyed petticoat for 16 shillings. In 1640's Key Into the Language Roger Williams described cranberries, referring to them as "bearberries" because bears ate them. In 1648, preacher John Elliott was quoted in Thomas Shepard's book Clear Sunshine of the Gospel with an account of the difficulties the Pilgrims were having in using the Indians to harvest cranberries as they preferred to hunt and fish. In 1663, the Pilgrim cookbook appears with a recipe for cranberry sauce. In 1667, New Englanders sent to King Charles 10 barrels of cranberries, 3 barrels of codfish and some Indian corn as a means of appeasement for his anger over their local coining of the Pine Tree shilling. In 1669, Captain Richard Cobb had a banquet in his house (to celebrate both his marriage to Mary Gorham and his election to the Convention of Assistance), serving wild turkey with sauce made from wild cranberries. In the 1672 book New England Rarities Discovered author John Josselyn described cranberries, writing:
"Sauce for the Pilgrims, cranberry or bearberry, is a small trayling plant that grows in salt marshes that are overgrown with moss. The berries are of a pale yellow color, afterwards red, as big as a cherry, some perfectly round, others oval, all of them hollow with sower [sic] astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September. They are excellent against the Scurvy. They are also good to allay the fervor of hoof diseases. The Indians and English use them mush, boyling [sic] them with sugar for sauce to eat with their meat; and it is a delicate sauce, especially with roasted mutton. Some make tarts with them as with gooseberries."
New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and ...
 By John Josselyn
Page 119- 121: Cran Berry, or Bear Berry, because Bears use much to feed upon them, is a fmall trayling Plant that grows in Salt Marfhes that are over-grown with Mofs; the tender Branches (which are reddifh) run out in great length, lying flat on the ground, where at diflances, they take Root, over-fpreading fometimes half a fcore Acres, fometimes in fmall patches of about a Rood or the like; the Leaves are like Box, but greener, thick and glittering; the Bloflbms are very like the Flowers of [66] our EngliJJt Night Shade, after which fucceed the Berries, hanging by long fmall foot ftalks, no bigger than a hair; at firft they are of a pale yellow Colour, afterwards red, and as big as a Cherry; fome perfectly round, others Oval, all of them hollow, of a fower aftringent tafte; they are ripe in Augujt and September}
For the Scurvy. They are excellent againft the Scurvy.
For the heat in Feavers.
They are also good to allay the fervour of hot Diseases.
The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially for roasted Mutton: Some make Tarts with them as with Goose Berries.
Vine, much differing in the Fruit, all of them very fleshy, some reasonably pleasant; others have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in Swamps, and low wet Grounds. 1
1 Vaccinium macrocarpum, Ait. Our author seems not to have known the European cranberry (V. oxycoccus, L., the marish-wortes, or fenne-berries, of Gerard, p. 1419); which is also found in our cold bogs, especially upon mountains. This is called by Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), "far superior to the foreign V. macrocarpon ;" but, from Gerard's account, it should appear that it was formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according to Josselyn) here, by both Indians and English. Linnaeus speaks of the European fruit in much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of Lapland, where he says, "BacccE hte a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non vocantur, nec facile ab aliis nationibus, cum nimis acidce sint" (Fl. Lapp., p. 145): but corrects this in a paper on the esculent plants of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without animation, "Harum vero cum saccharo prceparata gelatina, quid in mensis nostris jucundius?" (Ama?n. Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry was probably the "sasemineash — another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in fresh waters all the winter; excellent in conserve against fevers"—of R. Williams, Key, /. c, p. 221. — Compare Masimin, rendered \_fruits\ "rougespetits." — liasles' Did., Abnaki, 1. c, p. 460.
New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country (Google eBook)
John Josselyn 1865 - 169 pages

http://www.cranberrycreations.com/images/list_tab.gifThe Lenni-lenape Indians of New Jersey called the cranberry "ibimi" meaning 'bitter berry.' They used this wild red berry as a part of their food and as a symbol of peace and friendship. The Chippawas called the cranberry "a'ni-bimin," the Alogonquin called it "atoqua," and the Naragansetts called it "sasemineash." Native Americans would eat it raw, mixed in with maple sugar, or with deer meat (as a dried "Pemmican").
http://www.cranberrycreations.com/images/list_tab.gifEarly settlers named the berry 'Craneberry' because the flowers looked like the head of a sand crane.
http://www.cranberrycreations.com/images/list_tab.gifCranberries were offered to the pilgrims at the first thanksgiving.
http://www.cranberrycreations.com/images/list_tab.gifDuring the days of the clipper ships, captains kept barrels of cranberries on board to prevent scurvy.
To learn even more about the history of cranberries, click here.

Cranberries grown on the small, creeping vines of an evergreen shrub commonly found in cold-water bogs and marshes.  These vines support thick clusters of pink flowers beginning in spring, which then give way to small, red berries in late summer.  Many American Indian tribes, particularly the Algonquin and Wampanoag of New England, would wade into the cranberry marshes to harvest ripe berries from Labor Day through October.
In contrast to the heavily sugared cranberry sauce popular at today’s Thanksgiving celebrations, fresh cranberries have an extremely tart or bitter taste.  The Wampanoag and Lenni Lenape (Delaware) tribes called the berries “ibimi,” meaning “bitter” or “sour berries” (Kavasch, 48).
Uses:
Food
Cranberries were an important food source for many American Indian tribes.  The coastal Algonquin, Wampanoag tribe holds a festival in Martha’s Vineyard each October to celebrate the cranberry harvest.  Similar festivals were held in Cape Cod and farther south in Delaware where the Lenni Lanape chief, Pakimintzen became famous for his annual cranberry holidays (Kavasch, 48).
…the Cranberry Festival. The Cranberry Festival  is celebrated  every year on the second Tuesday of October. During the festival the Wampanoag will give thanks for the cranberries they will gather and thank the creator for the fruit.             https://sites.google.com/a/arlington.k12.ma.us/schersten_wampanoag/traditions-and-customs-part-1
Wampanoag Language Note: Wild Cranberries are called sasumuneash in Wampanoag.
Pilgrim language note: The name cranberry is derived from "craneberry", first named by early European settlers in America who felt the expanding flower, stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane. In 17th century New England cranberries were sometimes called "bearberries" as bears were often seen feeding on them.
The Wampanoag celebrate Cranberry Day on the second Tuesday in October, and it is an excused absence for Wampanoag children enrolled in Island schools. The following information about Cranberry Day is from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
Gladys Widdiss, a Tribal elder, recalls cranberry days of her youth.
“We picked for two or three days, enough for what we figured we needed through the winter and more. While waiting for our elders to finish picking in the afternoon, we would race cranberries down the dunes. We would make a trough from the top of the dunes to the bottom; sometimes snake like, some times straight, and set the cranberries in a line at the top; push them to start, and see whose reached the bottom first.”
Helen Manning, a Tribal elder, remembers arriving at the bogs in an ox cart and filling up the carts with the cranberries they picked to store them for the remainder of the year. She remembers that a friend’s parent, another member of the Tribe, had a room in their house just for storing the cranberries that had been picked during the three-day festival. Not having central heating throughout the house kept the rooms cool, and the cranberries lasted through the year. Helen remembers the story, “that my father, as a young boy, used to go into the room and enjoy hearing the popping sound as he stepped on the cranberries”. Helen said the cranberries were used for very simple recipes. Her mother used them to make cranberry dumplings, cranberry sauce and cranberry cobbler. Helen said everyone had a cow in those days, so the cobbler would be served with fresh cream.
Between the late 1800s and the 1930s, cranberries on the Vineyard were harvested by the barrel and sold in New Bedford. Asa Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, patented a machine for separating cranberries from sticks, leaves and grass. One of his machines is on display at the Aquinnah Cultural Center. - See more at: http://vineyardgazette.com/news/2014/10/15/cranberry-day-honors-ancient-wampanoag-tradition-bogs?k=vg5470a87bda5a4&r=1#sthash.NALAzGYx.dpuf
BUILDING THE BOGS
Building a cranberry bog was done mostly by hand. The first thing that had to be done was to clear the area of trees and then to remove the tree stumps. There were no chain saws to cut down the trees or bulldozers to remove the tree stumps. Stumps were removed by hand using a prying device, a 1st-class lever. You would dig an area around the stump, then 3 or 4 persons would keep pushing down on the long pry. Over a time, and after many "heave hoes," the stump would begin to loosen. Let's compound this from one stump to 10 or 20 acres of land with stumps to be removed. You will then begin to get an idea of how much backbreaking work went into the making of a 20-acre or more bog. There were bogs built that were 100 acres in area. Hundred of trees were cut with saws and axes to clear the swamps. The blood and sweat of many of the Cape Verdeans were left in the cranberry bogs that you see today in your travels. Looking at the workers on the cranberry bogs today would lead you to believe that a Cape Verdean never stepped foot on a cranberry bog. As a young boy growing up, I worked along with my father mother and my brother in the building of several cranberry bogs in Rochester and one small bog in West Wareham. I have first hand-knowledge of what it was like to work in a muddy swamp and how hard this work was. Cape Verdeans largely did the building and maintenance of these bogs that you see today. That is why I am trying to portray, not only to the present cranberry growers, but to the young Cape Verdeans who never worked in a cranberry bog, just how much these Cape Verdeans contributed to the building of the cranberry industry. In many instances Cape Verdeans built cranberry bogs on property they owned close to their homes. What these Cape Verdean men and women did is something to be proud of. Their hard honest work is not something to be ignored as if it never happened. Most of the younger generation is unaware of this part of their heritage. This was backbreaking work done for minimal pay. It was an honest living, something that my parents and all the early Cape Verdeans instilled in their children. This was a great period, one that led to great things for the Cape Verdeans that followed. These Cape Verdeans went on to build their homes something that Cape Verdeans took great pride in. This is especially true of Cape Verdeans that were brought up in the Cape area. I could go on about the great accomplishments of the younger Cape Verdean, but this story is about the older, hard-working Cape Verdean cranberry workers of yesteryear who are really the forgotten cranberry workers.
PAKIHM is the Lenape word for cranberry. The famous chief PAKIMINTZEN used the cranberry as a symbol of peace. Pakimintzen means cranberry eater. PERKIOMEN Creek comes from the Lenape word Pakihomomink – “where there are cranberries growing”. The cranberries were enjoyed fresh or dried in soups, such as “succotash“ of cranberries, corn and beans. They were also used in “pemmican“ where the cranberries were crushed, dried and combined with dried venison (deer meat) and fat drippings. This mixture was then molded into small “cakes” (loaves of bread). This would keep for a long time and was good on a long trip.

Other side of the Tail (Part Three)














Saturday, November 22, 2014

Other side of the Tail (Part Two)


I've shown the massive sort of retaining wall above the brook; the large and tall section abruptly changes to a low row of stones covered in leaves debris:
There's a small gap at one point, between a triangular boulder that suggests a possible serpent head.


(Below: possible workstation?) 
The ground underfoot was partially frozen and very wet along the stream that flows north and west into the Cranberry Swamp and Pond - a name that suggests a resource zone important to Indigenous Peoples and a reminder to myself that at this point I understand very little about how Cranberry Bogs are/were managed by humans modernly and in the past.
I headed for higher ground above the modern trail where some rows of stones almost touch each other, another gap or gateway by a very old (oak?) tree:


(The sun was setting at this point, the photos I took were not the best, with a few exceptions, such as this one that is not half bad:
This reminds me of some of Peter W's photos of possible effigies on large cobbles or small boulders:
Interesting high point, a sort of "wave" in the row:
Interesting stone, one of many, the others too blurry to post:
Intersecting E/W row:
Can't resist posting this detail of boulder surrounded by cobbles:
A Quartzy Rhomboidal on the row:
Another Rhomboidal, below a zoomorphic stone that suggests something with an open mouth:
Another Intersection:
(The photo below prompted someone viewing this photo elsewhere to comment, "OooOOooOO!" - and another person to remark on the similarity to the rows of her property - in West Virginia.)
A Saturday morning with a couple little monsters that call me Grandpa is breaking, so I'll continue this in another post...