Qusukqaniyutôk 2020

 

Qusukqaniyutôk: a (‘stone row, enclosure’ Harris and Robinson, 2015:140, ‘fence that crosses back’ viz. qussuk, ‘stone,’ Nipmuc or quski, quskaca, ‘returning, crosses over,’ qaqi, ‘runs,’ pumiyotôk, ‘fence, wall,’ Mohegan, Mohegan Nation 2004:145, 95, 129) wall (outdoor), fence, NI – pumiyotôk plural pumiyotôkansh.)  - Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling

 Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 77, No. 2 - Fall 2016

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas

 

    “A row of stones artistically stacked using elements of Indigenous Iconography, sometimes resembling a Great Snake, often composed of smaller snake effigies as well as other effigies both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic, sometimes appearing to shape shift into another effigy. These rows of stones are often possibly related to control of water or fire and perhaps more on Sacred Cultural Landscapes that are becoming to be recognized as Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes.”

     From a perspective of distance, the largest of the Stone Snake Qusukqaniyutôk snake across the landscape, crossing over others, sometimes connecting great boulders or bedrock outcrops, sometimes along streams – and sometimes even over a stream, the sound of the Great Snake contentedly “purring,” sometimes also known by many as a "Musical Row of Stones:" 

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2015/03/musical-row-of-stones.html

Added 7/22/2022:

     Inside certain enclosures, perhaps there was a garden, perhaps tended by fire, perhaps protected from fire, something kept in balance, kept in production by someone offering tobacco to a serpent guardian before entering, someone singing while stacking stones, picking up and replacing her grandmothers’ and grandfathers’ stones that have fallen.

   Zigzag, linear rows of stones, snaking across the landscape, both sides of an Indian Path or Native American Trail or an Indigenous Road that’s possibly one or ten or twelve thousand years old…