Káhtôquwuk/ 'Stone Prayer'

“Invested with prayers for the balance of the universe”

   As I understand it, Káhtôquwuk  means, allegorically, a 'Stone Prayer.'

   A káhtôquwuk is a kind of stone pile, a kind of stone heap, something that is heaped high, ceremonially, religiously, prayerfully, by placing one stone above another stone.

    Káhtôquwukansh is the plural of “Stone Prayers.”

   Kahtoquwuk in Narragansett, kodtuquag in Massachusett, Kodtonquag in Nipmuk, and many more variations all mean "stones that have been stacked up."

   Nohham writes, “There are several types of kodtonquagkash (kodtuhquag in Massachusett), including effigies.  Most kodtonquagkash are not more than 2 m (6.56 feet) wide and less than 1.8 m. (5.9 feet) tall.  They are usually made in an organized manner, in several courses of stones, often turret-like in form atop a base boulder.  There are kodtonquagkash types that are built directly on the forest floor, on shallow bedrock or even no rock at all.”

In Mohegan Nipawu means “he stands/ stands up,” in Nipmuc the word is nípaü, as in nípaü kodtonquag – a Stone Prayer made of either tabular or round stones, stacked in upright courses, sometimes on top of boulder bases. The plural is nípaü kodtonquagkash, as I understand it through personal communication with Nohham, who describes these as apparent “standing “cairns” on rocks, Nípaü kodtonquag(kash).  These are invested with Prayers for the Balance of the Universe.”

 

“kodtonquag”- ceremonial stone grouping (káhtôquwuk, Narragansett), allegorically, a “stone prayer.” https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1189&context=bmas

   "At a site in Shutesbury MA, “94% of intact concentric circle káhtôquwuk are formed from four to six rings, the center most often being a stone of unusual type (jasper with contrasting line, pegmatite, quartz crystal or quartz inclusion, leucic granite, or similar mineral). Center stone is usually quite round or else pyramidal..."

    "88% of intact boulder-based cairn káhtôquwuk consist of 38-50 flattish stones, usually all of the same type in a given feature, where basal stones are somewhat larger than the succeeding courses of stone, which are quite uniform in size. Courses of stone number five to seven in intact specimens of this type…” - Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling (2016 Massachusetts Archaeological Society)

   Hasennnípaü refers to  (a single) stone (that) stands up,  as does sunś nipámu  or ‘marker stone’  in Narragansett, as found in Ancient Ceremonial Landscape and King Philip’s War by Harris and Robinson (2015:140), viz. sunś, ‘stone,’ nipawu ‘stand up,’ from the Mohegan Dictionary (Mohegan Nation, 2004:100, 83) which sometimes serve as indicators.

James Cachat photo

"The hassunnipau shown is in Shutesbury at an unnamed sacred place.

 It is almost 6' tall and about 1/5' wide at the widest part near the base." - Nohham

https://www.academia.edu/40876478/Quantitative_Assessment_of_Stone_Relics_in_a_Western_Massachusetts_Town

 https://www.academia.edu/40876479/Assessing_Stone_Relics_in_Western_Massachusetts_Part_II_Patterns_of_Site_Distribution

     And I find Nohham writes that a “Skuguisu káhtqwk refers to a "boulder-based cairn" which is possibly an emerging serpent form…”

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2020/02/an-emerging-serpent-ri.html

One more example, an Obvious Effigy:

Tûnuppasuonk qussukquanesash – “Small Stones Turtle”  

 "Qussuk  (Proto Eastern Algonquian)(singular): a rock/stone
     qusanash  (PEA)(plural): rocks/stones   (PEA) (diminutive plural): small rocks/stones"

Personal Communication: Al Conley (2020)

From Frank G. Speck: