Qusukqaniyutôk: (‘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 (2016)
https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas
Qusukqaniyutôk: “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 shapeshift into another effigy,
possibly related to control of water or fire (sometimes both) on Sacred
Cultural Landscapes that are beginning 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 stacked over and hiding a stream, a Musical Row of Stones - the sound
of water is the Great Snake contentedly “purring.”
Inside each enclosure 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 two or ten or twelve thousand years old…
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