Waking Up on Turtle Island: Obvious Things

“The Massachusetts landscape is full of obvious Indigenous created Stone Great Snake Beings which almost nobody by any chance ever observes.” –Sherlock Stones *

The fog was thick, the ground muddy, and Sherlock Stones was indoors in his computer chair that morning, clicking through old photos from a digital archive from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was early on in the New Year, as well as early on in the day, when Dr. John Possum looked in on his Ceremonial Stone Landscape research partner.

“Possum,” Sherlock Stones said without moving his eyes from the large computer screen, “The Massachusetts landscape one finds recorded in these old images is full of obvious Indigenous created Stone Great Snake Beings which almost nobody by any chance ever observes.”

“Is that so?” Possum replied. “You’ll have to show me just what you mean, knowing the present stance of total denial the MA Historic Commission takes when it comes to the Indigenous CSL issue.”

Sherlock Stones pulled up one of the digital images and said, “Here’s a good example right here:”

Fields image

Dr. Possum looked a moment, then removed his reading glasses and began polishing the lenses. “My dear Sherlock,” he said, “I’m not quite sure what you mean with this one. This looks typical of almost any “stone wall” in the region, hardly anything that stands out as “remarkable” in any sense.” Possum put his spectacles back on and peered at the big screen again.

“You see, but you do not observe,” Stones remarked. “But you are not alone. And besides I have hope for you yet. Take note of the size of the image and then the enlargement feature. You’ll note a little “Whoops” in the otherwise fairly uniform level height of this particular Suspect Row of Stones.”

“Suspect Row of Stones?” Possum repeated his associate’s phrase, capital letters and all.

“Every so-called “stone wall” or assumed “stone fence” should be suspect when it comes to proper identification,” Stones replied. “This whole “Farmer Wall vs Indian Wall” is rife with problems, all the misinformation that often goes unchallenged when it comes to – ah here you go, Possum!”

The enlargement finally loaded (Sherlock Stones uses an older laptop, its power cord duct taped into place, which uses an operating system that was considered “quaint” about 20 years ago):

“One begins to detect the presence of effigies in the stonework, “eyes” on certain boulders of a certain rattlesnake snake head shape, a “singing stone” with an open mouth, and several possible, or probable, turtles that one associates with Indigenous Iconography or “art” found in other media.”

“Perhaps, Sherlock, perhaps,” Possum concurred, “But really nothing that strikes me as obvious and unmistakable - nothing "jumps out at me," as they say.”

With another mouse click, a different image appeared on the screen, a winter scene that included a section of “stone wall” and a farm building of some sort.

“This one should be obvious to you,” Stones was saying as he sat back in his battered computer chair. “You will recall the Curious Case of the Preacher's Gateway, where one can observe a pair of Stone Serpents guarding the entrance to an enclosure, one of them with an obvious white eye which needed no overlay to add as it was already apparent on the chosen and placed stone “head stone.”

"The only thing more deceptive than one obvious snake effigy is two obvious snake effigies, eh?" Possum replied.

"While one effigy is possibly nothing, two similar such effigies may be a coincidence, but add a third, such as this one, and we seem to have an Obvious Snake Effigy Conspiracy before our collective eyes, Possum" Sherlock Stones stated. "Observe: Head turned to the side, Uktena-like, followed by a sinuous serpentine twisty body stretching out behind..."

Sherlock caught the sideways glance of the good doctor, a retired Rocket Surgeon. “Cease to merely see and allow yourself to observe, my dear Possum; there also seems to be an indication of an eye on that prominent boulder where the row of stones – or Snake Effigy – begins.”

“Well, I can’t argue that,” Possum remarked. “I’d have to repeat something like “Indians around here didn’t do that” or something to that effect, a phrase I don’t find all that reliable.” He paused and then added, “Seems remarkable that no one ever noticed this before.”

“Consider the times and the fencing of the day when this became private property, a farm, in the area.” Stones began clicking away at images and imported them into a single image in an old (free) program most people would be embarrassed to be using. ”Wooden fences were the fence of choice in those days, easily constructed of an abundant material at that early date, an instrument of the early laws of property acquisition and “improvement” to the landscape the Puritans were trying to portray as Vacant Wilderness. The Indian made Effigy is not only discounted as a possible fence or enclosure but also “covered up as Indigenous,” so to speak, with the fencing required by the colony’s law.”

“Hidden in Plain Sight,” as they say,” Possum mumbled.

“Indeed,” remarked Sherlock Stones, “Our Hidden Landscapes," ** hidden figuratively, literally, and even legally.”

*“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” - Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)

** Preview on Google Books (101/458 pages available): "Challenging traditional and long-standing understandings, this volume provides an important new lens for interpreting stone structures that had previously been attributed to settler colonialism. Instead, the contributors to this volume argue that these locations are sacred Indigenous sites..."