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“Evaluations of
qusuqaniyutôkansh (colloquially known as “stone
walls”) by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast
Algonquian cosmology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Rituals of Renewal on
Ceremonial Stone Landscapes are doing, at best, only 3% of an investigation,”
remarked Sherlock Stones to his associate, famed Rocket Surgeon John Possum.
“Call it “The
97% Solution,” Sherlock continued. “For thousands and thousands of years
-roughly at least 97% of the total human history time span of the area - the
Indigenous Peoples of what is thought of as quaint “New England” certainly had
a greater opportunity to shape the landscape, using fire and stone than the
post contact Euro-American Settler Colonists and their slaves, indentured
servants, employees, and their exceptional descendants with their “Merino Sheep
Walls” in the remaining 3% of the human history of the region. The example of
the use of LiDar in Central and South America to reveal and discover Indigenous
Stonework in a place where “true civilization” was thought impossible to exist
in a “pristine jungle” serves well. If those southern regions were transformed
into some of the world’s largest gardens, then why would it be impossible that
the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern gate of Turtle Island could create one of
the “World’s Largest Rock Gardens,” my dear Possum?”
Dr. Possum sighed and remarked, “Well Stones,
what is the truly more advanced civilization – one that creates a sustainable
system of coexistence with the ecosystem or one that degrades it to such a
degree that, if continued without change, in all probability leads to
extinction?”
Both men paused, pondering this...
