Waking Up on Turtle Island

Copy and Original

2012-02-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

The 6th "Deed" signatures:

The Oldest of the Apple Trees

2012-02-01T09:30:00.001-05:00

It's been over 20 years since I wandered back onto a little bump of land above the floodplain of the Nonnewaug River in the spring of 1990 after reading the page reproduced above. It's been a 150 years more or less since William Cothren, the Woodbury Historian, first wandered onto the same plot of land. Cothren wandered back a few years later only to find the stone mounds missing, claimed to have been plowed up, but in reality probably dismantled and plundered for what at that time were called "relics," the bones of human beings and the grave goods that they were buried with.

There used to be an old 1860's map hanging in the stairway of a house on Falls Road that showed an apple orchard just about where Cothren intimated the wood cut illustration above "was struck."

I've wandered about the general area since the early 70's and had been in that "orchard" before. I remembered it as being occasionally mown around the numerous apple trees, a few large boulders, a big patch of low cedar, and a red juniper tree.

"Could I be seeing some of those ancient trees?" I remember wondering when I returned in 1990. Could they have been pruned back over the years, keeping them small? Some looked sprouted from old roots and way too young, but there were several, most of them now long gone, that seemed possibly maybe to be the Oldest of the Apple Trees.

Above is one I'd recently worried about and hadn't looked at since a recent surprise October Snow Storm that took out a great number of trees in the area. I consider it a minor miracle that it survived the storm. Down in the right hand corner you will note a boulder, perhaps a "manitou stone" that is now laying flat instead of possibly up right, and perhaps you can tell by the noon time shadows that it is to the west of the ancient apple, perhaps indicating where the stone mound once was between the stone and the tree way back before the mid 1800's...

The main trunks of the tree are twisted around each other, something associated with Native Americans, rather than a European method of shaping apple trees in an orchard...

If you walk westward from the tree, you come to a low serpentine row of stones that borders the floodplain. Just after a 100 year flood in the 1980's, there was another row visible to the west of this row, cleared out by the waters that never reached as high as this row in the photo below, that further westward now once again covered in vegatation...

There's a stone row covering that serpentine row a little south of where I stood to take that photo above. It looks "thrown" rather than carefully constructed and I suspect it to made (sometime between the two visits Cothren recorded that he made here) from the stones that once made up the mounds...

There's a second large old apple very close to this part of the "stone wall."

Get closer to it and you can see that it too has been twisted way back in it's life...

Why apple trees? They aren't native, probably traded for, and just maybe could be "spirit food" for the departed. There's record of another such orchard and gravesites down at the Pootatuck Village on the Great River on Mitchell's farm - and there's photos I've seen of the Burial Grounds at Schaghticoke farther north along the Great River we now call by it's Machican name, the Housatonic, "the river beyond the mountains." Those twisty trees also have similar stone markers, I think to the west of them but I'm not really sure.

From an old sketch book of mine (199?)

Reading a Woodbridge Landscape (part three)

2012-01-31T09:55:00.018-05:00

Before leaving the area around the Sperry Farm/Darling house, I should say something about maps and other images since this particular area has a few extras you don't always get to "read."

About 50 years after Stiles published his book on the Regicide Judges, George Henry Durrie was busy painting landscapes of the area. Stiles wrote that the cleared meadows along the western edge of West Rock was known in 1661 as the “Ox Pasture,” and sure enough George “the Snowman” Durrie includes an ox in a painting of the lower end of the pasture.

We find that:“Born in Hartford, Connecticut, George Durrie was known as the "snowman" because of the many winter scenes he painted. He lived most of his life in New Haven and earned a reputation for rural landscape scenes, especially snow scenes, which he introduced as subject matter in American painting. His paintings "provide an excellent record of rural life in the mid-nineteenth century and his carefully recorded details of nature and foliage added authenticity to his depictions." ~ http://www.askart.com/askart/d/george_henry_durrie/george_henry_durrie.aspx

You'll remember that in Part One I wrote that Stiles says:

“Let it be observed that at this time, about 3 or 400 acres westward of the town was cleared in a common field, called the ox pasture,” describing the land around the Sperry Farm. What Stiles doesn’t say is that these places may have already been cleared by Native Americans, New Haven originally known as Quinipiac, marked as such on Dutch and other early maps. The “ox pasture” may well have been a cleared meadow or “intervale,” maintained by Indian burning, just as were many high elevations where “the Indians always burned rings or tracts on those summits, to give a clear view for hunting deer…”

That's quite a number of acres cleared by 1661 or so, by a relatively small number of immigrants: "By 1640 a complete government had been established and the settlement, originally called Quinnipiac, was renamed Newhaven...(by) 1641 New Haven had grown into a community of approximately 800." http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Mayor/History_New_Haven.asp

Bear with me please; Blogger won't let me add the next images, so after several tries I'm giving it up for now...

1915 map showing probable wood lot in Ye Olde Ox Pasture lands, 1934 aerial, crop of the quartz row from the '34 photo, 1965 aerial showing less pasture and more woods.
Will Blogger let me publish?? I'm clicking the button...

Turtles in a Row

2012-01-29T08:14:00.001-05:00

Here’s a stone row, now a border for a land trust possibly called Sperry Pond, where the builders had their turtles rather than their ducks all in a row…

Reading A Woodbridge Landscape (Part Two)

2012-01-25T08:13:00.000-05:00

Ezra Stiles continues his narrative of his search for the Judges Lodgements by saying, “The second residence is a little more dubious than the first and last, which are unquestionably certain. It was about two miles and a half north of the first, on the west bank of a rivulet running along at the foot of the west side of the West Rock, and about half a mile north of the house of Thomas Darling, Esq… In August 1785, he went with me and shewed me the spot of their little domicile, when some of the wall or stone ruins were then remaining. I examined it with close attention, and made a drawing of it on the spot, one of the Sperrys being with us, and affirming the immemorial tradition, and herein concurring with Mr. Joseph Sperry, who referred me to the same spot.”

I had no trouble finding the Darling House, but never could locate the “little domicile” Stiles wrote about and drew a picture of. This spot half a mile north is outside of the Woodbridge Town Property, policed by people in uniforms who write out tickets if you don't have a permit from the Water Authority - all things I found out the hard way.

Back down by the Darling house, it was uncanny how similar a scene the area of land still is. Reading about it after I had visited, I could have jotted down almost the same thing over two hundred years later, all but the part about the river. These days it’s silted in and is sort of swampy:

"Descending a steep bank, or brow of the hill of upland, sixteen feet, we came to a bottom, or level, forty feet wide, four or five feet above the water of the rivulet or brook, which I measured thirty-four feet wide at that place. This bottom, or level, extended along the bank, on the edge of the river, sixty-four rods, under the brow of the hill, being two to three rods wide. It was a beautiful, shady and pleasant ambulacrum, or walk. The upland on the west side is a level of twenty feet above the river. From under the western brow issues a perpetual spring about the middle os the ambulacrum, running in a perpetual pleasant brook or stream along under the western brow, and discharging into the rivulet. The rest of the bottom is not wet and marshy, but dry and salubrious. The whole on both- sides of the river was, in 1785, inveloped in trees and forest, and yet the bottom was not so charged with trees as to be impassable, being only a pleasant shady retreat, in which a philosopher might walk with delight. Near the end of this walk, closed in at each end by the curve row of the hill coming down to the very'brink of the rivulet, was situate the hut of the Judges under the side or brow of the hill. Evident traces of it remained in 1785. It was partly dug out of the side of the hill, and built with stone wall, about eight feet one way and seven the other. The western wall was yet standing perhaps three feet high, and a remnant of the north wall. The site, when I saw it, was filled with weeds and vegetables, and bushes, in the manner of old cellars, for it seemed to have been dug out a little lower than the surrounding surface of the bottom. The remainder of the stone work evidently shewed that it had been built with design : and unvaried tradition say it was one of the abodes of the Judges. They could not have chosen a more secret, hidden, and pleasant concealment. They probably came to it next after they fled from the first Cave…It is not improbable that in this space of time they resided in Sperry's house, or perhaps in the adjacent woods part of the time…For some reason however they do not seem to have sojourned here long: The Sperry's farm tradition says, because the Indian dogs in hunting discovered them. They therefore sought another lodgment…”

It is a shady retreat – you can tell by the blurry photos I took in the low light. It’s still “inveloped” by trees and forest – and it was difficult to tell the difference between the trees and the forest. There were very well formed stone rows reaching up to the slope of the West Ridge, containing Native American cultural motif’s in the artistically stacked stones and boulders of this row. There were a few stone piles as well…

Above, a face-like cobble, below, a closer look reveals broken "jaw" and skull cap...

Above from a distance, below detail of large prominent boulder on mound...

To be continued, up by "The Lodge" or, as President Stiles writes,

"HatchetHarbor, or spring (at which I found an Indian stone god)..."

( really not much more than a re-write of http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/05/aka-lodge.html since I didn't investigate the cliffs below it very well, locate the spring or the remains of the walls of a structure...)

Reading a Woodbridge Landscape (Part One)

2012-01-24T09:20:00.001-05:00

All too often, it’s difficult to find that someone from the past has taken the time to write down anything at all, much less observations about Indian structures made of stone.

Except of course, Ezra Stiles (1727-1795).

Mavor and Dix brought Stiles up in Manitou; the Sacred Landscape of New England’s Native Civilization, introducing him at the beginning of Chapter 7. They say he “was one of the few people of his time to have recorded stone structures known to be of Indian origin (169).”

Above: Stiles map of (Indian) Lodgements used by the Regicide Judges of New Haven CT from http://books.google.com/books?id=MBIPAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0

Mavor writes that he and Dix were particularly interested in “Indian stone gods” that Stiles found, collected, wrote about and illustrated that they felt might have been “the New England equivalent of Hopi spirit stones (found) at places we considered sacred to Indians.”

In the spring of 2009, I found myself working down in Woodbridge CT near a few of the places where Stiles found and wrote about the stone structures – and one of the “Indian god stones” as well.” By coincidence I found that most of these places are now Town Properties, open space land preserves complete with trail maps. The other great coincidence was that my friend Peter used to live on the edge of one of those preserves.

I was easily able to find an on-line edition of Stiles “A history of three of the judges of King Charles I” that chronicles Stiles efforts to find the hiding places of the Regicide Judges in 1661.

Stiles writes: “Let us now trace out these exiled pilgrims in their several retreats, migrations, and secret residences.— To begin at New-Haven where they…retired from town, to the west side of a rock or mountain, about 300 feet perpendicular, commonly called the West-Rock.”

This is a rather famous spot, subject of paintings (Including this one on a cigar box), and presently a CT State Park (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Rock_Ridge) and I did drive up there one day to look at the Judges Cave, a rather disappointing site that people seem to have confused with a trash receptacle. It’s also hard to get to from the center of town, up a sheer rock wall where people often get trapped on, illegally hiking or rock climbing. I had to drive around the east side of the ridge to get there.

I was more often than not parking at my job location on the old Litchfield Turnpike, just south of the Darling House and the Bishop’s Trails Preserve, at the “southern extremity of West-Rock…about two and a half miles N. W….parrallel with the West-Rock…an interjacent bottom, or plain, three miles long, containing a thousand or twelve hundred acres of excellent land, which Mr. Goodyear, a rich settler, had bought of the town, and on which he had planted his farmer, Richard Sperry, which farm Richard Sperry afterwards became possesed of, and now for above a century it has gone by the name of Sperry's Farm,” or so president Stiles believed.

(Stiles later writes that Sperry’s Farm became the property of Thomas Darling, Esq. whom Stiles describes as a “gentleman…a man of literature and solid judgment.”)

“On this tract Mr. Goodyear had built Sperry an house,” Stiles tells us, one of “the only two houses in 1661 west ward from New-Haven, between this West Rock and Hudsons River, unless we except a few houses at Derby or Paugasset. All was an immense wilderness. Indeed all the environs of New-Haven was wilderness, except the cleared tract about half a mile or a mile around the town, which was laid out and built with 100 or 120 houses on a square half mile, divided into nine squares...”

Stiles sort of contradicts himself then by telling us, “Let it be observed that at this time, about 3 or 400 acres westward of the town was cleared in a common field, called the ox pasture,” describing the land around the Sperry Farm. What Stiles doesn’t say is that these places may have already been cleared by Native Americans, New Haven originally known as Quinipiac, marked as such on Dutch and other early maps. The “ox pasture” may well have been a cleared meadow or “intervale,” maintained by Indian burning, just as were many high elevations where “the Indians always burned rings or tracts on those summits, to give a clear view for hunting deer…”

Durrie painting from 1850’s, hayfields and sheep pastures at the foot of West Rock Ridge, looking toward Westville section, East Ridge in the distance. I don’t see the church marked on the map:

Stiles writes:”I have described their first residence in the Cave on the Rock. Mr. Sperry told me of two others, one about two miles north, and the third at the Lodge and Fort, so called, about four miles north-west in the wilderness. These I afterwards visited…”

So did I…(to be continued)

Woodbridge Turtle Petroform

2012-01-22T07:54:00.000-05:00

An image I found in a folder that should have been in the "Woodbridge" collection.

It's a better photo of the stone pile described at

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/05/testudinate.html &

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/05/that-turtle-on-mound-again.html

Virtual Camp Whiting Tour

2012-01-21T13:42:00.001-05:00

It's snowing where I am, maybe where you am too.
Take a walk back in time to 2009, early Spring, down in Woodbridge CT. Let's take a look at the trail map...

and a closer look:

I'll meet you at the gate across the street from the parking lot by the Darling House on Litchfield Turnpike where I will be puzzling about the modifications to this "stone wall" and looking for possible turtles contained within it...

The "stone wall" on the left as we walk in on the Blue Trail of course distracts us. We puzzle about the large Boulder and the stone rows around it, spot this stone in the row...

We get back on the trail again by the Boy Scout Lodge...

But we scoot up the hill to the left (west) a moment to look at some stones that seem to stand out:

We circle this one...

We say we'll look these up and then forget to...

I'll postpone following this one uphill and head down to the trail, snapping a photo without putting on glasses, resulting in an out of focus picture...

A deer watches us:

We try to stay on the path, but this demands our attention:

We go back to the trail...

Another one!

Time to turn back, we snap one more

wonder about this crime scene

head back to the cars, the west ridge in the distance...

Step back farther to 1934 (above).

Gungywump TurtleVision

2012-01-20T11:16:00.000-05:00

An image from Gungywamp: A Virtual Tour ~ http://www.gungywamp.com/Virtual%20Tour.htm

and the same with TurtleVision to it's right.

Gungywamp

2012-01-20T09:58:00.001-05:00

The Gungywamp Society - Main Page : www.gungywamp.com/

I’ve occasionally taken a look at various photos and information (and mis-information) about the Gungywump site. I’ve had many people ask me what I knew about it or thought about it, and having never visited the place, I never had much to say. Well, I came upon this just this morning, something I hadn’t seen before, a fine bit of Historical Era Archeology/Anthropology, which states:

“Much of the colonial and Early American structures in the Gungywamp indicate that the area was used for sheep farming. Ms. Susan Sutherland wrote an article about another sheep farm about five miles away from the Gungywamp complex which has similar stone structures as are found in the Gungywamp. Ms. Sutherland's article is entitled Colonial History: The Sheep Farm, Early Edgecomb Family and Fort Hill Brook Industrial Sites.”

If you comb through the article, you will find many references to the Indian Fort, Indian Corn barns,” zigzag stone rows, a “sumac mill,” and “heaps of stones.” It also mentioned that “Given the extensive stone walls and gravel mounds on Fort Hill Brook, it would not be surprising if slave labor had been used to build these and to do other tasks.”

I’ll say this: Ignoring the fact that just before the Historic Period, there was a great number of Native People living in the area, close to the sea, actively making use of resources maintained by the use of fire, just might have used stone rows to contain and control those fires, might not be “good science.”

This photo below made me think of a stone row near my house, (detailed in the post http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/03/out-crop-with-zigzag.html):

Text from the article says, “The dividing line between the property of one of the private landowners and the former YMCA property is a very old colonial rock boundary wall. This rock boundary wall was crossed earlier in the tour just before the small ledge shelter that was excavated in 2007 and 2008. It is one the longest continuous rock walls found in the Gungywamp area. It continues from the former YMCA property to the west and runs roughly straight through the Gungywamp area, across North Gungywamp Road (a dirt road off of Gungywamp Road) and proceeds into woods onto private property. A number of the rock walls in the Gungywamp area zigzag and some were clearly used for livestock enclosures, but this very old colonial rock wall, thickly covered in moss, runs straight.

In Camp Whiting, off of the Litchfield Turnpike in Woodbridge CT is another I was also reminded of:

As the tour guest walks the loop trail, "the main highway," and crosses through the gap in this very old rock wall, the tour guest will notice on the right that the rock wall continues up a steep incline. The construction of this rock wall was clearly built with stability in mind. Instead of placing the rocks to slope with the steep incline, which would make the rock wall unstable, the rock wall builders dug into the steep incline so that the rocks could be placed horizontally, thereby causing the rock wall to form a sort of "stair step" design up the steep incline…”

Gungywamp: A Virtual Tour

http://www.gungywamp.com/Virtual%20Tour.htm

http://www.gungywamp.com/Colonial%20Sheep%20Farm%20History.pdf

End Stone by Spring and Serpentine

2012-01-12T13:15:00.000-05:00

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2012/01/end-stone-by-spring-and-serpentine.html

CONNECTICUT & THE SEA

2012-01-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

Produced, Written & Directed by Kenneth A. SimonNarrated by Walter Cronkite
Broadcast Premiere: May 2000, CPTV

PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT (excerpt): NATIVE AMERICANS & THE SEA

CRONKITE: Native people in Connecticut from the earliest days looked to the sea for sustenance, transportation and culture.
MELISSA FAWCETT (Dir., Mohegan Tribal Museum Authority): In the beginning, we believe that the earth came out of the sea upon the back of grandfather turtle, Guganous Tuapas, great sea turtle. Since that time we’ve looked upon the turtle and the sea as the birth and origin of our beginnings and the grandfather turtle as the most sacred of all beings.

www.simonpure.com/sea.htm

images from:
http://connecticutwatertrails.com/CWTA%20-%20Resources%20-%20History%20Of%20Connecticut's%20Water%20Trails%20-%20Connecticut%20and%20The%20Sea%20-%20Connecticut%20Native%20Americans%20&%20The%20Sea.htm

the crow brought them corn

2012-01-10T09:40:00.002-05:00

" As for the crow, he says, "These birds, although they do the corn some hurt, yet scarce will one native amongst an hundred kill them, because they have a tradition, that the crow brought them at first an Indian grain of corn in one ear, and an Indian or French bean in another, from the great God Cawtantowwit's field in the southwest, from whence they hold came all their corn and beans."

~ Roger Williams

http://books.google.com/books?id=7n4OAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22a%20crow%20brought%20them%20at%20first%20this%20grain%20to%20new%20england%22&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q=%22a%20crow%20brought%20them%20at%20first%20this%20grain%20to%20new%20england%22&f=false

http://www.boudillion.com/nashobahill/NH13.jpg

"This rocky hill (Nashoba) is a strange and inspiring landscape indeed...Traces of the old village remain: acres of corn planting mounds (above), three worked-stone springs, a hollowed and smoothed rock surface, and artifacts unearthed on the western slopes. I’ve been told by a retired Professor that the fire-blackened rock faces are the marks of Indian fires..." ~ Daniel V. Boudillion

http://www.boudillion.com/nashobahill/nashobahill.htm

Governmnet Managed Shrines: Protection of Native American Sacred Site Worship

2012-01-09T08:40:00.001-05:00

Image from: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/60001441

"Sacred places include mountains, lakes, piles of rocks, unusually-shaped mounds, middens, caves, burial grounds, rock art sites, ceremonial grounds, doctoring or training grounds... (ARLENE HIRSCHFELDER & PAULETTE MOLIN, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATIVE AMERICAN RELiGIONS 251 (1992).)

http://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1320&context=vulr

"(Morro) Rock is a protected Native American shrine and home to endangered peregrine falcons.)

http://wikitravel.org/en/Morro_Bay

http://srleebackyard.blogspot.com/2008/04/shrine-of-stone-lions.html

by Shawna Lee

Hobbomock from "A discourse on the religion of the Indian tribes of North America"

2012-01-07T08:26:00.000-05:00

By Samuel Farmar Jarvis, New-York Historical Society

In Winslow's " Good News from New-England; or a relation of thins? remarkable in that plantation," anno 1622, occur Ihe following remarks on the subject of the Indian Religion:

" A few things I thought meete to adde here unto, which I have observed amongst the Indians, both touching their religion, and sundry other customes amongst them. And first, whereas myselfe and others, in former letters, (which came to the presse against my wille and knowledge,) wrote that the Indians about us are a people without any religion or knowledge of any God therein I erred, though wee could then gather no better; for as they conceive of many divine powers, so of one whom they call Kiehtan, to be the principal! maker of all the rest, and to be made by none : Hee, (they say,) created the.Heavens, Earth, Sea, and all creatures contained therein. Also, that hee made one man and one woman, of whom they say wee, and all mankind, came : but how they became so farre dispersed that know they not. At first, they say, there was no Sachem or King, but Kiehtan who dwelleth above the Heavens, whither all good men goe when they die to see their friends, and have their fill of all things : This, his habitation, lyeth westward in the Heavens they say; thither the bad men goe also, and knocke at His doore, but he bids them Quachel, that is to say Walke abroad, for there is no place for such ; so that they wander in restlesse want and penury. Never man saw this Kiehtan ; onely old men tell them of him, and bid them tell their children; yea, to charge them to teach their posterities the same, and lay the like charge upon them. This power they acknowledge to be good, and when they obtain any great matter, meet together and cry unto him, and so likewise for plenty, victory, &etc, sing, dance, feast, give thankes, and hang up garlands, and other things in memory of the same.

" Another power they worship whom they call Hobbamock, and to the northward of us Hobbamoqui; this as farre as wee can conceive is the devil), him they call upon to cure their wounds and diseases. When they are curable, hee perswades them hee sends the same for some conceited anger against them, hut upon their calling upon him, can and doth help them; but when they are mortall, and not curable in nature, then he perswades them Kiehtan is angry and sends them, whom none can cure ; insomuch, as in that respect onely they somewhat doubt whether hee bee simply good, and therefore in sicknesse never call upon him. This Hobbomock appears in sundry formes unto them, as in the shape of a man, a deare, a fawne, an eagle, tyc., but most ordinarily as a snake.-" fyc. Purchas's Pilgrim, lib. x. chap. v. vol. 4. p. 18ii7

This Hobbomock, or Hobbamoqui, who " appears in sundry forms," is evidently the Oku or Tutelary Deity, which each Indian worships; and Mr. Winslow's narrative affords a solution of the pretended worship of the devil, which the first settlers imagined they had discovered, and which has since been so frequently mentioned on their authority, without examination. The natives, it was found, worshipped another being, beside the Great Spirit, which every one called his Hobbomock, or Guardian Oke. This, the English thought, could be no other than the Devil, and accordingly they asserted, without further ceremony, what they believed to be a fact. Hence, in a " Tractate, written at Henrico in Virginia, by Master Alexander Whitaker, Minister to the Colony there," (anno 1613,) we find the following ap count of the worship of the Kevms, or Tutelary Deity of the Virginian Indians :

"They acknowledge that there is a Great Good God, but know him not, having the eyes of their understanding as yet blinded : wherefore they serve the devill for feare, after a most base manner, sacrificing sometimes, (as I have here heard,) their owne children to him.* / hare sent one image of their God to the eounsell in England, which is painted upon one side of a toadstoole, much like unto a deformed monster. Their priests, (whom they call Quiokosoughs,) are no other but such as our English witches are," he. Purchas, lib. ix. vol. 4. p 1771.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6BwwAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hobbomock&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=Hobbomock&f=false

Hobbamocke is spelled many ways (Hobamock, Hobbomok, Hobbomock, etc.), and is also known by different names, like Abbomocho, Chepian, Chepi, and Cheepi. His multiple names reflect his slippery nature - he's elusive and hard to pin down.

Hobbomok appears in dreams in many forms, including a deer, a man, or an eagle, but his favorite forms are the eel and the snake. Terrifyingly, Hobbomok also sometimes appears as a European, as John Josselyn recorded in 1674:"Another time, two Indians and an Indess, came running into our house crying out they should all dye, Cheepie (Hobbomok) was gone over the field gliding in the air with a long rope hanging from one of his legs: we askt them what he was like, they said all wone Englishman, clothed with hat and coat, shooes and stockings."http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2010/05/hobbomok-and-shamanic-power.html

Mather's Map

2012-01-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Devil (who was no other than the Indian Devil—Hobbomock)

2012-01-07T07:51:00.001-05:00

"What is their striking down with a fierce Look? What is their making of the Afflicted Rise, with a touch of their Hand? What is their Transportation thro' the Air? What is their Travelling in Spirit, while their Body is cast into a Trance? What is their causing of Cattle to run mad and perish? What is their Entring their Names in a Book? What is their coming together from all parts, at the Sound of a Trumpet? What is their Appearing sometimes Cloathed with Light or Fire upon them? What is their Covering of themselves and their Instruments with Invisibility? But a Blasphemous Imitation of certain Things recorded about our Saviour, or His Prophets, or the Saints in the Kingdom of God."

C. Mather

“From these examinations, it would appear that both Mrs. Foster and her daughter had caused themselves to be suspected as Witches, from neglecting the church services!

It will be noticed, moreover, in Mary Lacey's Confession, that, some three or four years before, she saw Mrs. Bradbury, How and Nurse baptized by the Devil at Newbury Falls, and says that " there were over six baptized at that time, who were some of the chief or higher powers,"—that is. Witches or Wizards of higher rank in the expected Kingdom of Satan, and then adds, " that there might be near about a hundred [Witches] in company at that time." Here we see some hundred or more Witches and Wizards—some of high rank—engaged in the Plot three or four years before 1692. In the confessions of Ann Foster, we see the number of Witches in 1692 increased to some three hundred or more, some of whom met from all quarters at Salem Village, and whose discourse was "that they would afflict there to set up the Devil's Kingdom." So that we have here the plot of the Witchcraft, its objects and aims. It was no sudden affair—had been gathering for years—and Salem Village, in 1692, was only the chosen locality for the beginning of the work.

Salem Village was indeed to be destroyed—that is, converted to Satan—as the whole people [Christians] in due time were to be, or else to be cut off by diabolical Witchcrafts and torments. The object of Satan in 1692 appears to have been either to convert the Christians to his own faith and into subjects of his Kingdom, or else destroy them out of the land by his arts and Witchcrafts, and thus re-establish his ancient Kingdom, then fearfully endangered by the spread of the Puritan Church, and the decrease of his own Priests and subjects—the Indian Wizards, and fast-fading Red Men. The White Witches and Wizards of 1692 were aiding this Devil—this Hobbomock in this desperate scheme of re-conquering the land. It was, in effect, Satan fighting in rage and despair for the possession of New England, aye, even the whole western world.”

Footnote to text:

“There can be no reasonable doubt that the Devil of 1692 was the Indian Devil, Hobbomock. Cotton Mather in his trial of George Boroughs (Wonders of Invisible World) says, that the Witches called the Devil a Black* man, " and they generally say he resembles an Indian." Hutchinson (on Witchcraft) informs us (p. 77) that Cotton Mather attributed the Witchcraft of 1692 to the Indian Powaws (or Wizards), as sending their spirits or demons among the Whites. Now as Hobbomock was the God of these Powaws, and their patron and instigator, we see that Hobbomock was at the bottom of the plot and for the reasons we have endeavored to give in the text.

Those therefore of the Whites, who were engaged in the Witchcraft of 1692, were doubtless considered as having been seduced into the Plot of this Indian Devil and his native Priests to destroy the hated Church of Christ in New England, and to aid him and them in setting up his expected Kingdom — his Kingdom, moreover, as referred to in the Apocalypse.

The Satan of 1692 was evidently believed to be the old biblical Satan; but who in America took upon himself the disguise of an Indian, and in order to be the Indian Deity —he being able to assume any and all shapes and disguises to suit his own purposes. Thus our Fathers, while combatting Hobbomock,were only (in their own imaginations) dealing with the same Devil who had seduced Eve, tormented Job, tempted the Saviour, and assumed the shapes of various Saints and Apostles; and who would appear (if need be) even as an Angel of Light to deceive the very eleot. He was, too, the Satan of the Apocalypse.” ~ George Cheever in Historical collections of the Essex Institute, Volume 3

http://books.google.com/books?id=PG8MAAAAYAAJ&dq=Hobbomock&pg=PA70#v=onepage&q=Hobbomock&f=false

PREHISTORIC AMERICA VOLUME II.

2012-01-05T12:59:00.001-05:00

BY STEPHEN D. PEET, 1896.

EMBLEMATIC MOUNDS A N D ANIMAL EFFIGIES.

This book is the result of personal explorations which have continued at intervals for several years…It was the experience of the author that a single visit was not sufficient, for each successive visit would be sure to bring out some new point, either new mounds were discovered or new relations of the mounds to the topography were recognized, or new ideas were gained as to the use of the mounds or new significance seen in their shapes.As to the points which the author has sought to bring out in his explorations and descriptions the following is a summary:

First: the shape of the effigies. Great care has been taken to make the shape conform to the measurements, and yet the effigies have been studied by the eye so as to bring out the actual figures.

Second: The grouping of the effigies. The relative position of the various figures in the groups and the relative position of the groups in each series and of the series to each locality have all been studied. The practical use of the effigies could not be ascertained without thus studying the system.

Third: The relation of the effigies to the topography has been closely scrutinized for this often reveals the real object. The elevation as well as the location has been studied. The view from the mounds has also always been noticed. It is an outside observation which often suggests the intent and purpose of the effigy as well as the measurement of the figure itself.

Fourth: The contents of the mounds have been studied with more or less care. Excavation has not been the chief object. Relic hunting is not a specialty with the writer.

Fifth: The totem system and clan life have been carefully investigated. The location of the effigies with the geographical surrounding will reveal much of the real history and character of the builders. The shape of the effigies will often show the name or emblem of the clan. This inner history of the people has been our chief object of study.

The destruction of the monuments has been a great hindrance to the full understanding of them. The writer considers himself fortunate in having entered upon this field before the destruction was carried on further than it is. In a few years the data would have been lost and it would have been impossible to give the explanation of groups. Even the destruction of a single mound will at times destroy the clue which is essential to understand the groups.
The mythologic significance and the intent of the effigies as picture writing cannot be deciphered when any of the figures have disappeared. It is to be hoped that the effigies will be preserved and that this book will be an inducement for the continuance of the .study and will increase the interest in them us the monuments of a people which has passed away."

http://www.archive.org/stream/prehistoricameri02peet/prehistoricameri02peet_djvu.txt

(I was looking this part of the book: "Serpent circle near Utley's...head and tail making a gateway or opening to the circle," but couldn't search for the phrase. I posted this because it so sounds so familiar even tho' it's 100 plus years later. Could be Peter saying it rather than Peet, so to speak.)

Indian Myths And Effigy Mounds (1889)

2012-01-04T06:46:00.000-05:00

By Rev. S. D. Peet

“Turtle mounds are found scattered along the bluffs to the east of the city, but here they probably mark the sites of cabins which were erected by the people. The turtle is seen in every group which has been found in this vicinity, and seems to have been the chief mound in each…There are twelve groups and about 100 mounds in all, but of this number 21 are Turtle mounds. The groups are so placed that one answers to another from all the hill tops..."

…The totems of other tribes were painted upon the tents or were carved into posts and placed near the doors of the houses or the graves of the dead, but here were built as great earth-heaps, They indicated the name and ancestry of the people. The effigies did the same thing, but in addition they served a practical purpose. They were used as screens for hunters, as defensive walls for villages, as foundations for houses, as mounds for the burial of the dead, and at the same time were representations of the mythologic ideas of the people.

This point we think is clear: whatever the tribe was who built the effigies, that tribe evidently placed its totems or clan emblems on the soil.”

We would here call attention to a peculiar kind of gamedrive. It seems to have been a kind of corral, as if the Moundbuilders had kept domestic animals, and yet it may have been a trap or double screen in which the grazing animals were supposed to feed, but behind which the hunters were supposed to hide. It is well known that elk, moose, and deer feed in low places in winter by scraping away the snow, and that in the summer they resort to the same places where they stamp the ground and beat down the high grass. These game-drives are low places, but near streams. One such we have discovered on the bank of the Turtle, three miles north of Beloit. A mile from this place, nearer Beloit, is the game-drive which is represented in the cut. It is a game-drive for deer, and is arranged for the deer to be driven two or three different ways. We judge it to be a deer-drive from the fact that the panther is the effigy here, the panther being the animal which preys upon the deer. There is a turtle on the low ground and another on the point which is used for a lookout. Our interpretation of it is that the deer was driven from its feeding ground to the game-drive and shot at from both places."

Fig. 160.—Turtles and Panthers in a Game Drive at BcloiL

· The American antiquarian and oriental journal

http://books.google.com/books?id=hJMLAAAAIAAJ&dq=serpent+at+summit&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q=turtle&f=false

A (single stone) Sea Turtle?

2012-01-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

From: http://www.mvartsandideas.com/arts/visiting-artists/aaron-siskind

Compare to:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/08/westbrook-ct-july-2011.html

Detail in "A Wall of No Great Importance"

2012-01-03T07:36:00.002-05:00

Here’s an “Abandoned Stone Wall” - "More affectionately known as (a)"wild wall(s)," this type is usually fairly old; farmstead walls that have since tumbled and become unkempt. Very few of these (especially the oddest-shaped constructions) may be pre-European in age. Regardless of their original origin, all have since become ruins,” according to Robert Thorson, who actually admits in the description that such rows may be pre-historic. It was deemed a “Wall of No Great Importance” by the CT State Preservation Officer back around 2005 when a road realignment threatened to (and did) destroy a great deal of pre-historic zigzag stone row along a former Indian Trail that has become a road, the road I live on. See: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/01/wall-of-no-great-importance.html http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/09/assorted-snakesend-stones.html

I maintained that the stone (perched on top of the “point” of this section of zigzag above) was a turtle stone back then when I was trying to get the archeological community to take a closer look at the row. I wish I had noticed this particular stone back then and had the concept of a Humanly Worked Single Stone Turtle in my “glossary.” It has since become a familiar shape, even in places I haven't been: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2010/10/leominster-familiar-shape.html

It doesn’t look like much at first, a stone broken and eroded where it points outward from the row:

But seen just right, it resembles many other Single Stone Turtles, the testudinate carapace shape of the stone, with some chipping done at the wider end, to create the head of a turtle and the suggestion of the opening in the shell as well:

Above looking NW, below looking SE. The darker colored shaggy barked tree is very close to the stone; in the distance is the former Indian Field of the "Wigwams," the stone Fishweir aproximately in the center of the photo.

The "Abandoned Stone Wall" Image Search

2012-01-02T09:19:00.002-05:00

The "Stone Wall Myth" - the idea that only Europeans could stack stones - includes the catch phrase "Abandoned Stone Walls." The phrase also makes a handy tool with which to do a Google Image Search if you are looking for examples of pre-colonial Native American Stonework:

"Abandoned stone wall in northern part of Beebe Woods in Cape Cod. Falmouth, Massachusetts, February 14, 2004,"
reads the caption under this image found at

http://www.asergeev.com/pictures/archives/compress/2004/377/23s.htm

I think of this as the "Indian Look."

Let me link you back to:
http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2006/08/rock-piles-built-into-walls.html

Heckewelder "enclosed it with a fence"

2012-01-01T10:41:00.001-05:00

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nylnphs/Images/V05-04.GIF

( http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nylnphs/V5/2.htm)

( Shekomeko NY: http://binged.it/sA9TCC)

CCCCXVI. Indian Reasoning.
In the year 1777, says the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder, in his interesting account of the Indian Nations, some travelling Indians having put their horses over night in my little meadow at Gnadenhutten on the Muskingum, I called on them in the morning to know why they had done it. I endeavoured to make them sensible of the injury they had done me, especially as I intended to mow the meadow in a day or two. Having finished iny complaint, one of them replied—' My friend, it seems you lay claim to the grass my horses have eaten, because you have enclosed it with a fence; now tell me who caused the grass to grow? Can you make the grass grow? I think not, and nobody can, except the great Mannitto. He it is who causes it to grow both for my horses and for yours! See friend! the grass which grows out of the earth, is common to all. Say—did you ever eat venison and bear's meat ?'—' Yes, very often !'— 'Well, and did you ever hear me or any other Indian complain about that?' 'No.'—' Then be not disturbed at my horses eating only once, of what you call your grass, though the grass my horses eat, in like manner as the meat you did eat, was given to the Indians by the Great Spirit. Besides, if you will but consider, you will find that my horses did not eat all your grass. For friendship's sake, however, I shall not put my horses in your meadow again.'

http://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/images/gallery/Emmaus-by-Grider_600x407.jpg

Gimme That Old Time Photography

2012-01-01T09:02:00.002-05:00

An aerial photo from the 1930's (in PA) aquired from:

http://laurelhillwalks.blogspot.com/2011/12/evans-hill-mound-bit-of-background.html

a detail from that, hinting of an Indian Trail, bounded by stone rows, as are the non-square "fields" or ancient Indian Resource zones:

(Below) An aerial photo from the 1930's (in CT) used in this post:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-town-farm.html

Also hinting of Indian Trails, bounded by (zigzag) stone rows, as are the non-square "fields" or ancient Indian Resource zones.

This takes you to fairly recent in PA where the path might be fairly untouched:

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6002=q:evan's+hill,+indiana+county+pa:nelat:40.4206690632724:nelong:-78.898061584681:swlat:40.3321098747605:swlong:-79.055475067347:nosp:0:adj:0&p=c/5872/style=be&lat=qrvqv9&lon=8d8fyk&alt=482.522644&z=16&pid=5874

This takes you to fairly recent in CT, where the paths are now modern roads:

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6002=q:grey+fox+trail,+06798:nelat:40.5770383030694:nelong:-79.0735385647125:swlat:40.5660036969297:swlong:-79.1007254352875:nosp:0:adj:0&p=c/5872/style=be&lat=qxx22b&lon=8x1rrr&alt=98.729139&z=17&pid=5874

(Camera-less, I recently drove up Grey Fox and Barnhill, surprised at the stone work that still exists - and the huge rockpiles I plan on photographing...)

And:

a 1930's photo (I can't remember where I aquired it) showing some cross and rail wooden fences (over stone rows?):

2011-12-31T08:03:00.000-05:00

“they have neither the tooles, nor skill, nor heart to fence their grounds (p. 95)."

Letter from Eliot to Whitfield, April 18, 1650; Indians of the Nipmuck Country in Southern New England 1630-1750 By Dennis A. Connole

My take on this is that John Eliot was encouraging Indians to turn existing stone rows into the legal fences defined by the early colonists that justified and signified ownership of land. The multi-purpose stone rows that were created by Indians were not only practical devices for land management of resource zones also contained elements of Ceremonialism, a sacredness and spirituality shown by the careful and artistic placement of the stones, the shapes of the rows themselves, sort of as if the whole Ethnographic Cultural Landscape was a big piece of religious architecture.
The tooles were the metal axes and wedges used to split rails, I'm guessing, the skills the ability to make "cross and rail" fences and the heart similar to a response to the suggestion that your church house would make a good barn for livestock.
Or your sacred stone sweatlodge would be a great pigpen.
I can see how the suggestion would be met with little enthusiasm.

Smith in NE 1615/There never was a Nipmuc tribe as such

2011-12-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Captain John Smith in NE 1615

“That part wee call New England…but that parte this discourse speaketh of, stretcheth but from Pennobscot to Cape Cod…Southward along the Coast and the Riuers we found Mecadacut, Segocket, Pemmaquid, Nusconcus, Kenebeck, Sagadakock, and Aumonghcawgen; And to those Countries belong the people of Segotago, Paghhuntanuck, Pocopasmm, Taughtanakagnet, Warbigganus, Nassaque, Mashcrosqueck, Wawrigweck, Moshoquen, Wakeogo, Pasharanack, 8tc. To these are allied the Countries of Aucocisco, Accominticus, Passataquack, Aggmoom, and Naemkeck: all these, I could perceiue, differ little in language, fashion, or gouernment: though most be Lords of themselues, yet they hold the Bashabes of Pennobscot, the chiefe and greatest amongst them.

The next I can remember by name are Mattahunts; two pleasant lles of groues, gardens and corne fields a league in the Sea from the Mayne. Then Totant, Massachuset, Pocapawmet, Quonahassit, Sagoquas, Nahapassumkeck, Topeent, Seccasaw, Tothtet, JSasnocomacak,. Accomack, Chawum; Then Cape Cod by which is Pawmet and the He Nawset of the language, and alliance of them of Chawum: The others are called Massachusets; of another language, humor and condition: For their trade and marchandize; to each of their habitations they haue diuerse Townes and people belonging; and by their relations and descriptions, more then 20 seuerall Habitations and Riuers that stretch themselues farre vp into the Countrey, euen to the borders of diuerse great Lakes, where they kill and take most of their Bevers and Otters. From Pennobscot to Sagadahock this Coast is all Mountainous and lles of huge Rocks, but ouergrowen with all sorts of excellent good woodes for building houses, boats, barks or shippes; with an incredible abundance of most sorts of fish, much fowle, and sundry sorts of good fruites for mans vse…Betwixt Sagadahock and Sowocatuck there is but The milium or two or three sandy Bayes, but betwixt that and wyieCape Cod very many: especialy the Coast of the Massachusets is so indifferently mixed with high clayie or sandy cliffes in one place, and then tracts of large long ledges of diuers sorts, and quarries of stones in other places so strangely diuided with trincturetl veines of diuers colours: aSj Free stone for building. Slate for tiling, smooth stone to make Fornaces and Forges for glasse or iron, and iron ore sufficient, conueniently to melt in them: but the most part so resembleth the Coast of Deuonshire, I thinke most of the cliffes would make such limestone: If they be not of these qualities, they are so like, the)' may deceiue a better iudgement then mine; all which are so neere adioyning to those other aduanlages I obserued in these parts, that if the Ore proiie as good iron and steele in those parts, as-1 know it is within the bounds of the Countrey, I dare engage my head (hauing but men skilfull to worke the simples there growing) to haue all things belonging to the building the rigging of ship pes of any proportion, and good marchandize for the fraught, within a square of 10 or 14 leagues: and were it for a good'rewar.de, I would not feare to procure it in a lesse limitation.

And surely by reason of those sandy cliffes and cliffs of rocks, both which we saw so planted with Gardens and Corne fields, and so well inhabited with a goodly, strong and well proportioned people, besides the greatnesse of the Timber growing on them, the greatnesse of the fish and moderate temper of the ayre…”

http://books.google.com/books?id=n8A8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22so%20planted%20with%20Gardens%20and%20Corne%20fields%22&pg=PA422#v=onepage&q=%22so%20planted%20with%20Gardens%20and%20Corne%20fields%22&f=false

A Nipmuc History:

[Note: This is a single part of what will be, by my classification, about 240 compact tribal histories (contact to 1900). It is limited to the lower 48 states of the U.S. but also includes those First Nations from Canada and Mexico that had important roles (Huron, Micmac, Assiniboine, etc.).

Feel free to comment or suggest corrections via e-mail. Working together we can end some of the historical misinformation about Native Americans. You will find the ego at this end to be of standard size. Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to your comments...Lee Sultzman]

There never was a Nipmuc tribe as such. Nipmuc is a geographical classification given to the native peoples who lived in central Massachusetts and the adjoining parts of southern New England. They lived in independent bands and villages, some of which at different times were allied with, or subject to, the powerful native confederacies which surrounded them. Massomuck, Monashackotoog, and Quinnebaug were Nipmuck, but they were subject to the Pequot before 1637. In like manner, the Nashaway at one time belonged to the Sokoni and Pennacook, while Squawkeag was originally part of the Pocumtuc.

Villages: Accomemeck (Acoomemeck), Assabet, Attawaugan, Boggistowe, Chabanakonkomun, Cochhituate, Cocatoonemaug, Coweset (see Narragansett), Escoheag (Eascoheage, Easterig), Hadley Indians, Manchaug (Monuhchogok) (see Pequot), Mashapaug (see Massachuset), Massomuck (Wabaquasset, Wappaquasset, Wabiquisset) (see Pequot) (subject to Mohegan after 1637), Medfield, Menemesseg, Metewemesick, Missogkonnog, Monashackotoog (Monoshantuxet) (see Pequot), Musketaquid, Nashua (Nashaway) (see Sokoni and Pennacook), Naukeag, Nichewaug, Nipnet, Pascoag (Paskhoage), Pegan (Piegan), Poniken (Ponnakin), Quaddick, Quahmsit, Quinebaug (Quinnebaug, Quinapeake) (see Pequot), Quinsigamond, Segreganset, Segunesit, Squawkeag (Squaeg) (see Pocumtook), Tatumasket, Totapoag, Wenimesset, Woruntuck, Wunnashowatuckoog (see Pequot), and Wusquowhanaukit.

Praying Indian Villages 1674:Chachaubunkkakowok (Chaubunagungamaug), Hassanamesit, Magunkaquog (Makunkokoag, Magunkook), Manchaug (Monuhchogok), Manexit (Maanexit, Mayanexit, Fabyan), Massomuck (Wabaquasset, Wappaquasset, Wabiquisset) (also Pequot), Nashoba (Nashobah), Okommakamesit (Ockoogameset), Pakachoog (Packachaug), Quabaug (Quaboag), Quantisset (Quinetusset), Wacuntug (Wacuntuc, Wacumtaug), and Washacum.

Praying Indian Villages 1680: Chachaubunkkakowok (Chaubunagungamaug), Hassanamisco, Magunkaquog (Makunkokoag, Magunkook), Manchaug, Manexit (Maanexit, Mayanexit, Fabyan), Massomuck (Wabaquasset, Wabiquisset), Nashobah, Nashaway (Weshacum), Okommakamesit (Ockoogameset), Pakachoog (Packachaug), Quabaug (Quaboag), Quantisset (Quinetusset), Wacuntug (Wacuntuc, Wacumtaug), and Wamesit. There was also small reservation at Hassanamesit.

http://www.dickshovel.com/nipmuc.html

Native American Turtle Mythology

2011-12-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

"Turtles play positive roles in the folklore of many Native American tribes. In the creation myths of some East Coast tribes (such as the Iroquois and Lenape), the Great Spirit created their homeland by placing earth on the back of a giant turtle. This is why some contemporary Native Americans refer to North America as "Turtle Island." In Plains Indian tribes, turtles are associated with long life, protection, and fertility. In some Plains tribes, a newborn girl's umbilical cord was sewn into a figure in the shape of a turtle to ensure her health and safety. In other tribes, turtles are associated with healing, wisdom, and spirituality.

Turtles are also used as clan animals in some Native American cultures. Tribes with Turtle Clans include the Chippewa (whose Turtle Clan and its totem are called Mikinaak,) the Menominee (whose Mud Turtle Clan is named Maehkaenah,) the Huron-Wyandot (who at one point had four different turtle clans: mud turtle, water turtle, striped turtle, and great turtle,) and the Abenaki, Shawnee, and Iroquois tribes. The turtle was also the special tribal emblem of the Lenape Delawares, who have a Turtle Dance among their tribal dance traditions."

A collection of Turtle Stories here: http://www.native-languages.org/legends-turtle.htm

Ceremonial Landscape

2011-12-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

Two aerial photographs [ top left and right] of the changing geographical context at Rancho Los Alamitos taken a half century apart, from expansive farm lands to suburban subdivision— is eminently clear. This dramatic change to the property’s context will have an effect on future planning and treatment recommendations. (Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation)

When archaeologists can’t quite understand something they (or somebody else) has found, it becomes “Ceremonial,” regardless of whether or not that “Ceremony” might be known. The only result I got looking for a definition of Ceremonial Landscape this morning is:

Ceremonial stone landscaperom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ceremonial Stone Landscapes is the term used by USET, United Southern and Eastern Tribes, Inc.[1], a non-profit, inter-tribal organization of American Indians, for certain stone work sites in eastern North America. Elements often found at these sites include dry stone walls, rock piles (sometimes referred to as cairns), stone chambers, unusually-shaped boulders, split boulders with stones inserted in the split, and boulders propped up off the ground with smaller rocks. While neither the age of these sites nor the idea of their creation by indigenous peoples has been accepted generally, interest in the sites is increasing. This interest is generated in part by USET's Resolution #2007:037 [2], entitled Sacred Ceremonial Stone Landscapes Found in the Ancestral Territories of United Southern and Eastern Tribes, Inc. Member Tribes.”

http://dictionary.sensagent.com/ceremonial+stone+landscape/en-en/

Easier to find is the definition of Cultural Landscapes:

“Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man..".[2]

The World Heritage Committee has identified and adopted three categories of cultural landscape, ranging from (i) those landscapes most deliberately 'shaped' by people, through (ii) full range of 'combined' works, to (iii) those least evidently 'shaped' by people (yet highly valued). The three categories extracted from the Committee's Operational Guidelines, are as follows[3]:

(i) "a landscape designed and created intentionally by man"; (like Central Park in NYC or your local Walmart)

(ii) an "organically evolved landscape" which may be a "relict (or fossil) landscape" or a "continuing landscape";

(iii) an "associative cultural landscape" which may be valued because of the "religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_landscape

So I guess what I really spent a lot of time looking at and wondering about is an “associative cultural landscape” or at least the remains of one type of Associated Cultural Landscape called an Ethnographic Landscape (a landscape containing a variety of natural and cultural resources that associated people define as heritage resources. Examples are contemporary settlements, religious sacred sites and massive geological structures. Small plant communities, animals, subsistence and ceremonial grounds are often components.) sticking out of the layers of successive cultural landscapes that sort of surround it or have made use of it in some instances, as in the case of “stone walls.”

So here is what the World Heritage Committee has to say

The Associative Cultural Landscape is a type that is linked to cultural traditions. The inclusion of such landscapes on the World Heritage List is justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent. The associative cultural landscape is the physical place where intangible aspects of cultural heritage are embodied.

Examples of each type of cultural landscape are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Since 1992, with the acceptance of these definitions and the ability to inscribe cultural landscapes, there have been 60 cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value to all of humanity inscribed as a shared global heritage. Cultural landscapes are places of heritage value. Geologically diverse cultural landscapes are a rich array of local, regional and global heritage resources. For example:

• Sacred groves in Ghana that foster traditional medicine and preserve biodiversity date to early peoples

• Seashore villages that express the interdependence of the sea and the community in ways of life, craft, work, settlement pattern, land uses and scale example—Norway? Nova Scotia

• Egyptian and Chinese tomb site planning, layout , earth forms and structures are ancient designed landscape

• Modern gardens of globally important landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx date to the twentieth century

• The sacred mountain of the New Zealand Maori peoples is associated with spiritual beliefs

http://www.iflaclc.org/definitions.html

Detailed Documentation of a Cultural Landscape

A single landscape architect may begin with a specific historic landscape for a preservation project or in response to a threat. The completion of a detailed inventory form may follow the international form prepared by the ICOMOS IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes (see right). There are also inventory forms from several countries that may be of use for inventory planning (see right). The location, name and history of the landscape are gathered along with details of the existing conditions, ownership, access and legal protection.

The historic character of the landscape, and the degree to which that character is evident today, guides the research and documentation of the inventory, and contributes to assessment and planning for the future. In developing an inventory we seek to perceive and document the full range of resources that comprise the landscape. A useful approach is to follow a comprehensive landscape character-defining features check list as a guide.

This list directs attention to each aspect of the physical landscape:

• Land Uses, Patterns, Clusters

• Natural Systems

• Spatial Organization

• Visual Relationships

• Topography, Surface Drainage

• Vegetation

• Circulation Systems

• Water Features, Natural and Constructed

• Non-Habitable Landscape Structures and Buildings

• Spatial Character of Habitable Structures

• Vocabulary of Site Furnishings and Objects

The tangible, character-defining features of the landscape, noted in this listing, should be explored in the archival research, historic period narratives, fieldwork addressing existing conditions, and exploration and selection of preservation interventions. Rediscovering, in detail, the historic character of the landscape guides the consideration of the future.

The intangible values and meanings of a cultural landscape should also be documented and understood. These values may include:

• Location for festivals

• Setting for traditional music, dance, performance

• Route of pilgrimage

• Setting for worship

• Place of memory of past events

• Place of traditional practices

• Gathering place for native plants

• Gathering place for craft materials

• Traditional place for experience at a special time of year

http://www.iflaclc.org/inventory/documentation.html

In the USA, here is a link to “the” guidelines, prefaced by this little bit:

Cultural landscapes are composed of a collection of features which are organized in space. They include small-scale features such as individual fountains or statuary, as well as patterns of fields and forest which define the spatial character of the landscape.

Individual features in the landscape should never be viewed in isolation, but in relationship to the landscape as a whole. Each situation may vary, and some features may often be more important than others. For example, circulation (roads, parkways, drives, trails, walks, paths, parking areas, and canals) may be an important historic element in one landscape, while in another it may have little if any significance.

Overall, it is the arrangement and the interrelationship of these character-defining features as they existed during the period of significance that is most critical to consider prior to treatment. As such, landscape features should always be assessed as they relate to the property as a whole. Thus, spatial organization and land patterns are always listed first in each section of the Guidelines.

Organizational Elements of the Landscape

Spatial Organization and Land Patterns refers to the three-dimensional organization and patterns of spaces in a landscape, like the arrangement of rooms in a house. Spatial organization is created by the landscape’s cultural and natural features. Some form visual links or barriers (such as fences and hedgerows); others create spaces and visual connections in the landscape (such as topography and open water). The organization of such features defines and creates spaces in the landscape and often is closely related to land use. Both the functional and visual relationship between spaces is integral to the historic character of a property. In addition, it is important to recognize that spatial relationships may change over time due to a variety of factors, including: environmental impacts (e.g. drought, flood), plant growth and succession, and changes in land use or technology.

Character-Defining Features of the Landscape

There are many character-defining features that collectively contribute to the historic character of a cultural landscape. These are as follows:

Topography, the shape of the ground plane and its height or depth, is a character-defining feature of the landscape. Topography may occur naturally or as a result of human manipulation. For example, topographic features may contribute to the creation of outdoor spaces, serve a functional purpose, or provide visual interest.

Vegetation features may be individual plants, as in the case of a specimen tree, or groups of plants such as a hedge, allee, agricultural field, planting bed, or a naturally-occurring plant community or habitat. Vegetation includes evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and ground covers, and both woody and herbaceous plants. Vegetation may derive its significance from historical associations, horticultural or genetic value, or aesthetic or functional qualities. It is a primary dynamic component of the landscape’s character; therefore, the treatment of cultural landscapes must recognize the continual process of germination, growth, seasonal change, aging, decay, and death of plants. The character of individual plants is derived from habit, form, color, texture, bloom, fruit, fragrance, scale and context.

Circulation features may include, roads, parkways, drives, trails, walks, paths, parking areas, and canals. Such features may occur individually or be linked to form networks or systems. The character of circulation features is defined by factors such as alignment, width, surface and edge treatment, grade, materials, and infrastructure.

Water features may be aesthetic as well as functional components of the landscape. They may be linked to the natural hydrologic system or may be fed artificially; their associated water supply, drainage, and mechanical systems are important components. Water features include fountains, pools, cascades, irrigation systems, ponds, lakes, streams, and aqueducts. The characteristics of water features and reflective qualities; and associated plant and animal life, as well as water quality. Special consideration may be required due to the seasonal changes in water such as variations in water table, precipitation, and freezing.

Structures, site furnishings, and objects may contribute to a landscape’s significance and historic character. Structures are non-habitable, constructed features, unlike buildings which have walls and roofs and are generally habitable. Structures may be significant individually or they may simply contribute to the historic character of the landscape. They may include walls, terraces, arbors, gazebos, follies, tennis courts, playground equipment, greenhouses, cold frames, steps, bridges, and dams. The placement and arrangement of buildings and structures are important to the character of the landscape; these guidelines emphasize the relationship between buildings, structures, and other features which comprise the historic landscape. For additional and specific guidance related to the treatment of historic buildings, please consult the Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring and Reconstructing Historic Buildings.

Site furnishings and objects generally are small-scale elements in the landscape that may be functional, decorative, or both. They can include benches, lights, signs, drinking fountains, trash receptacles, fences, tree grates, clocks, flagpoles, sculpture, monuments, memorials, planters, and urns. They may be movable, used seasonally, or permanently installed. Site furnishings and objects occur as singular items, in groups of similar or identical features, or as part of a system (e.g. signage). They may be designed or built for a specific site, available though a catalog, or created as vernacular pieces associated with a particular region or cultural group. They may be significant in their own right, for example, as works of art or as the work of an important designer.

http://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments/landscape-guidelines/organization.htm

Native American Research and Preservation, Inc.

2011-12-28T06:54:00.000-05:00

"Near Crestone, Colorado there are four intriguing stone 'hut' structures. Who built them? When? For what purpose? These are the questions we are seeking to answer. Some theories are they were built by railroad workers as bread ovens. However, construction of the railroad was not begun here until 1901.

Three of the structures do not have any openings to allow smoke to escape and do not appear to be smoke blackened inside. The smallest one does not have a top of any kind. Two are very 'turtle' shaped. One has a stone 'tail' which aligns to the East. One has a stone 'shelf' in the back which aligns with the Winter Solstice sunset..."

"We would like to hear from you if anyone knows of similar structures, their uses, age, etc."

http://stonequest.org/StoneHuts.aspx

Using Primary Sources to Reconstruct the Past

2011-12-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Learning at the National Heritage Museum

Using Primary Sources to Reconstruct the Past; July 03, 2008 Lexington: Farming

Primary Source: landscape with stone walls

(Image courtesy of J. Broggi)

The primary source for landscape is the landscape around you. The ways in which humans have shaped the land has left its mark, and offer clues to past use and past values. This photo illustrates the typical modern appearance of land once used for farming in Lexington and surrounding agricultural towns in Massachusetts. In Colonial America, fences were commonly (said to be- Tim) constructed from stones gathered in line and piled two-to-three feet high, with tree stumps and timber on top fashioned into rails. These fences delineated property boundaries and fields, and contained livestock. As this purpose waned, so did the rails, leaving the rows of stones.

(Humans who lived here for thousands of years before the Colonials regularly burned the landscape they shaped, using stone rows to control the burning. The Colonials may have merely added the rails to the existing Indian constructions. – Tim)

In addition, tax valuations and assessments can help in drawing a picture of farms of the past for which no images actually exist.

Several texts exist that can guide you in reading and interpreting the shaped landscape of your local town. Some examples are: "Reading the Forested Landscape" by Tom Wessels, "Common Landscape of America" by John R. Stilgoe, and "Sermons in Stone: the Stone Walls of New England & New York" by Susan Allport.
(http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/learning/)

Early Fences; Rails, Pales and Meer Stones

2011-12-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

George Henry Durrie: Gathering Wood for Winter (New Haven CT) 1855

Found at http://b-womeninamericanhistory19.blogspot.com/2010/12/snowy-19th-century-american-countryside.html

where there are more paintings of farmers gathering wood than building stone walls...

“Not contenting themselves with mere justice, the New Haven colony were also kind and helpful to their Indian neighbors. Take, for evidence and illustration, the following action of the town of New Haven concerning a field which the Indians desired to have fenced:

" The governor acquainted the town that the Indians complain that the swine that belong to the town, or farms, do them much wrong in eating their corn; and now they intend to take in a new piece of ground, and they desired the English would help them to fence it, and that those who have meadows at the end of their ground would fence it, and save them fencing about. Sergeant Jeffrey and John Brockett were desired to go speak with them, to know what ground it is which they intend to take in, and to view it, and see what fencing it may be, and give them the best direction they can. The sagamore also desires the town to give him a coat. He saith he is old and poor, and cannot work. The town declared themselves free that he should have a coat given him at the town's charge."

At the next meeting it was "Ordered, concerning the Indians' land spoken of the last court, that Thomas Jeffrey, John Brockett, William Tuttle, and Robert Talmadge shall be a committee to view the ground which they say is theirs, and to advise them for the best about fencing; the meadow lying against their ground bearing its due proportion; and that some men be appointed at the town's charge to show them how, and help them in their fencing; that so we may not have such complaints from them of cattle and hogs spoiling their corn, which they say makes their squaws and children cry."

At a later date it was "Ordered that the townsmen shall treat with the Indians, getting Mr. Pierson and his Indian for interpreters, and make a full agree¬ment in writing what we shall do, and what they shall be bound to; and let them know that what their agreement is, we expect they shall perform it."

In this agreement threescore days' work was promised' to the Indians toward their fence, and the town voted that the work "should be done by men fit and able for the work, and be paid for out of the town treasury."

Just and kind treatment of the aborigines was re¬quired of the English by politic prudence as well as by Christian benevolence. The action concerning the sagamore's coat and the fence around his land was taken in 1653, when, throughout all the colonies, these was some fear of a general combination of Indians against the English. New Haven does not seem to have felt any present distrust of the tribes within her borders, but the intermingling of neighborly kindness with orders for special military preparations and pre¬cautions suggests that the manifestations of kindness may have proceeded, not from pure benevolence, but from a complex motive in which prudence was a con¬siderable element (Atwater Chapter 15 pages 325 – 6).”

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/colony/chapter15.html

"If we turn to Dorchester (MA) in 1633, it is "ordered that for such as have great lotts they shall joyne together in paling (tr.v. paled, pal•ing, pales: “To enclose with pales - stakes or pointed sticks ; to fence in”)… then such as are beyond if they will pale are to remove to the last that will pale and he that will not to go without, every one that will pale to give in his name by to-morrow seven night."

That is, these fences separated Dorchester from the natural world around. An independent owner, who would not fence against the outward world, both giving and taking the protection of neighboring fields, must move out and must let a better communist approach to seek the friendly enclosure. Again, a particular locality " shall be forthwith enclosed by good sufficient Pale, and whosoever fayles shall forfeit his said lott." In 1633 they agree to run a double rail fence in the proportion of twenty feet to each cow. The largest owners had four cows and each set eighty feet.

There was much detail in enforcing these wholesome regulations. Fence-viewers were appointed, fines assessed and collected, etc. The New Haven 2 proprietors fenced together in a similar manner. New London8 in 1651 fenced a common field for planting Indian corn. Norwalk, Ct.,4 makes a drain in common in 1654, through "every man's lott in the meadows." Allowance is made to each proprietor for his loss of ground…

It was very generally determined that any timber felled should not lie and waste, but should be speedily converted into useful lumber. Hadley votes in 1660 that any one felling " rift" timber shall rive it into bolts, i. e. pieces for shingles, laths, etc., pales, rails, clapboards, etc., within six weeks, or any inhabitant may appropriate and cart it away."

Hist. Plymouth, pp. 302,304. a Town Records, Bos. City Doc., p. 4.

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA59&dq=new+england++fencing+history&ei=YYnwTqffEsbf0QHrodmBAg&id=WLl4AAAAMAAJ&output=text

"Fences.—The people of Hadley fenced the common fields, school meadow and homelots, and for a century not many other lots. The fences were chiefly of two sorts, (see page 41.) 1st, a fence was made of 5 rails with posts, about 4 feet high.

2d, a sufficient ditch was dug, (perhaps some were 3 feet wide and more than 2 feet deep,) and the earth was thrown upon one bank, and a line of posts with 2 or 3 rails was set upon this bank. This fence, from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the rails, may have been near 6 feet high. It is believed that oak and chestnut posts and rails were used; and probably some rails were pine. A few made stone wall for common fence, getting stones from Mount Holyoke and Mount Warner; and in 1747, a complaint was made that fence viewers passed brush hedge for common fence. Some private lots were fenced with logs in the last century. The post and rail fence continues. The ditch fence was used many years after 1800, and some had brush fence.

Rails in the 17th century, were about 10 shillings per hundred. Very few were sold in Hadley. The carting was expensive; the trees grew on the commons and cost nothing. Rails rose to 12s. 14s. 16s. and 18s. before 1790. Posts with holes, rose from 3d. to 4d. and 5d. Men made good 5 rail fence about the school lot and found posts and rails, for 2s. 6d. a rod, or Is. 8d. as money, in 1683 and 1699.* Ditches were dug in the last century at 8 pence per rod, when labor was 2s. a day. Three rods were a day's work.

http://www.colebrookhistoricalsociety.org/Early%20Types%20of%20Fencing.htm

The crooked Virginia fence was observed by Kalm in Pennsylvania and New York in 1749, and called worm fence. It was made in some towns in New England where rails were plenty not long after that date. It was not very extensive in Hadley in the last century; has been more used since. The rails are of chestnut.

John Pynchon had four kinds of fence at Springfield and Suffield in the 17th century. The greater part was made of posts and five rails; other kinds were made of pales, of a ditch and dead hedge, and of a dead hedge alone. His rails, posts and pales were of white oak, and some of chestnut. His rails were 111/2 feet long and posts 6 or 61/2 feet. Carting rails from the woods in Springfield cost 4 or 5 shillings per hundred. Some of his ditches exceeded 4 feet in width and :} feet in depth, with a dead hedge on the bunk. Dead hedges were made by setting stakes in the ground 'Z or 3 feet apart, and interweaving bushes, limbs and young trees. These wattled fences were very different from common brush fences.

Page 41: Hadley ordered, in 1669, that Little Pansett fence should be made "with ditch, posts and two or three rails on the same," or as expressed in another vote, "with ditch and two or three rails on the same." The broad ditch and high bank of earth thrown out of the ditch, were an important part of the old common fence; they may still be seen on both sides of the river. The ditch was on the outside of the bank and rails, for the main object of the fence was to secure the meadows from domestic animals that roved in the woods on the outside.—Some of the meadow fences and perhaps most of the homelot fences were made of posts and rails without a ditch. Fences 5 rails high, and 4 feet 4 inches high, are mentioned on the west side. All fences were to be sufficient against horses, cattle, hogs and sheep.

Gates in common fences that crossed public highways, were uecessary appendages of the common field system, and were rather troublesome to travelers. Hadley had at first two such gates in the county road to Springfield, one called the mountain gate, near the end of the mountain, and the other, near the north-west corner of Fort Meadow. There were gates or bars in all highways into common fields, in the village and elsewhere. Bars were not common. If a person left open the gate or bars of a meadow, he was to pay 2s. 6d. Some meadow gates in county roads, continued down to the present century.

In 1663, every man was ordered to bound his land with meer-stones; and those whose land adjoined, were to be called, to see the meer-stones set down betwixt them."

(2. Publications by English Dialect Society (1886):"The name may, perhaps, be derived from the fact of the field having been meered or measured off from the common lands. MEER STONE, s. a boundary stone. ...")

History of Hadley: including the early history of Hatfield, South Hadley ...

By Sylvester Judd, Lucius Manlius Boltwood

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA440&dq=new+england++fencing+history&ei=YY_wTqGAB8Xg0QHTucSOAg&id=1q3RY7ns5-8C#v=onepage&q=new%20england%20%20fencing%20history&f=false

Fences and Stones

2011-12-19T09:30:00.001-05:00

Image from: The Century illustrated monthly magazine, Volume 19 (1780) edited by Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder

http://books.google.com/books?id=8uoGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA511&dq=new+england+cross+and+rail+fence&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IUXvTvvYLKP10gHb5tXaCQ&ved=0CE0Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=new%20england%20cross%20and%20rail%20fence&f=false

"Because of the labor involved, stone fences were almost always built gradually, progressively replacing existing wooden rail fences. This stone-for wood fence replacement process can be seen behind the barns of the Freeman Farm, where SturbridgeVillage interpreters are slowly but surely building stone walls along existing wooden fence lines..."

Old Sturbridge Village Visitor Fall, 1997
http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=596

An old story:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19681112&id=qn0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-WcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1884,1210021

Stone Wall Wandering

2011-12-18T10:59:00.002-05:00

Here’s an excerpt of a typical sort of story about stone walls, “Stone Wall Wandering in New England” by Tim Jones, dated Nov. 5, 2010:

“Stone walls are a clear reminder of human history and the tremendous effort and determination of our forefathers to shape this land. I’ve heard it said that a rod (16.5 feet) of stone wall was a week’s work for two experienced men and a trained team of oxen. Calculate that times the thousands of miles of walls that still exist (some estimates say close to a quarter-million miles of walls once outlined New England’s fields, pastures and roads), and it’s an amazing number of man-and-animal hours.

When the walls were built (most between 1775 and 1850), the largest base stones were laid in a trench dug into the ground to minimize frost heaving. Then the walls were raise to the height a man could still easily lift the cap stones– about waist high or a little higher. The walls helped delineate property boundaries and contain wandering livestock. A couple of centuries of leaf litter and debris have built up around the stone walls you see today. Many are now probably deeper in the ground than they are high.

The next time you are hiking a woodland trail and it crosses a stone wall, turn and walk with the wall, to see where it takes you and what you find. Just be sure to keep track of the twists and turns you make so you can find your way back!

Tim Jones Photo

"Simple stone walls often mark the boundaries between field and pasture.

If you follow this one what will you find?"

Try to imagine what the land looked like when it was all cleared pasture and farm fields. (Nobody ever built a stone wall though the woods!) Was this wall just a property boundary? If so, it might not be as high or as well made. Was it designed to keep sheep out of a kitchen garden? Those have probably lasted…”

http://www.easternslopes.com/2010/11/05/stone-wall-wandering-in-new-england/

What troubles me about this article, and the great number of works about Stone Walls, is that the human history of the land goes back much farther than a few hundred years. The human history I am reminded of as I continue my life-long love of Stone Wall Wandering isn’t that of “our forefathers,” but that of those First People and their ancestors who lived here for thousands of years before that. This land was more “re-shaped” than shaped, these Stone Walls as well were often “reshaped ” or modified into legally defined fences, property lines and all the rest. Envisioning a past landscape, to me, goes back farther than European style farmsteads, pasture lands and farm fields.

Here’s a William Cronan quote from “Changes in the Land,” an essential “must read” book in my opinion about the differences in the European vs. Indian Cultural Landscape: “The earliest settlements had tended to be on land that was already cleared, whether by Indians, by the departed beavers, or by annual river floods. (Flooded lands, among the richest sites for agriculture, were the intervals so favored by colonial farmers.)” My local historian Mr. Cothren, in “Ancient Woodbury,” tells me that “our forefathers” quickly put these intervals into production of crops in 1659, the first year of occupation by a group of people who moved up river from Stratford CT, with the exception of the fields in the floodplain my front door faces because these were those being used by the inhabitants of the Nonnewaug Wigwams – and continued to be used into the first decades of the next century.

No colonial farmer would have had to have cleared what had already been cleared, yet there’s a great number of Stone Walls on the landscape, all explained away by a fable that by the time the earliest wooden fences were replaced by the Stone Walls colonial farmers began building with stone around the time of the American Revolutionary War and up until the invention of barbed wire. And people will explain away the great number of zigzag stone walls in the area as field stones thrown up against a wooden rail “snake fence” despite the fact that I’ve been looking for over twenty years for just such a haphazard collection of stones and instead find only carefully constructed rows, one of which turns into a linear row that ends with what maybe a large boulder modified to look like a snake’s head effigy…

The Google Row

2011-12-15T11:53:00.000-05:00

Dave C came across this photo on Google Earth.

Here it is this morning:

(Looking North)

White Circle: The Google Row in 1934.

Some but not all stone rows, zigzag and linear, show as light lines.

To the left in the photo is a serpent row ( http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2010/11/elusive-snake.html), as is the row that points toward a probable rockshelter site,

and toward the Google Row.

This western end of the Google is near a couple big boulders. There's a chance the stone row was "harvested" for stones here. Someone from a Fox Hunt Club put that chunk of power line pole in there many years ago so they could jump horses at this spot...

Notice how the cobbles are placed on the boulder just to the left of center, how they hug the top of the boulder. I've seen it other places, like below in Bethlehem just the other day...

and in many other places.

"Indian Cave"

2011-12-05T18:58:00.000-05:00

This is known as "Indian Cave," just north of where I live.

I hadn't been there since the pre-digital camera days (see: http://www.neara.org/macsween/cave.html & a similar to that http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/01/indian-cave.html &

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2010/09/just-another-mysterious-chamber.html ).

I hadn't been there in years, so I went to look at it again.

There's a small remnant of a stone row along the stream:

Looking upstream, to the west, where the "cave" is located:

Some views of the "cave," the wall that might be a remnant of an enclosing that formed it into a "chamber," or a Stone Sweat Lodge:

Graffitti "AND"(???):

The above matches this below:

Above: all those years ago, I never noticed neither the "v" shaped notch or the sort of rounded white quartzy "head" below it on an otherwise moss covered boulder...

Looking east at the cave, in the little canyon carved into the bedrock by this little stream (above) and then (below) two views each of a stone pile and a "single stone on stone with bucket," moving south and west to look for stone rows (which will appear soon as a new post).

Bird, Turtle, Fish, Rattlesnake Story Stone

2011-12-05T17:02:00.000-05:00

The story of the story stone is posted here:

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2011/11/bird-turtle-fish-rattlesnake-story.html

Turtle Parts Under A Trailer

2011-11-14T08:47:00.001-05:00

I didn't move the largest stone, but I did move the two smaller ones found (about 2 feet from where they lay) underneath a house trailer placed here on Happiness Farm sometime in the early 1960's. It's just uphill from a remnant of zigzag stone row...

Another Turtle Vision (with Eyes)

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Bird Stone

2011-11-11T07:35:00.002-05:00

I was thinking: that might be a turtle with long legs that have slid down the boulder, away from what could be a head, the left leg straight down, the other on its side, when I realize the stone next to it (just behind it in the photo) is another cultural motif, the bird stone...

That sure looks like a Bird Stone, doesn't it?

The (Stone) Origin of Stories

2011-11-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

"The tenth day the boy started off, as usual, and, as each day he had gone farther for game than on the preceding day, so now he went deeper into the woods than ever. About midday the sinew that held the feathers to his arrow loosened. Looking around for a place where he could sit down while he took the sinew off and wound it on again, he saw a small opening and near the center of the opening a high, smooth, flat-topped, round stone. He went to the stone, sprang up on to it and sat down. He unwound the sinew and put it in his mouth to soften, then he arranged the arrow feathers and was about to fasten them to the arrow when a voice, right there near him, asked, "Shall I tell you stories?"
Poyeshaon looked up expecting to see a man, not seeing any one he looked behind the stone and around it, then he again began to tie the feathers to his arrow.
"Shall I tell you stories?" asked a voice right there by him.

The boy looked in every direction, but saw no one. Then he made up his mind to watch and find out who was trying to fool him. He stopped work and listened and when the voice again asked, "Shall I tell you stories?" he found that it came from the stone, then he asked, "What is that? What does it mean to tell stories?"
"It is telling what happened a long time ago. If you will give me your birds, I'll tell you stories."
"You may have the birds."
As soon as the boy promised to give the birds, the stone began telling what happened long ago. When one story was told, another was begun..."

When it was almost night the Stone said, "Tomorrow all the people in your village must come and listen to my stories. Tell the chief to send every man, and have each man bring something to eat. You must clean the brush away so the people can sit on the ground near me."

Early in the morning the people of the village gathered around the stone and, when all was quiet, the stone began to tell stories, and it told till late in the afternoon, then it said, "I have finished! You must keep these stories as long as the world lasts; tell them to your children and grandchildren generation after generation. One person will remember them better than another. When you go to a man or a woman to ask for one of these stories carry something to pay for it, bread or meat, or whatever you have. I know all that happened in the world before this; I have told it to you. When you visit one another, you must tell these things, and keep them up always. I have finished."
And so it has been. From the Stone came all the knowledge the Senecas have of the world before this."

http://www.native-languages.org/senecastory6.htm

Bright Sun Light

2011-11-11T05:21:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it happens

that a place you walked by a thousand times

looks different in the bright sun light.

Before the leaves fell,

before the sun sank low,

someplace where it was all dappled and shady,

is bright and sunny as you pass by...

It's November, but it's warm enough

For the quartz stones to sweat,

and it catches your eye and you go closer...

..and closer still.

Until you see the thing

"In a differnt light,"

as they say,

and you notice something

you didn't see before.

And you say to yourself,

"Well of course!

These things were meant to be seen

In every kind of light."

Above: In the Shade 8/12/2011

Fox Road and Kimberly Lane, Woodbury CT

2011-11-09T10:11:00.000-05:00

This post at Rock Piles

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2011/11/fox-road-and-kimberly-lane-woodbury-ct.html

precedes the posts:

Back to Fox Road and Kimberly Lane

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/11/back-to-fox-road-and-kimberly-lane.html

and The Old Horse Field and the Outcrops

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/11/old-horse-field-and-outcrops.html

as well as Highfield Zigzag Rows

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/11/highfield-zigzag-rows.html

Highfield Zigzag Rows

2011-11-09T08:04:00.002-05:00

Standing in the path looking east, a former field now planted with pines.

Here are some photos of a few segments of Zig Zag stone rows along a now closed road - or a part of road now closed - that has become part of Highfield Country Club. It's another of many Indian trails bordered on both sides by zigzag row firebreaks.

These are carefully made stone rows rather than "thrown up against a rail fence" stones, the mythical version of the origin of zigzag "stone walls,"although over time more recent stones have been thrown into the "vee" of the firebreak, especially on the "field" side (left in the photo above) of this particular stone row (like many others).

Looking west across the zigzag stone row stone bordered Indian Trail.
Note the large boulders on the trail/road side of the closer zigzag row. In places where the trail did not become a road, I sometimes find a stack of stones that often are composed of boulders like these...

Above: An intersecting zigzag stone row, looking south...

Above: Looking east from along the same intersecting zigzag segment toward the Indian Trail.

The Old Horse Field and the Outcrops

2011-11-08T07:17:00.002-05:00

The encircled area below is known in my family as the Old Horse Field on my great grandfather's farm. My Uncle Bob remembers an old barn foundation there and tells me that he was told that the barn burned - down with the horse inside it. I didn't find the foundation...

...and the "field" has been growing in with succesive growth as long as I can remember. The zigzag stone row at the edges of field, along the road has been plundered, as has the northern edge's row, but the outlines are apparent still.

Stone at northern edge

The western edge butts up against a north/south ridge of rocky outcrops that at first glance appear natural, but the closer one looks, the more it seems that human hands have been busy building rows, singling out certain stones that seem propped in position...

The most distinct stone row is at the base of the outcrops, more or less a linear row with some extentions back into the horse field, as above. The stone in the center of the above is a quite notable stone, inside a circle of stone, as in the close ups below...

Above: these stones are actually just above the row at the edge of the field/base of the out crop.

There is a spring that flows out of this row. A family member probably made the ditch you see here above. Below a detail of where the water emerges...

Looking up, I could see what turned out to be another stone row at the top of the north/south running outcrop. I thought at first it might be a stone heap or pile...

A segment of east/west row (above), has a large "head stone" pointed east is about 25 feet long, suggesting perhaps a snake or serpent petroform. This row, seen closer below, has an interesting stone at it's eastern end...

Visible to the south as I stood by this petroform was a (perhaps) 12 foot diameter circular mound that caught my eye; my first impression was that it two circluar mounds, one to the east and one to the west:

The large mound sort of tuned me into others on this "terrace."

Above, looking north, the mound seemed just a "pile of stones."

Below, looking west, the mound's testudinate nature became obvious to me...

Above: a lower shell, or plastron, supports a "head stone" with a suggestion of eyes, and above a nutchal notch "marginal scute stone."

A friend who is the spiritual advisor of the descendants of the People who most likely created this petroform suggests I clean it off to see if there are possibly stone represntations of 13 scutes (moons) on the turtle's back...

Another of many stone mounds.

This little terrace that contains these mounds has an eastern/western border stone row alittle above it, suggesting containment of the burning probably used to maintain the site. I wonder what the other side borders...

...the artistic stacking of the cobbles in the row suggest to me the "Indian Look" of Native American built constructions (rather than that of English Colonists or my Italian American ancestors in this case)...

(Above: a possible "bird stone" inspies this post http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/11/bird-stone.html)

There will be another post about zigzag rows along the trail, flanked on both sides of the road that led to "a fishing place" on Quassapaug Lake, on what is known today as White Deer Rocks Road. One possible translation of the word "Quassapaug" suggests "Stones in the Pond," by my friend Carl Mastay, although this morning the possibility occurs to me that it could be a short (English) version of a longer Indian Place Name for "The Great Pond by the White Deer Rocks."

"Quassapaug: a large pond in the n. w. part of Middlebury, partly in Woodbury; the source of Eight-mile river...Neither of the interpretations suggested by Mr. Cothren, —" Rocky pond," or "Beautiful clear water" — are admissible. Dr. Anderson, in Orcutt's Derby, xcvi, proposes qunnosu-paug 'pickerel pond,' to which the only objection is that after names of fish, -maug 'fishing place,' was used, instead of -paug 'pond,' or -tuck 'river.' The Rev. Azel Backus (Account of Bethlem, 1812, Ms) interpreted the name, as "signifying Little pond" — but he certainly was wrong: Quassapaug is not a small, but the largest pond in that region, and may have been denominated k'che-paug, i. e. 'greatest pond'—a name easily corrupted to Quassapaug (mod. Quaspaug)."

From: "Indian names of places" By James Hammond Trumbull (Pages 59-60)

Back to Fox Road and Kimberly Lane

2011-11-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

Going back to Uncle Bob's with a camera, travelling the old Indian Trail toward Lake Quassapaug, I thought about how almost none of the zigzag rows that show so well from the 1934 aerial photography are still there today. Much of it is gone, the stones carted off to build other things. One of those other things is my great grandfather's house and the stone wall in front of it, both of which he built...

Here below is a detail from the 1934 photo; the circle on the right is the house and wall pictured in the above three photos; the left is my Uncle Bob's house lot...

Above: Uncle Bob's house (and his rebuilt stone walls).

Below: a little bit of the old zigzag remains in the foreground, in the distance the remnants of what my uncle recalls as a "stone wall," but may be a sort of mound.

Below: possibly a bear effigy

Close up of possible drill mark in large boulder above:

There's more to the day's finds, crossing over to a spring and a former horse pasture below outcrops that appear to have rows "woven" into them and several mounds, including this small turtle mound:

(Blogger is acting up - won't show the photo I wanted the way I want to, turning it sideways, so I'll continue later...)

Later: the small turtle mound:

McIntosh Reserve in Whitesburg GA

2011-10-28T11:28:00.000-04:00

"McIntosh Reserve (Park) was formerly the residence (or rather, one of several of the residences) of a Creek Indian leader, who signed a treaty giving up Creek lands, hastening the exile of his people, which took place several years before the Cherokees had their Trail of Tears...(t)he main feature of the park is the grave of Chief William McIntosh: a stone that looks like a turtle when viewed from the right angle...(h)ere, then, is McIntosh's gravestone, in two views. If you squint just right at the lower picture, you might imagine the carapace of a turtle..."

stolen from:

http://chattahoocheechorography.blogspot.com/2008/01/prehistory-of-hill-country-part-three.html

Beaver Dam and Stone Row

2011-10-25T07:02:00.001-04:00

In May 2011, beavers were building a dam at an interesting spot: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/05/zig-zag-row-by-stream.html

This is a beaver dam update...

The Old Town Farm

2011-10-19T19:33:00.006-04:00

The house I live in (here in Connecticut) is said to have once belonged to Woodbury's first Doctor, Jonathan Atwood. William Cothren writes of Doctor Jonathan Atwood in his History of Ancient Woodbury:
“The subject of this sketch came early to Woodbury. His name appears in the list of settlers as early as 1701. He is the father of all of the name in this part of the state, and many other places — a numerous and extended posterity. He was an emigrant from England. His house stood not far from the old "Town House," and he owned land on both sides of the highway, so that the present Doct. Atwood, his descendant in the fifth generation, has his home- stead on land that belonged to the first doctor of the name.”

Here's that house, accompanied by a little story that sort of confirms or conflicts with that story - and I wonder if the "horse trade" was actually a "house trade," either a euphemistic use of the phrase or a possible spelling mistake:

(There's architechtural drawings of this house that incorrectly place it on Flanders Road:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Buildings/index.php?state=CT&city=Woodbury%20vicinity&id=7293 which only add to the confusion.)

But there is no dispute about the location of the Old Town House mentioned by Cothren. The old “Town House” is located on Old Town Farm Road, just a few houses north of the house pictured above. A Town House was another name for Poor House. Wikipedia says: “Often the poorhouse was situated on the grounds of a poor farm on which able-bodied residents were required to work… town-run residences where paupers (mainly elderly and disabled people) were supported at public expense..."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poorhouse)

I took a few photos of a zigzag stone row that still had pieces of chestnut rails (and a nutting stone) on it in January '07, The Occasional Chestnut Rail
http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/01/occasional-chestnut-rail.html

Just this morning, I just happened to take a look at the aerial photo of that section of Old Town Farm Road (in what's called Historic Minor Town):

That red line is the zigzagstone row segment that I photographed, but note the curve of that stone row that has since disappeared (as far as I know, there's a house and lot in there now, but I may wander in there to take another look). An atypical "stone wall" for certain, with lots of other zigzag "walls" all around.

Here's a link to the online photo if you want to take a look and move around or zoom in and out, noting that I turned the photo above so that west is at the top. Here it is below as it will appear with that curve at the top/north:

http://cslib.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p4005coll10&CISOPTR=6510&DMSCALE=33&DMWIDTH=700&DMHEIGHT=700&DMX=2316&DMY=1710&DMMODE=viewer&DMTEXT=&REC=1&DMROTATE=0

(Update: there's many still existing rows - and some huge rock piles.)

Deer Head Stones

2011-10-17T18:47:00.000-04:00

I was looking through some "google images" results found on a search using "ceremonial stone row." This (above) is one from: http://pwh.freeblog.hu/archives/2009/01/21/The_Boxborough_Esker/

Here's one from Woodbury CT on a large flat boulder...

Hurricane Irene uncovers Native American burials in Connecticut

2011-10-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

Native American burial ground unearthed in Branford: wtnh.com

Ring Around a Turtle

2011-10-15T07:05:00.000-04:00

2011-10-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

http://brianaltonenmph.com/6-history-of-medicine-and-pharmacy/hudson-valley-medical-history/european-multiculturalism/moravian-indian-medicine/mahican-health-and-disease/

"One option for the miscellaneous items situated around the two leader’s homes is a small sweat lodge, or what is sometimes referred to as a stone cellar. The stone cellar formation is found in and about the Dutchess and Putnam county areas, and typically is a small collection of stones, many times with the appearance that there is a well-formed foundation to crawl into between the stone walls. In some cases these structures are completely above ground. Other times they are built into hill or a cliff face. Numerous theories have been given for the uses of these formation, logical reasons for their construction. In the Mahican settlement it is possible that these “cellars” served as places for one to undergo a personal spiritual experience, or perhaps a simple cleansing, like that done in a sweat lodge...We typically don’t expect to hear about the ability to practice the Native American ritual sweat lodge experience, but with Moravians by their side instead of other missionary leaders, perhaps the use of the sweat lodge or stone cellar was allowed. Evidence suggesting this was the case, although questionable due to its fairly late recollection, is the accounts of stone piles seen along some part of the Shekomeko setting, which a local boy said he thought was linked to the use of a sweat lodge... For more on colonial stone cellars and root cellars, see:
http://www.larryharrop.com/blog/index.php?/archives/83-Underground-Root-Cellar.html
http://www.nativestones.com/chambers.htm
http://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/1109/new_england.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GnioeokrRw
http://www.concordma.com/magazine/oct98/sacred2.html."

Stone Chamber. Town of Kent, NY by Halberd

http://v1.cache3.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/4056133.jpg?redirect_counter=1

A little detail strikes me, a little "cultural motif" I see here and there on Turtle Island:

I think that rounded reddish stone, topped by what might be interperted as "marginal scutes," might be a turtle's head, a suggestion of an eye and a possible beak, like these two stones here in Woodbury CT below...

Turtle outline

Tumwater Fishtrap

2011-10-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

Remnants of native fishtrap (stones); photos by Bill Yake found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myake/5722410771/sizes/m/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myake/5722966914/in/photostream/

See any similarity between this NW Coast stone structure above and this stone structure below photographed by Larry Harrop on the East Coast?

photo by Larry Harrop found at:
http://ceremonial-landscapes.com/blog/images/ex/ex_3.jpg

Celebrating the Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of Eastern North America

2011-10-11T08:31:00.003-04:00

I have no idea if this will work or not:

Celebrating the Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of Eastern North America:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/4585999861/

Open Group~Anyone (with a FaceBook account, it seems) can see the group, who's in it, and what members post.

34 Members/79 Photos/1 Doc.

"vast heaps of stones"; stone heaps or cairns

by Tim MacSweeney https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/4585999861/doc/10150328669284862/

Recent photos by Rob Buchanan: Quartz Hearted Cairn

Taken at Dicktown area, Putnam Co. NY

DECLASSIFIED: Uncle Sam; We Did It His Way

2011-10-07T08:44:00.000-04:00

A Rap Up

By George Shrub, Rapping CIA Agent

(Print this out. Laminate it. Get a beat box, human or otherwise.

Rap in the shower. No one gets hurt.)

In the beginning, Columbus discovered America

There were Indians there

They came over from India

To throw a party for the fair-skinned Chris

I wouldn't dis ya

Chris worked for Spain, I think it's plain

Spreadin free enterprise

Which at that time was controlled by Big GovaMint

Instead of contrariwise

Like today, but as I was sayin

The colonies were conceived in liberty

They liberated a new continent

From the Indians, who under-exploited it

And besides, they were behind in the rent...

But when it came to the Indians, Mr. Jefferson said

No more land should be taken from them

So when he needed Louisiana he was careful

To buy it from the French...

Petroglyphs and Arrowheads by the Stone Weir

2011-10-05T19:59:00.000-04:00

Picture rocks: American Indian rock art in the Northeast woodlands - Google Books Result
http://books.google.com/books?id=yIQfxjbeZ50C&lpg=PA232&ots=idbxsvCqlz&dq=Native%20American%20Indian%20fishing%20weir%20built%20with%20rocks&pg=PA233#v=onepage&q&f=false

books.google.com/books?isbn=1584651970...Edward J. Lenik - 2002 - Art - 280 pages

"It is likely that Indian people witnessed bears fishing at this point in the river. Weirs were built at shallow points in a river where the stone needed for their construction ... The location of the bear paw (petroglyph) at the stone fish weir, its position on the rock… the Passaic River petroglyphs, a second fish weir petroglyph was reported to me. In the late 1930s, Stanley Milkowski of Paterson, New Jersey, fished at the site of the stone weir in the river located between Paterson and Fair Lawn...

Tony DeCondo at a fish weir visible in the Passaic, between Paterson and Fair Lawn, when the river is low.

Pursuing a Secret of the Passaic

By KEVIN COYNE

Published: October 3, 2008

“I’m always on the riverbank on both sides, hoping to find something,” Mr. DeCondo said, his eyes instinctively sweeping the ground for a telltale arrowhead that would help establish a Native American presence here.

And then last year he found something — not in the mud by the river, but in a dusty box that had been sitting unseen in a storeroom in the Paterson Museum, not far from the old dye house where his father once worked. “It was serendipity at its height, just unbelievable,” he said.

After retiring he had started volunteering at the museum, cataloging a collection of 6,000 projectile points, and about halfway through he had a eureka moment: an arrowhead and two stone knife fragments attached to a neatly printed card that recorded when and where they had been found, in April 1924, in Fair Lawn, “opposite the foot of 3rd Ave.”

“Right by the weir,” he said. He also found two other arrowheads that had been discovered about 100 feet north of the weir. “I thought to myself, the spirit of the weir is guiding me here.”

The new evidence, he hopes, will bolster his case for the weir’s landmark status. For now, though, his attention has turned at least in part to another weir that was discovered several years ago half a mile downstream. “We literally bumped into it,” said Mr. DeVita of the river restoration team, who was skimming the river in a flat-bottomed boat that snagged on some submerged rocks. When the water level later dropped some more, a W-shaped weir emerged.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/nyregion/new-jersey/05colnj.html

LeBeau Fishing Camp & Weir Archaeological Preserve

2011-10-05T09:12:00.001-04:00

http://killingly.net/vertical/Sites/%7BB3052547-E019-431F-A99D-4BDC39C1CDAB%7D/uploads/LeBeau_Fishing_Camp.pdf

This publication was produced by the Town of Killingly as part of the Quinebaug River Trail Project and was funded by the Federal Highway Administration and the Town of Killingly.

"A large stone pile located on the east bank of the Quinebaug and extending to the eastern edge of the weir may have served as the base of a platform for fishing and related activities..."

Manitu

2011-10-04T09:07:00.000-04:00

“…Every successful hunter is more or less a conjuror adjusting himself to the realm of the Unknown which he senses about him…a process of independent experience interpreted out of the background of suggestion leveled upon the mind of the native by the tribally inherited pattern. He imitates the practices; he profits by the sayings and doings of his elders…

In short, he learns two things as a requirement of existence: “to work,” that is, to hunt, trap, fish, to make and use the articles employed therein; and to “operate mentu’ (Manitu),” a native term the meaning of which we can scarcely grasp, but represents something near our own notion of unseen force. The two are equally important and inseparable, according to his notion. This means the spiritual factor in industrial industry is as important a mechanical factor as a physical…”

Frank G. Speck, “Naskapi: The Savage Hunters of the Labrador Peninsula”

Volume 10 Civilization of American Indian Series 1935 (1965, 1977) University of Oklahoma Press

Finding Sacred Ground

2011-10-04T06:03:00.000-04:00

Finding Sacred Ground from Sacred Land Film Project on Vimeo.

Mapping Sacred Sites

2011-10-04T05:44:00.000-04:00

Mapping Sacred Sites from Sacred Land Film Project on Vimeo.

BIG TURTLE DANCE

2011-10-02T13:25:00.001-04:00

This dance is the first and most formal dance to be performed on the occasion of the annual ceremonies. It is in honor of a creature called Big Turtle, Dato8a', a supernatural horned reptile, denoted in Yuchi as a turtle though having a snake-like body, which figures conspicuously in southeastern mythology. This being is associated with the rainbow, storms, thunder, lightning and also disease. A stuffed deerskin effigy of the creature colored blue rested on the ground in front of the north lodge of the town square, in former times.

As I have given a more detailed account of this dance in Part One of this volume, an abstract from the original source1 will convey a clearer idea of the scene.

The dancers, grouping themselves about the leader who sings and rattles, form a compact mass and begin moving in a circle. A woman with the leg rattles, joins the throng of dancers when they start to circle in single file about the fire contra-clockwise. When the leader finishes the first song he whoops and the dancers disperse for a short interval. Soon the leader begins finding the fire, singing the introduction (A) and the dancers who have been resting, seated in the lodges on the square-ground, file in again behind him. No drumming accompanies this dance.

The following version of the song was sung by Ku'ba.

The above is a sort of gathering song which is continued as long as the dancers are grouped closely on the corner of the square-ground. The syllables are yo hyo, hd' (the chorus joining vigorously on ho').

When the leader breaks out of this group and starts dancing and rattling toward the fire he changes the tune to the following, which is continued until the end of the first dance.

(A) M.M. J = 100.

*J Repeat five times.
http://books.google.com/books?id=6QkTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA204&vq=stone&dq=Frank+G.+Speck&output=text

Yuchi and Creek Dances Speck Ethnography (1909)

(pages 201-202)

YUCHI FISHING ETHNOGRAPHY FROM SPECK (1909)

2011-10-02T09:47:00.000-04:00

FISHING.

Quite naturally fishing plays an important part in the life of the Yuchi who have almost always lived near streams furnishing fish in abundance. Catfish, cu dfd, garfish, pike, cucpd, bass, cu wadd, and many other kinds are eagerly sought for by families and sometimes by whole communities at a time, to vary their diet. We find widely distributed among the people of the Southeast a characteristic method of getting fish by utilizing certain vegetable poisons which are thrown into the water. Among the Yuchi the practice is as follows. During the months of July and August many families gather at the banks of some convenient creek for the purpose of securing quantities of fish and, to a certain extent, of intermingling socially for a short time. A large stock of roots of devil's shoestring {Tephrosia virginiana) is laid up and tied in bundles beforehand. The event usually occurs at a place where rifts cause shallow water below and above a well-stocked pool. Stakes are driven close together at the rifts to act as barriers to the passage and escape of the fish. Then the bundles of roots (Fig. 6) are thrown in and the people enter the water to stir it up. This has the effect of causing the fish, when the poison has had time to act, to rise to the surface, bellies up, seemingly dead. They are then gathered by both men and women and carried away in baskets to be dried for future use, or consumed in a feast which ends the event. The catch is equally divided among those present. Upon such an occasion, as soon as the fish appear floating on the surface of the water, the Indians leap, yell and set to dancing in exuberance. If a stranger comes along at such a time he is taken by the hand and presented with the choicest fish.

As the fish are taken out they may be cleaned and salted for preservation, or roasted and eaten on the spot. A favorite method of cleaning fish the instant they are caught, is to draw out the intestines with a hook through the anus, without cutting the fish open. A cottonwood stick shaved of its outer bark is then inserted in the fish from tail to head. The whole is thickly covered with mud and put in the embers of a fire. When the mud cracks off the roast is done and ready to eat. The cottonwood stick gives a much-liked flavor to the flesh.

In the way of a comparison, we find that the Creeks use pounded buckeye or horse chestnuts for the same purpose. Two men enter the water and strain the buckeye juice through bags. The Creeks claim that the devil's shoestring poison used by the Yuchi floats on the water, thus passing away down stream, while the buckeye sinks and does better work. It is probable, however, that neither method of poisoning the streams is used exclusively by these tribes, but that the people of certain districts favor one or the other method, according to the time of year and locality. The flesh of the fish killed in this way is perfectly palatable.

It frequently happens that the poison is not strong enough to thoroughly stupefy the fish. In such a case the men are at hand with bows and arrows, to shoot them as they flounder about trying to escape or to keep near the bottom of the pool. The arrows used for shooting fish are different from those used in hunting. They are generally unfeathered shafts with charred points, but the better ones are provided with points like cones made by pounding a piece of some flat metal over the end of the shaft (Fig. 4, a). The men frequently go to the larger streams where the poison method would not be as effective, and shoot fish with these heavy tipped arrows eithei from the shores or from canoes. Simple harpoons of cane whittled to a sharp point are used in the killing of larger fish which swim near the surface, or wooden spears with fire-hardened points are thrown at them when found lurking near the banks.

Formerly the Yuchi made use also of basket fish traps. These were quite large, being ordinarily about three feet or more in diameter and from six to ten feet in length. They were cylindrical in shape, with one end open and an indented funnel-shaped passageway leading to the interior. The warp splints of this indenture ended in sharp points left free. As these pointed inward they allowed the fish to pass readily in entering, but offered an obstruction to their exit. The other end of the trap was closed up, but the covering could be removed to remove the contents. Willow sticks composed the warp standards, while the wicker filling was of shaved hickory splints. The trap was weighted down in the water and chunks of meat were put in it for bait.

Gaff-hooks for fishing do not seem to have been used, according to the older men, until they obtained pins from the whites, when the Yuchi learned how to make fish hooks of them. Prior to this, nevertheless, they had several gorgehook devices for baiting and snagging fish. A stick with pointed reverse barbs whittled along it near the end was covered with some white meat and drawn, or trolled, rapidly through the water on a line. When a fish swallowed the bait the angler gave the line a tug and the barbs caught the fish in the stomach. Another method was to tie together the ends of a springy, sharp-pointed splinter and cover the whole with meat for bait. When this gorge device was swallowed the binding soon disintegrated, the sharp ends being released killed the fish and held it fast. Lines thus baited were set in numbers along the banks of streams and visited regularly by fishermen(Pages 23-24).
.

(Page 45:) Almost any bird, animal or fish that was large enough to bother with was used as food. The names and varieties of such have been already given. The flesh of game mammals, birds, kandV, and fish, cu, was roasted or broiled on a framework of green sticks resting on cross pieces which were supported on forked uprights over the fire. The device was simply a stationary broiling frame. "When large hauls of fish were made, by using vegetable poison in streams in the manner described, or more game was taken than was needed for immediate use, it is said that the surplus flesh was artificially dried over a slow smoky fire or in the sun, so that it could be laid away against the future. Crawfish, tcatsd, were very much liked and quantities of them were also treated for preservation in the above manner.

Also included:

1. IdlobA'nga. FISH DANCE.

The fish, talo, for his contribution of flesh to sustain life, is honored by a dance in which the usual movements are accompanied by drum and rattle. The leader's part could not be separated from that of the chorus in recording this song.

(Page 164)
Ceremonial songs of the Creek and Yuchi Indians, Volume 1, Issue 1 (Google eBook)

Frank G. Speck (1909)
http://books.google.com/books?id=6QkTAAAAYAAJ&vq=stone&dq=Frank%20G.%20Speck&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q=stone&f=false

‘Canada’ and the ‘United States’ Are in Turtle Island

2011-09-30T11:20:00.000-04:00

By Steven T. Newcomb

September 30, 2011

"It is typical to refer to our respective nations and peoples as being “in” Canada or “in” the United States and therefore as being deemed subject to the jurisdictions of those two political constructs called “states” in international law. What we seldom express, however, is the more profound point that those two Western European political constructs are on and in Turtle Island, as North America is traditionally known to the Original Nations of Turtle Island..."

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/canada-and-the-united-states-are-in-turtle-island/

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Fulcrum, 2008), and a columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network.

Stylized Drawing of Fishweir (A Nutty Idea)

2011-09-28T09:12:00.001-04:00

Tim Visel, in a draft of "Possible Construction Details of Stone/Wood Alewife Weirs In New England Tidal Streams; A Design Model Explanation " (To accompany a recreation for the upcoming Hammonasset Festival, Oct 1-2, 2011 in Madison, CT) writes: "Some of the historical accounts describe the wing walls as gathering fish into baskets with the flow. This is quite possible on the return to sea migration and this could include salmon and shad as well...It’s hard to evaluate the direction or movement of fish from many historical reports. They just mention how effective they were but it could provide some insight of non fishermen writing about what they observed. To many it might seem the wing walls were guiding fish into the throat, the appearance of open arms and the downward flow...the heaps of stones remain – still holding the classic Vee shape after many centuries..."

And here’s another possibility:
In Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians by Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Gladys lists on page 30.

"CHESTNUT (Aesculus glabra), “big acorn tree”: …Nuts are ground up for use as a fish poison in streams. This is known as “fish peyote” as it makes the fish "dizzy" and they can be caught easily.”

Gladys is using information taken from interviews with Delaware/Lenni Lenape people living in Oaklahoma in the 1920-30’s (I will look through Speck’s “Big House” because I seem to remember him mentioning it in there somewhere – she was his student/assisstant) and there’s an influence of other Native People, and the Wilson or Peyote Cult in the thoughts and language used by informants, and the “peyote” part comes from that, I infer. But then the downstream idea works well with “stunned” rather than actually “poisoned” fish.

Like California and Austrailian “fish poisons:”

“The active ingredient is released by mashing the appropriate plant parts, which are then introduced to the water environment. Poisoning was generally done in stagnant pools or slow-flowing streams and rivers, that allow the pounded bark, leaf, seed, root or fruit, to concentrate its power without being washed away or diluted by a strong current. Sometimes streams would be partly blocked to slow down the water flow. Gathering the fish was usually done by hand, but baskets, spears and nets were sometimes employed.”

From ‘Fishing with Poisons By Chuck Kritzon © 2003 http://www.primitiveways.com/fish_poison.html

Another source mentions these other "poisons."
Location or Tribe Common Name, (Latin Name) Part used
Catawba, Cherokee, and Delaware: Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) Bark and green nut husk
Yuchi and Creek: Devil's Shoestring, (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) Roots, Horse Chestnut, (Aesculus hippocastanum L) Fruit, twigs and buds
Cherokee: Polk Sallet, Polkweed, (Phytolacca americana) Berries
Central and coastal California: Turkey-Mullein, (Eremocarpus setigerus) Leaves, California Buckeye, (Aesculus California) Nut or fruit, Soap plant, soap root, (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) Bulb, Pokeweed, Polk sallet, (Phytolacca americana) Leaves, Indian Turnip, (Arisaema triphyllum) Leaves, Wild cucumber, Manroot, ( Marah fabaceus) Seeds

Above from: http://www.rogueturtle.com/articles/fishx.php and there's more to be found at: http://www.survival.com/fish.htm

Above the diagonal weir at Nonnewaug in Woodbury, a smaller stream used to flow into the Nonnewaug. The area it comes from is where there was an early road from the nearby mill owned by the Minor’s and then Atwood’s, both families historically connected to my house built early in the 1700’s (possibly begun as early as 1700 or 1710), that leads uphill into the “mast forest” resource zone of the earlier Native American Cultural Landscape, the easiest route back down to the mill. This smaller stream has been redirected many times in the past and there still is mostly an oak forest along that old and abandoned road - and probably was the source of the hand hewn chestnut timbers and plank sheathing of my house, some of the planking showing signs of being “pit sawn” rather than milled. I’ve located a mortar in a “stone wall” that was probably a fire break around the forest and it makes sense to me that chestnuts could have been ground up there, placed in the stream to stun fish that flowed down into baskets on the downstream side of the stones and stakes of the weir.

Also, from personal experience with eels, I would imagine that a stunned eel is much easier to catch than a “regular” eel. Same goes for any other fish. What could be less labor intensive than having some stunned fish flow downstream into your waiting basket at a gap in any sort of fishweir and the Nonnewaug fishweir in particular?

Step by step details:
Offer some Tobacco at the Box Turtle Petroform, gather some Chestnuts (Black Walnuts and other plant materials too?) Place them in the small stream...

...walk down to the others gathered at the Fish Weir and prepare to eat and otherwise process and use some "dizzy" fish.

Sleeping Buffalo Boulder (MT)

2011-09-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Legend grew up about the stone buffalo among the Gros Ventre along with similar stories found among the Assiniboine. These legends reflect the reverence in which all tribes held the stone.

According to the Gros Ventre story, the Indians during a time when the world was young, became greedy and cruel. It was a time of plenty, when living was too easy for the people. Now they knew that the buffalo had been placed on earth for the purpose of providing food, shelter and all other necessities and that for these things he must be honored. They were obsessed with a lust for killing and slaughtered the buffalo by the thousands. Meat was left to the wolves and coyotes, for their people were rich in meat and robes and had no need for more. They only cared to see their arrows strike quivering flesh and red blood gush forth upon the ground. Then there came a dream to a maiden of the tribe. In this dream the girl was told that unless the slaughter of the buffalo was stopped, the tribe and all others would hunger for many years for the taste of fat buffalo meat. The young woman went to the chief and told him of her dream. He laughed at her and continued with plans for a greater hunt than ever.

When the morning of the hunt dawned the young men appointed as scouts to locate the herds returned with word that there were no buffalo within a day's reach. The search widened and continued over a great distance for days and weeks and months. The supplies of dried meat became low, robes wore thin and teepees no longer kept out the wind, but still no buffalo were sighted.

Then one evening a scout came to the village with word that a small herd of buffalo had been seen near the Council Hill, four miles from what is now the Sleeping Buffalo Resort, at the crossing on the Milk River where the river turns to form the Big Bend. The most cunning hunters approached the place and saw quite plainly the herd of buffalo grazing on the slope of the hill. They waited until the animals had lain down and then crept closer for an attack. When the hunters were within arrow shot of the herd, they sprang up with a shout meaning to startle the buffalo to their feet so they could more surely be killed. But before their eyes a strange happening took place. The buffalo began to look less and less like living creatures and more like boulders scattered on the hillside. The frightened hunters went closer until they could touch what had been flesh but was now stone. The leader of the herd was there and the cows and calves, but all were stone.

The hunters returned to their village to report the strange happening. A council was called and it was remembered that a maiden of the tribe had dreamed a strange dream of the buffalo. She was brought before the chief medicine man and instructed to go to the place of the stone buffalo and fast there until her dream was made clear.

After three days and nights of fasting and prayer, the girl returned and told the people they had been punished for their cruelty and greediness and that henceforth, unless they killed only for the necessities of life, the buffalo and all other game would return no more to the hunting grounds. This was many generations ago and therefore the buffalo returned and became plentiful. But the people remembered the time of hunger and killed only for meat and for skins to make their lodges and robes.

http://malta.k12.mt.us/hs/historyprojects/sleepingbuffalo.pdf

Aerial and map Images of Nonnewaug Weir

2011-09-21T08:54:00.004-04:00

(Above: Weir circled in white. Below: Weir circled in red ~1965)

Before (above) and (below) after the Bulldozers changed the contour lines:

Weir in center of image, appearing as light colored boulders on river bank, sometime before 2007. A facing west view can be found by clicking here: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qy0x1f8x1zbz&lvl=19.509761358382203&dir=274.6620815808467&sty=b&form=LMLTCC

Fish Weir Village

2011-09-21T05:23:00.000-04:00

"Site of fish weir across the Lemhi River where the Shoshone were able to trap enough Salmon for their subsistence and provide the (Lewis & Clark) expedition with as much broiled and dried salmon as they could eat, as well as dried chokecherries.

"...I went to see the place those people take the fish, a wear [weir] across the creek in which there is stuk baskets set in different derections so as to take the fish either descending or assending..." -- Clark, August 21, 1805

"...water was conducted to this basket, which was so narrow at it's lower extremity that the fish when once in could not turn itself about, and were taken out by untying the small ends of the longitudinal willows, which formed the hull of the basket." --Lewis, August 21, 1805
From: Salmon-Challis National Forest http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/recreation/lewis-clark/maptext.shtml

Image from: "fishing weir – theater set" by Marie Lorenz
"A weir is a system of nets used to trap fish in current. This is a drawing that William Clark made of a fishing weir in Tower Creek, Idaho. In his journal, Captain Clark described the fishing weir, made by the Lemhi-Shoshone People to catch Salmon: “There were two distinct wears formed of poles and willow sticks, quite across the river, at no great distance from each other. Each of these, were furnished with two baskets; the one wear to take them ascending and the other in decending. In constructing these wears, poles were first tyed together in parcels of three near the smaller extremity; these were set on end, and spread in a triangular form at the base, in such manner, that two or the three poles ranged in the direction of the intended work, and the third down the stream. Two ranges of horizontal poles were next lashed with willow bark and wythes to the ranging poles, and on these willow ticks were placed perpendicularly, reaching from the bottom of the river to about 3 or four feet above it’s surface; and placed so near each other, as not to permit the passage of the fish.” http://www.tideandcurrenttaxi.org/?p=2384

A Macrobotanical Analysis

2011-09-20T13:25:00.003-04:00

of Native American Maize Agriculture

at the Smith's Point Site (on Cape Cod MA)

Graduate Masters Theses. Paper 8.

by Kelly A. Ferguson
August 2010

Typical sand dune plant communities on the Cape Cod seashore.

"...European writers often did not credit Native Americans for actively shaping these landscapes. Alternatively, some researchers have argued that the role of Native Americans in creating the Late Woodland-Early Colonial landscape in New England was consciously downplayed or omitted from 16th and 17th century European documentary accounts as means of pro-colonial rhetoric (Bragdon 1996; Calloway 1997)...Additionally, while lightning fires burn indiscriminately, uncharred 17th- century artifacts and shell from the living area of the site may indicate that this area of the site was not burned (PAL 1991). Therefore, it is possible that the field area was selectively burned by Native American inhabitants and represents cultural burning at the site."

http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=masters_theses

Nonnewaug Fishweir Photos; A Stake at a Fishweir at Stake

2011-09-20T10:46:00.004-04:00

The most intact part of the weir; a human construction of boulders about four feet long and two or three feet wide, more or less.

The lower, down-river, end of the weir (above) was relatively intact and partially buried in 1997 (below).

By some strange twist of fate, as the saying goes, this person's left foot is very close to a large flat boulder which was moved by the flooding that occurred from Hurricane Irene at the end of August 2011 (as well as a water release at a dam upstream prior to the storm).

Protruding from the present river bed about 14cm (about 5 and a half inches) is a piece of wood that could possibly be either a piece of driftwood that just happened to lodge there naturally or a wooden stake that was inserted there by human hands as part of a working fishweir at some point in time. You could say it is either a "stick" or a "stake."

The stake or stick is angeled toward the way water at one time I suspect flowed...

Two cobbles were moved during the flooding, I suspect, while the boulder, the possible stake and another cobble remained relatively intact, more or less still in the diagonal line of boulders and cobbles of the stones used to construct the weir. There are a few more "human enhancements" to the weir, two drill holes in two different boulders:

The word "Nonnewaug" was translated by Woodbury Historian William Cothren as "The Fresh Water Fishing Place." I suspect the "Nonne" part of the Algonquian compound word means "in the middle," attached to the "waug' which often means "fishing place," which a weir certainly would be. Cothren also recorded, as the "land deeds' or treaties do as well, that the Nonnewaug Wigwams were inhabited in 1659 and up to and perhaps after 1700-10. Cothren interperted Nonnewaug's signature to be a snowshoe, while I believe Nonnewaug (or Nunawauk as above) used a picto graph of perhaps an eel basket for his representation of his title as "Sachem Nonnewaug" or "The Keeper of the Peace at the Freshwater Fishing Place (Weir) in the Middle."

Above: a David Wagner painting of Native Americans at a stone fishweir with wooden stakes during the fall migration of eels, capturing eels in baskets.
And after all that, it turns out to be a stick:

On Sept. 21, 2011, I wiggled it, moved some small stones, and wiggled it again. It came out very easily and looks like an unremarkable sycamore stick.

A Few Downed Trees

2011-09-20T07:49:00.000-04:00

A few downed trees fell by the stone mounds in back of my old falling down chicken house sometime during Hurricane Irene. These photos are dated 09/12/2011...

This turtle's carapace was definately not "rolled" by the recent earthquake

and you can tell because it is "gathering moss," as they say...

Nonnewaug Fishweir 9/17/2011

2011-09-18T07:27:00.020-04:00

In the video: Hurricane Irene flooding has further damaged the weir and possibly exposed a wooden stake.

Hurricane Irene damage (the Water Company also released water before the storm which may have also caused damage) further deteriorated the weir. Note the drill holes and, at the downriver end, toward the end of the video, a possible wooden stake between stones...

"Weirs were described in 1634 by the Jesuits as ingeniously made, long and broad and capable of holding five or six hundred eels and having collected stones extending out on either side like a chain or little wall to direct to eels (Thwaites 1896-1901:6:309)."

Otonabee Pimizi, American eel (Anguilla rostrata) on the Journey to “The Land Between”

by William Arthur Allen

“Land Between” Research Forum Peterborough, Ontario June 7, 2007

www.asinabka.com/Archives/AmericanEel.doc

Glooskap and the Frog

2011-09-17T15:46:00.000-04:00

In the dark of the October New Moon, eels migrate toward the Sagasso Sea; in the past into baskets at fishweirs; today into hydro-electric turbines...
See:
http://glooskapandthefrog.org/eel%20challenge.htm

A prehistoric clam garden

2011-09-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

“They took the largest rocks that were in the clam bed and moved them out to extreme low water marks, setting them in rows like a fence along the edge of the water...”

http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=309

Sucarnoochee River Fishweir

2011-09-16T17:18:00.000-04:00

Porterville vicinity, Kemper County

"Fishweir technology has been documented over most of North America and the design principles and construction techniques are derived from an historical continuum dating back thousands of years. Largely unchanged over time, the basic design is a V-shaped dam with an opening for a trap at the downstream apex. The function is unchanged as well, mass procurement of food. The Sucarnoochee River Fishweir represents one of the better preserved fishdams found in Mississippi and is exemplary of the style and construction techniques used throughout history. Fishweirs are disappearing due to such modern practices as stream channelization, along with natural erosion, silting and channel displacement. The Sucarnoochee River Fishweir was listed on March 10, 2010. John Connaway, MDAH staff archaeologist, wrote the nomination."

http://misspreservation.com/2010/12/30/national-register-listings-2010/

Pre-Columbian Fish Farming in the Amazon

2011-09-16T08:42:00.000-04:00

by Clark L. Erickson, PhD

Article published in Expedition 43(3):7-8 (2001).

“One artificial feature, referred to as a zigzag earthwork, particularly intrigued me. Low earthen walls zigzag across the savannas between forest islands (Fig. 2). Because of their changing orientations, they did not make sense as roads between settlements. As we mapped them with tape measure and compass, I noted that there were small funnel like opening where the earthworks changed direction. I immediately realized that these matched the description of fish weirs that are reported in the ethnographic and historical literature on Amazonian peoples. Fish weirs are fences made of wood, brush, basketry, or stones with small openings that extend across bodies of water. Baskets or nets are placed in the openings to trap migrating fish. While most fish weirs are simple ephemeral structures crossing a river or shallow lake, those of Baures are permanent earthen features covering more than 500 square kilometers. In addition, small artificial ponds are associated with the fish weirs (Fig. 3). Today these ponds are filled with fish as the floodwaters recede in the dry season. I believe that in the past these were used to store live fish until needed. Our studies show that the weirs were used before the arrival of Europeans to the region.
The scale of the fish weir complex is larger than any previously reported. The native peoples of Baures shaped the environment into a productive landscape capable of providing sufficient protein to sustain large populations. The people responsible for this impressive land management are long gone or have forgotten the technology. Archaeology provides the only means of documenting this important lost knowledge. As politicians, conservationists, and aid agencies seek sustainable solutions to both develop and conserve the Amazon, archaeologists can play a key role by providing time-tested models of land use.

Fig. 2: Remains of fish weir (lower left to upper right) and fish ponds

(circular features surrounded by palms) from the air.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~cerickso/fishweir/articles/Expedition2.htm

Nice Photos of Stone Fish Traps

2011-09-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

"Incidentally, for an earlier, wider scope take on subsistence and settlement and fish traps on the central coast, you can also download John Pomeroy’s 1980 PhD thesis ."
Again from: http://qmackie.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/dspace-elroy-white-xanius-on-fishtraps/
Actually, there's many nice photos through out the thesis. The Stone Fish Traps are discussed on page 103.

PDF: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/3334

Heiltsuk stone fish traps: Products of my ancestors' labour

2011-09-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

Author: White (Xanius), Elroy Date created: 2006

Abstract:

This thesis presents the results of systematic research on Heiltsuk stone fish traps, which are poorly understood in academia. My research objective is unique in that I de-emphasize empirical data such as length, width, and height in favour of the view that these stone fish trap are products of my ancestors’ labour. My main goal was to work with the Heiltsuk political and cultural entities and 12 Heiltsuk oral historians to employ an Internalist archaeology investigation of a selective fishery system that began in antiquity. I linked oral history to ethnographic narratives about this ancient fishing technology. Using a novel method of videography, I captured 42 trap sites on video in order to become familiar with their locations, variations and their correlations of salmon to streams and rivers where a stone fish trap is found. I returned in August 2005 to map nine of them, especially the ones familiar to Heiltsuk oral historians.

Description:

The author has placed restrictions on the PDF copy of this thesis. The PDF is not printable nor copyable. If you would like the SFU Library to attempt to contact the author to get permission to print a copy, please email your request to thesis@sfu.ca.

You can find the link to the pdf and read it here:
http://summit.sfu.ca/item/4240 and if or when you do, please count the number of times he writes “stone wall” because I lost count early on when I tried to copy pieces of it anyway~ Tim

Image source: http://qmackie.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/dspace-elroy-white-xanius-on-fishtraps/