NAGPRA (Thirty Days)

"I used to search for reservations and native lands

before I realized everywhere I stand

there have been tribal feet running wild as fire…”

P. Waksman Photo from: http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-remains-at-pratt-hill.html

Stones gathered, stones placed just so

In a heap, in a row,

Over a period of time so long ago

That no one truly knows

How long they’ve been there;

And the Old Ones shrug their shoulders

And say “They’ve been there Forever.”



Native Graves Protection Act, you say?

What it boils down to is,

You got so many days

To move your granny

To do your study

Before we bulldoze it away.

Dontcha know?

There’s money to be made!

Your “rocks” are in the way.


And that’s the real bottom line

They’ll give you just so much time

To move your Ancestors off of OUR LAND!



"If the discovery occurred in connection with an activity, including (but not limited to) construction, mining, logging, and agriculture, the person shall cease the activity in the area of the discovery, make a reasonable effort to protect the items discovered before resuming such activity, and provide notice under this subsection. Following the notification under this subsection, and upon certification by the Secretary of the department or the head of any agency or instrumentality of the United States or the appropriate Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization that notification has been received, the

activity may resume after 30 days of such certification."

http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/mandates/25usc3001etseq.htm

An Ancient Zig Zag Rock Wall

Image stolen from: http://4cornershikesancients.blogspot.com/2011/03/cannonball-mesa-point.html

They seem to have different names depending on where you go on Turtle Island - stone fences/stone walls, rock walls/rock lines and probably more, sort of like "pop" and "soda," "Dr. Pepper" and "Mr. Phib." Some places they put your groceries in a bag, other places they put them in a sack.

"Hikers"  is a more universal term (as if "universal" is the right word - I see relatively few photos from people hiking on other planets, like I never understood why there weren't Extra-Terrestrial Contestants in the Miss Universe Pagent) and some of them are bloggers who share through digital images the hikes they take to places I'll never go.

So thanks, Todd Lochmoeller/Traveler, for posting this image above of An Ancient Zig Zag Rock Wall and all those other images I'm about to dive on into (watching for the rocks of course) at:

  http://4cornershikesancients.blogspot.com/

Recollecting Nemasket

Photo from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTX5rDBYtQeh9wRYyhFBO11rQkh3gGgzuAaIwtJiMZvF9Y1dQYpOAWmnBhrI_3O6zuyK7W0wNRkefylsucYneEkDpssFIV1Sn2BSMkisiTNI2q1CkJVv8NWEXgNtjJNpPfzHtrMg/s1600-h/Mitchell+House,+Betty%27s+Neck.png

"Before I left Lakeville, I visited the old Indian burying-ground; but it is now difficult to recognize it as such, since all the stones have suffered mutilation at vandal hands. Even the Indians graves are not respected, and she who remains is but a solitary figure amidst the rush of invasion, the only type of a race which has now almost vanished from New England." Source: Walter Gilman Page, New England Magazine, “A Descendant of Massasoit”. January 1891, 642-644.


http://nemasket.blogspot.com/2011/01/visit-to-zerviah-gould-mitchell-1891.html
 

Wootonekanuske and Teweeleema,

 more familiarly known as Charlotte and Melinda Mitchell,

 were the last descendants of Massasoit and lived at Betty's Neck in Lakeville.

AN HEIR TO KING PHILIP: http://nemasket.blogspot.com/2009/09/heir-to-king-philip.html
 

 "a rock on a high hill a little to the eastward of the old stone fishing weir, where there is the print of a person's hand in said rock". [Massachusetts Historical Collections Vol. 3d 1810]

"Lenik himself suggests that "the handprint is that of a shaman who has marked the area as a sacred site. The boulder, standing alone on the hilltop, may have been seen as a source of spiritual power. The carving of the handprint may have been a shaman's attempt to derive power from the site."Hand Rock: http://nemasket.blogspot.com/2009/05/hand-rock.html

Chinese Walls (in California)

My friend Dave C. often sends me Google Earth images, like the one above, that show interesting details that stand out on satellite photos - from all around the world as well as Turtle Island.

Well, the image sent me on a little "Google Journey" - one showing me the documented Chinese rock walls near the place marked spot. This sounds like someone working for my Grandpa Tim: "Morgan Quick agreed to pay a Chinese contractor $1.75 for each rod (sixteen and a half linear feet) of stone wall. He also provided pork and rice for the workers. The contractor, who sat under an umbrella tracking construction progress with an abacus, paid his workers 25 cents per day IF they completed a rod and a half (twenty four feet and nine inches). The daily wage was lost if workers failed to meet the quota."

http://www.goldrushcam.com/2008/LG/sierra_sun_times%20linda%20gast%205.htm

But the result that "got me" was the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management website (http://www.blm.gov/id/st/en/prog/cultural/lower_salmon_river/historic_mining.html ) with the above picture of the obvious prayer seat/tsektsel, accompanied by this text:.

" The Chinese along the Lower Salmon River: Some of the places where past residents lived are still visible. These habitations were typically rock structures. The structure foundations average about 3 feet high, 6 feet wide, and 10 feet long. A wooden framework was constructed over the top of the rock walls. A variety of roofing materials were used. Most roofs were probably of canvas attached to a framework of milled lumber or driftwood. The wood was undoubtedly scavenged when the structure was abandoned.
Many of these structures had a fireplace. Generally, structures built by Euro-Americans had the fireplace in the wall opposite the entrance. Some rock structures built by the Chinese have the fireplace adjacent to the entrance. This architectural feature is unique to some structures built by the Chinese. The only other known standing structures with this unique architectural style are Chinese structures in some of the old mining areas located in New Zealand."

After seeing the Grey Feather Gallery of photos at Ancient Paths of Shastina (that I 'lifted' to illustrate this post http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/classic-example-of-prayer-seat.html), I (and probably Norman too) wonder what "the Chinese fire place/foundation" faces and what other features might occur around it that just might be similar to those Grey Feather photos at:

 http://www.ancientpathsofshastina.com/gallery/gray-feather/

(Main site: http://www.ancientpathsofshastina.com/)

A photo I couldn't easily steal of a CA Chinese rock house can be found at:

http://www.goodyearsbar.com/chinese.php 



Classic example of a prayer seat

A conversation with Alyssa Alexandria RunsWithWolves

Photo: Alyssa  Alexandria

What does the Tsektsel face?

Another Tsektsel or prayer seat:

Photo: Alyssa  Alexandria

The view, focal point from inside the second prayer seat:

Photo: Alyssa  Alexandria

Are any of the prayer seats integrated with the walls? Yes, they are. The walls do trail down to nothing once they reach them, however. Sometimes just a single row of cobbles.

The walls are robust at ground level, then meander up into nothing but a single row of stones going up the outcroppings to the prayer seat area; then (they) just stop and you're within the "spots."

They are all tied to walls. I took a series of photos with smoke holes, medicine boulders, some other wild perch type seats-- it's a little ceremonial area on top of a high outcropping. Lots of donation stones (red ones).

Added on 3/26/2022:

  

Prayer seat

níswonki - an enclosure, "three bends" (Nipmeuw, Narragansett). https://www.academia.edu/40876479/Assessing_Stone_Relics_in_Western_Massachusetts_Part_II_Patterns_of_Site_Distribution

świhwákuwi (viz. świk+wāgawi, ‘it grows around,’ Unami Lenapeuw, Zeisberger 1995:151, 173; świ, ‘three’ for 3-sided - Mohegan Nation 2004:98) form open ellipses that the author considers roughly equivalent to the “nave” of a Christian church…” https://www.academia.edu/40876478/Quantitative_Assessment_of_Stone_Relics_in_a_Western_Massachusetts_Town

 

 

Tsektsel or prayer seat (Yurok)

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/05/classic-example-of-prayer-seat.html

 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-25-mn-24849-story.html

https://escholarship.org/content/qt71d2g30s/qt71d2g30s_noSplash_0005b610d8eb3ffac3aaad128f8c8aff.pdf

 

Multiple Choice

How would you caption this?


a.) "Turtle effigy in a Native American Stone Row"

b.) Made by a "crazy colonist"

c.) An accidental random occurence (One of 999,999) during field clearing (in a field already cleared by Native Americans sometime before 1659) while building a "stone wall" in Woodbury CT"

Ancient Paths of Shastina

"Ancient Paths of Shastina" is primarily geared towards those who wish to connect with the earth energies found within our megalithic power spots. But, whether you're on a spiritual journey, looking for photographic opportunites, a Dowser, Nature Lover or just wanting to experience the ancient petroforms and walls in a professionally guided atmosphere...

 http://www.ancientpathsofshastina.com/