Waking Up on Turtle Island: Stone Prayers & Sacred Smoke

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Stone Prayers & Sacred Smoke

Rock Art Specialist Edward J. Lenik writes: “The turtle motif occurs on numerous portable artifacts and petroglyph sites in the Northeast…Turtle images appear in several artistic media…stone, clay, bone, shell, wood, antler, and in Historic Contact times as molded lead objects…pendants and gorgets, pebbles, cobbles, stone tools, clay pipes, and wooden bowls.”

“The turtle is a sacred animal, an important spirit for Algonkian and Iroquois peoples (Lenik 2009: 146- 147).”

Edward J. Lenik suggests that the turtle, in “portable artifacts” and “nonportable petroglyphs,” can be a symbol of the Earth, the first animal created, the first clan/first people created, a symbol of longevity, patience, perseverance or fertility (a womb), and if found as a petroglyph on a boulder or outcrop as perhaps the boundary of a Turtle Clan territory such as a Village site or Hunting/Gathering Ground, or a Guardian Spirit of a path or trail. As a stacked stone feature (in “stone prayers” or “stone walls”), I’m going to take what he says into consideration as a possibility as to a possible "icon" that suggests Indigenous construction...

A prayer to the Turtle is a prayer to “All of Creation.” A Stone Prayer constructed to resemble a Turtle is initially a prayer “spoken into the stone (Harris)” during its construction, but it also becomes a place to continue to pray by the person who constructed it and perhaps to that person’s descendants.

I’m biased perhaps because the first stone constructions that seemed to me to be effigies (a bear and a deer head, each on a boulder), also seemed to be places to burn some tobacco, perhaps for hunting purposes (Speck, Tantequidgeon), but also perhaps as a place for a daily prayer or even after a hunt as inferred by the story of Obed’s Altar from the Saybrook area of CT (https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/08/up-there-with-bear.html; http://www.dunhamwilcox.net/town_hist/westbrook_hist.htm).

Then again, another name for a Sachem (“Peace Chief”) is “our bear” or even “our old bear” and “our younger bear,” names for an elder (perhaps white haired?) sachem and a younger sachem of a Peace (White) Town as opposed to a War Chief at a Warriors (Red) Town (Driver? Trigger??). Perhaps this bear was always associated with the Sachem or Sachems, at the “camp” (or Town/Village) referred in post contact times as Nonnewaug Wigwams near the Fish Weir and planting fields, perhaps even back to the time there was a glacial lake here…

PIPE: BEAR HEAD EFFIGY, JACKSON COUNTY , ILLINOIS ,19th Century Length: 2 3/4" Height: 1 1/2" Width: 1 1/2" Weight: 6.1 oz This is an intriguing bear-head effigy pipe from southern Illinois . Carved from a brown-black, extremely hard stone (with hints of green tint seen under direct sunlight) this item was acquired from out-of-state descendants of the original finder. It appears that in the late 1800s, during extended field clearance south of Austin Hollow, Kincaid Township , a cache of stone artifacts was uncovered. This odd bear-head pipe was one of those pieces. The pipe was carved in the image of a bear's head. A projecting snout leads to a smoke bowl. Upright ears animates the bear's presence. A flat bottom has remnants of an oval depression. There are many abrasion scratches, dings and cuts along all sides. The nose / mouth stem area is chipped. This is one of the densest stones I've ever come across in an effigy pipe: an enormous amount of time/effort clearly went into the making of this unusual artifact. Listed exactly as acquired.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/pipe-bear-head-effigy-jackson-county-1441039424

This is a hand carved Black Bear effigy pipe bowl from the Chippewa Black Bear Pipe Effigy. The piece is from circa 1880-1900 and was recovered during extended field clearance South of Austin Hollow, Kincaid Township, a cache of stone artifacts was uncovered. This odd bear-head pipe was one of those pieces. Measures 3"x1.75"x1 5/8"