Waking Up on Turtle Island: Ceil’s Stones Again (Westbrook VT)

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Ceil’s Stones Again (Westbrook VT)

Under the Trumpet Vine and the bullbriar,

There’s “What’s left of” that section of “stone wall”

Behind the barn

In my mom’s backyard…

My sister Margaret has joined in keeping this clear and visible...

They say that Indigenous “Walls” don’t meet at right angles,

And I’m pretty sure that’s not always true,

Especially when standing

Where three Qusukqaniyutôkansh meet

In my mom’s backyard…

Three Qusukqaniyutôk meet at two different offset right angles...

(Just like a certain spot somewhere else nearby to the south and west:)

A place above a species specific habitat:

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2020/03/diamondback-turtle-hill.html

The first turtle that caused me to consider if what remains of the oldest of the "stone walls" were an Indigenous creation can be found following that "Qusukqaniyutôk" in the upper left of the photo northward:

Qusukqaniyutôkansh (pl): Rows of Stacked Stones, colloquially “stone walls” or “stone fences,” often assumed to be post contact constructions related to property ownership and agriculture.

I noticed an abundance of long nosed turtles that I hadn't really noticed before.

Snapping Turtles??

http://www.wildlifeofct.com/snapping%20turtle.html#:~:text=Common%20snapping%20turtles%20can%20reach,farther%20west%20than%20New%20England.

Or a different species, like the Spiny Softshell, with the very distinct nose:

I wonder if the range extended into CT in the past or perhaps, like the modern specimens found here and there in CT and MA, they were imported to someplace from someplace else sometime...

https://www.britannica.com/animal/softshell-turtle

At the south end of that row of stones - that leads to a steep bank and and a muddy spot I don't quite understand but now add "possible spiny softshell habitat?" to my mental list of considerations - there's a white quartzy version of that possible head shape: