On the 69th anniversary of the Great Flood of August 18-19 in 1955, a record amount of rain fell in part of the Paugussett Homeland. Here in Nonnewaug, the floodplain filled with water, almost as much as it did during a flood in the mid to late 1990s, quite to that line on the map called the 100 year flood contour, what I imagine was once a glacial lakeshore. The floodplain didn't fill up quite as much this time - and neither did my basement. Here's a couple images (that may not be award winning photos) taken on the 18th and 19th:
I suspect that a certain amount of Indigenous Stonework has now disappeared, washed away forever from the bigger picture of the Paugussett Homeland, the Traditional Cultural Properties that are Stacked Stone Cultural features of the Indigenous Cultural Landscape, a Sacred Landscape that evidences the sustainable system of land management that is simple yet complicated, interconnected by what are all too often assumed to be those "Yankee Stone Walls" in far too many Colonialist histories and biased archaeologies that ignore these stacked stone cultural landscape features "hidden in plain sight," as they say...
Here's one segment that remains. I've driven by this an unknown number of times in my life and actually visited maybe only two or three times. It illustrates the Indigenous Iconography that can be found in Indigenous Stonework, the "power" of the Great Serpent Being infused into these Qusukqaniyutôkansh, these Rows of Stacked Stones,
colloquially “stone walls” or “stone
fences,” often assumed to be post contact constructions related to property
ownership and agriculture.
The biggest surprise of this most recent visit was the remarkable resemblance of this Qusukqaniyutôk on the left that begins with a "snake head" to an image that appears in a National Park Service training video about Ceremonial Stone Landscapes, narrated by Doug Harris:
Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of New England:
Doug's image also appears in "Our Hidden Landscapes:"
Let's go back to where I started:
(Yes, I did ask young Danny B. if it was okay to photograph these features.)
By the new bridge that sits beside the old bridge, above site of the oldest early European Settler Colonist mill in the Nonnewaug district, it shows in aerial images and in LiDar images as well:
Looking to the north, at the beginning of the present day remnant:
Looking west images:
Above: Deer Horns Overlay
Below: Bison-like Single Horn Overlay
Looking South:
Mill Site and Mill Race:
An image from 2012 visit:
Above: Looking South
Below: Looking East
Looking North:
Back to where I started:
Stolen from Beauford's (aka Mr. Steven Peck) Video:
Aerial images of various sorts:
1934:
1965:
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