West Virginia Video

Read about it: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/Outdoors/200911140679

Watch at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNV8LDjA9N4

Serpent Thoughts (With Out Feathers)

The Horned Serpent vs The Feathered Serpent

After reading the newspaper story about Mike and the Serpent Stone he found in Woodbury (http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2010/05/woodbury-man-claims-to-have-found.html) and saying, “To read more about the serpent, and to see stone structures that resemble the "foot snake" read the Rock Piles Blog...), I thought I’d post some past links about the Horned Serpent of Turtle Island since I am Waking Up On Turtle Island once again. Open up some new windows with a right click on the links, so you don’t lose this page.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“The Horned Serpent appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans.[1] Details vary among tribes, with many of the stories associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and/or thunder. Horned Serpents were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of North American prehistory. [2][3]

The Horned Serpent was venerated, in various forms, by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek, just to name a few. Some myths say it is invisible, or that it brought rain and made a noise similar to (but not the same as) thunder.[citation needed]

Among the Eastern and Western Cherokee Indians, the horned serpent known as Uktena was venerated. Anthropologist James Mooney, describes it thus:

"Those who know say the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright blazing crest like a diamond on its forehead, and scales glowing like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and can not be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulun'suti -- "Transparent" -- and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker of the tribe. But it is worth a man's life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape. As if this were not enough, the breath of the Uktena is so pestilential, that no living creature can survive should they inhale the tiniest bit of the foul air expelled by the Uktena. Even to see the Uktena asleep is death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family."

According to Sioux belief, the Unktehila (Ųȟcéǧila) are dangerous reptilian water monsters that lived in old times. They were of various shapes. In the end the Thunderbirds destroyed them, except for small species like snakes and lizards. This belief may have been inspired by finds of dinosaur fossils in Sioux tribal territory. The Thunderbird may have been inspired partly by finds of pterosaur skeletons. [4]

Other known names

• Misi-kinepikw ("great snake") - Cree

• Msi-kinepikwa ("great snake") - Shawnee

• Misi-ginebig ("great snake") - Oji-Cree

• Mishi-ginebig ("great snake") - Ojibwe

• Pita-skog ("great snake") - Abenaki

• Sinti lapitta - Choctaw

• Unktehi or Unktehila - Dakota

External links

• Horned serpent, feathered serpent.

• Lakota creation myth involving Unktehi

• Native American Fossil Legends

• The Uktena And The Ulûñsû'tï

Horned-Serpent-SanRafaelSwell-Utah-100_1933.jpg‎ (800 × 450 pixels, file size: 157 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)


And then there's Wiki's link to: http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/cher/motc/motc050.htm, "The Uktena And The Ulûñsû'tï," the latter "...a bright, blazing crest like a diamond upon its forehead..."

The most famous Horned Serpent?

Great Serpent Mound, Ohio

The following passage has been adapted to modern usage from an account given by Tuscaroran Chief Elias Johnson.

“A Great Horned Serpent also next appeared on Lake Ontario who, by means of his poisonous breath, caused disease, and caused the death of many.
http://cosmictusk.com/e-p-grodines-compilation-of-first-peoples-accounts-of-the-yd-impacts

I found and posted these:

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2009/10/snake-legend.html (of Naugatuck CT), http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/10/foot-snake.html

Stones and Serpents

I really do believe Mike’s stone is a Native American creation, the foot snake a cultural motif. Next time I see him I’ll ask about the stone wall business. Some people insist that certain “stone concentrations” actually recall the Serpent as a “wall,” perhaps better described as a petroform. Some great photos can be found at, like the entry for 9/1/ 2009 at Ceremonial Landscapes:

http://www.ceremonial-landscapes.com/blog/index.php?/archives/P7.html

http://www.ceremonial-landscapes.com/blog/index.php?/archives/P4.html, if you scroll down to “The serpent wall.”

My friend Peter was moved to make a Christmas post at his Rock Piles Blog:

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-christmas.html


On the more serious side: http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2008/05/uktena-horned-creature-with-diamond.html


And I’m sure if you search his site, you’ll find lots more.

• I’ll leave you with these from a series of posts, probably best read from oldest post to newest: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

CT Archaeology Center

What can I do to protect archaeological resources located on my property?


Good stewardship begins with responsible actions. Native American sites can be very old, very fragile, and offer significant insights about the distant past. If you discover Native American artifacts, contact the Office of State Archaeology for appropriate guidance.

If you occasionally find broken bits of early ceramics or other colonial artifacts while gardening or landscaping, develop a system for recording or cataloging where these discoveries occurred. Draw a map of your property and describe where and how each find was discovered. This information will help future property owners, historians and archaeologists better understand the property's changing history and use through time. However, if you discover a buried foundation or a dense concentration of historic artifacts on your property, seek the professional assistance of the Office of State Archaeology.

Where can I donate my collection of artifacts?

The Museum of Natural History/Connecticut Archaeology Center is the official state repository for archaeological artifacts from Connecticut, and we are always interested in pre-historic and historic materials that will increase understanding of the past. If you have materials you think might benefit this effort, and are looking for a safe, pemanent home for them, please contact our Collection Manager, Cheri Collins, and we will be pleased to consider them.
 
CT Archaeology Center

old stone walls

WNPR news article (with audio, a photo and a Flickr link) that states, “New England has miles upon miles of old stone walls on its landscape…”

http://www.cpbn.org/farmland-stone-coveted-suburbanites

 

Stone wall dividing a pasture: Photo by Lucy Napathanchil, WNPR

For more photos, visit our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wnprimages/sets/72157603335631488/show/

More Spring Cleaning

UConn Powwow

Flanders Nature Center Video

Flanders Nature Center again, trying to capture some testudinate forms in stone rows, highlighting some very striking stones...

Spring Cleaning in the Chickenyard

     Yes, I still continue the work started by those chicken acheologists of yesteryear, picking and pecking away around these stone mounds. Here's a photo from the summer of 2006:

 Older Chicken Yard Posts:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2006/07/great-moments-scan-from-sketchpad.html

 (Chickens uncovered the first turtle...)

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-18.html

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2006/07/lucky-day.html (Second turtle discovery...)

A new (shaky sort of ) video:

The Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory

The first European settlers showed up in the area where I live in 1659, 351 years ago. The first Native American “settlers” showed up 10 or 15 thousand years ago (or 14, 649 years earlier). Modern stone building theory says that except for rare occurrences, the first guys built it all – or taught the Indian survivors of all those epidemics and wars how to do so since they’d work cheap.


The closer you get to Plymouth Rock, the more time you can give those European people, up to an extra forty years, to have accomplished this feat so that they can take credit for building an estimated (in 1871) 252,539 miles of stone walls in New England and New York which is enough stone wall to encircle the earth ten times.

That 1871 date messes up my math above. Those Europeans lose about 100 years of valuable stone building time. They must be pretty tired, building all that quarter million miles of stone “fences” in only 251 years.

I take some comfort in finding this article that shows me how the theory came about:

"The Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory" by Lorenzo L. Love

http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i5/pliocene-pussy.html

Flanders Nature Center

Some humanly stacked stones at an out crop...

(That green above and below is the field at the crossroads on the bing map below..." 

The next outcrop to the west, also shows similar stone work...

3/23/2020: The photo above turns out to be the heads of two "striking" or "raised head" snake effigies recorded in "Stone Prayers" by Curtiss Hoffman (2018) as part of the Nonnewaug or CT Cluster #3. The other snake effigy that this post begins with wasn't included in the book but I believe Curtiss has recorded it, shared it with the CT State Archaeologist and CT Historic Preservation Officer as well as with some Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.

This link below will take you to a more recent post that features both:

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2019/08/two-striking-serpents-again-nonnewaug.html

Looking east between the two, the middle modified for a cart path I believe:

Looking south, on top of the outcrop - and I think incorporating the bedrock - is a short low concentration of stones representing something non-testudinate (snake? bear? moose? mythical creature???)  with it's snoot pointed north: 

Down where the wetland starts I did NOT find the zigzag rows I almost always find around "the break-out zone," but a kind of gentle rounded more serpentine sort of row with those carefully stacked cobbles and small boulders that give it that "Indian Look."

Below: Single Stone Turtles???

Note the pointed quartz piece in the light colored cobble. It's another pattern that I seem to be noticing in various locations...

And right nearby, just above the row:

Turns out that this little bit of woodland was a field in 1934, some of these stone rows visible in the photo...

This is really no help: http://www.flandersnaturecenter.org/Van_Vleck_Trail_Flanders_new%5B1%5D.jpg and neither is the topographic USGS with it's inaccuracies in the out crop details (at least at this point, my own cognitive map not yet established really). 

So the car was parked at the Black Square, the modified stone row end below at the Yellow Square. I mean I think it is; it will take some time to put the place into perspective...

Mr. Turtle Again

      Looking at this photo from "theseventhgeneration," I noticed a stone that makes me think of one type of "turtle foot' that I often find on petroforms, here as a wedge in a split rock. I added an outline and an eye of the "head stone" (actually unsure from the photo if it is a separate stone) for maximum testudinate effect to this petroform with a "low dome" carapace that reminds me of a snapping turtle - like the one excavated by chickens up by the old chicken coop in my yard. These two fellows have a similar left front fore leg, the one above pointed toward the aft end of the turtle, the 'chicken yard snapper's" pointed forward...

A few feet away is a second snapper, exhibiting many similar shapes, including that left foreleg...

And we'll travel down to Woodbridge CT for another turtle petroform that has an extended foreleg:

National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers

Principles and Purposes of NATHPO (NATHPO is guided by three main principles)


Tribal Sovereignty – the inherent right of Indian Nations to self-government

Confidentiality – recognition of the need to respect the confidentiality of information regarding Native cultural and ceremonial practices and places of religious or cultural significance.

No boundaries – NATHPO recognizes that the cultural and heritage preservation interests of Indian Nations and their peoples often extend far beyond the boundaries of present-day reservations -- often crossing state and national boundaries -- and stands ready to assist in activities relating to transboundary cultural and environmental issues.

nathpo.org

image above from: Publications

Somewhere in Woodbridge CT

I had walked around here (and posted pictures) in May of 2009 several times, but to return when the leaves were down was quite an experience. There would be lots more photos but my camera batteries lost their charge. There is so much stonework here that you can't swing a cat without hitting something - and it doesn't have to be a long tailed cat.

Three views of a split filled pedestaled boulder with standing stone...

Stones on boulder, two views... 

If you think you see stone piles in the distance when you enlarge these, you are probably right.

So many stone piles, so little time...