A context for historic or even modern rock piles

My understanding is that Indians did not live at a place but moved in and out of places with the seasons. So they would come and go, come and go. Over time, fewer and fewer made it back to their places but there are still a few getting up into my area of Massachusetts, and I believe they are still conducting rituals that leave rock piles behind. So there can be recently built piles - although they lack something from the older ones. The fresh ones I find seem a bit "off". This should not be confused with the modern vertical stacks of stones people are building along trails.