Event: Strong Bear Medicine talk in Acton 9-17-2024

 [From Dan Boudillion:] 

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,

 

Please support Strong Bear Medicine who will be speaking in Acton on 9-17 at an event sponsored by the Sudbury Valley Trustees.

 

We are looking forward to partnering the SVT on this important talk.  It is the first time Strong Bear has presented in Acton. 

See flyer, attached. 

 

Registration required, see flyer, or here: https://www.svtweb.org/outdoor-voices-speaker-series  

An article about Canonchet and Rock Piles in General

I was impressed with this very thoroughly written article by Karen Ellsworth. It is about events in 2017.

A Mystery at Canonchet: Who Built the Stone Piles in...

But to me, reading it, there is an elephant in the room: Most of the people commenting on rock piles and the social impact of one or another interpretation, have seen maybe 1/20th of the data available in a short, couple-hour's drive. And they pay the price, I'll explain.

The writer is discussing how to "identify" a rock pile as Native American. And I come off as a bit of a scoundrel because I'm quoted saying that the Indians did not really know about these things a few years ago. But that doesn't mean the Indians aren't right. It also doesn't mean that "Indian-vs-European" is a valid dichotomy in discussing piles that are often from that post-colonial, historic period. 

The point I want to make is that if commenters on rock piles knew these things, and had seen 20x what they had already seen, they would know: You recognize an old friend when you see them. It's not complicated. It helps if you have a clue as to a place's function. I'm sorry, but making the ethnic authorship issue the highest priority, just shows your amateurishness. What is important is site design. I think it is the direction to look for answers.

I try to be supportive of alternate views, but the characters quoted in the article are mostly the worst proponents of a complex subject - they are front and center, making a lot of noise, making money doing it, and speaking as experts when they are not. 

A Stone Chamber in Mason NH

[Reader Nicholas writes:]

My good friend who lives in Mason, NH has caught intrigue from my infatuation with stone sites. He sent me these photos from a site 5 minutes from his house.

Haven’t been able to go get a good look at it, but 6’ high, about 20’ long and it seems to taper off. It’s a beaut of a chamber whatever period it’s from!

Just wanted to share, best wishes

-Nicholas Phelan

Dynamic Forests (Land Use) in Southern New England

Dynamic forests and flexible subsistence in pre-colonial southern New England: comment on Turner and Reid  

(Some interesting maps, mid-article).

A Few Interesting Photos by Harry Holstein

https://www.facebook.com/harry.holstein

Those "hobbit" fossils from Flores

 [Not rock pile related]

Discovery of "hobbit" fossils suggests tiny humans roamed Indonesian islands 700,000 years ago - CBS News

This article shows that the small hominid fossils from the Isle of Flores in the Pacific, were not examples of "island dwarfism", as they have now found more fossils, even older than the original find, and the older fossils are of a smaller species.

Let's take a moment to consider the implications. The first is that this is a branch of the human tree the split off the main "trunk" before Homo Erectus. That means earlier species were able to make the voyage. That means world-wide distribution much earlier than believed.