[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/
I was impressed with this very thoroughly written article by Karen Ellsworth. It is about events in 2017.
[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.
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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
[Not rock pile related]
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.
Prayers In Stone Project
Native Sites Stewardship Program
Founded 2024 Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine & D.V.Boudillion
How do you know?
26 July 2024 Daniel V.
Boudillion
Several years ago I was at a Friends of Pine Hawk lecture on Native stone structures by two recognized experts in the field. At one point while they were interpreting a type of stone structure, an audience member asked “But how do you know that?” Much to the dismay of all there that night, they were unable to answer this question.
This awkward situation left an impression on me. It’s a question I often ask myself as I walk the woods and assess stonework as Native: “Yes, but how I know?”
This essay is not to answer this question, but to provide an illustration of people creating structures in the woods that resemble Native type structures, but are not. It’s a cautious call to caution.
On the recent Prayers in Stone survey of the local forestry property, I noticed some trees had been cut next to the forestry barn, and the wood left stacked there.
I was intrigued because the wood was piled in a way – that were it stone and not wood – would likely have elicited a Native ceremonial origin assessment from me.
It illustrates that people pile things, often in the woods, in a manner that closely resembles the structures that we typically assess as Native-origin, ceremonial in nature. If modern people can pile wood in a way that exactly resembles – were it in stone – constructions we would call Native, they can also pile stone as well in ways that look Native but are not.
Which beings me back to the question: How do we know?
Please see below pictures of the “ceremonial” wood stacking.
Log pile 1 Log pile 2
Stick pile All three piles in view
At the forestry barn large cut logs are stacked in a deliberately constructed pile on a boulder, much like these large rocks stacked on a boulder at Trails Through Time.
These smaller “donation” sticks have been placed in a split rock at forestry barn. This is much like the picture to the right of small donation stones placed in a large split rock.
Here we have two large log lengths perched on a boulder in classic “rock-on-rock” style, as exemplified by the picture to the right.
The picture to the
left is of all three log pile constructions.
It has everything we look for: a variety of recognized styles, they are
in a cluster, and the cluster is within an enclosure of stone rows. Were this stone on stone, not wood on stone,
we would assess it as Native.
But its not Native. This is the point, its not Native. People pile things on boulders for a variety of reasons. This is a perfect example. Keep this in mind the next time you are working on assessments.
Be cautious.
Like the fellow said: “How do you know?”
Searching to update a dead link on an old post (as I sometimes do), I came across some interesting images of some stone cultural features at a Game Drive:
I was struck by the feature of a "seat" at the end of a wall. Here, the "seat" is where the hunters waited in hiding. We have such walls and seats here, in New England, but tend to imagine it is for sky-watching, not game hunting.
I am glad this is now available again. Larry Harrop had hosted it and Walter VanRoggen has managed to rescue the book from Larry's data.
Of course NEARA removed the site location details, so some parts of the data are not displayed. (But you can still find it in my new book.)
Nashobah History Talk (Bear & Dan)
September 17, 7:00 pm Acton, Church of the Good Shepard
Sponsored by the SVT
Sacred Stones Talk (Bear & Dan)
October 18, 7:30 pm, Littleton
Sponsored by the Littleton Lyceum
Nashobah History Talk (Bear & Dan)
November 4, 1:00 pm, Lowell
Sponsored by the University of Lowell
Reader Nathan P. writes:
Dear Contributors,
Reader Nicholas P. writes (about the Westminster area):
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This map caught my eye, got me thinking...
From Dan Boudillion:
Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,
I’m sad to report that two of the Native Ceremonial Stone Structures at the Sarah Doublet Forest in Littleton have been demolished by vandals.
Here are some pictures, and comments to follow.
This is a donation-niche structure. Offerings are placed in the niche.
This is how it looks today:
This is a pedestal boulder (dolmen) on top of a larger boulder:
Smaller, yet no less spiritually significant, here is a smooth river rock placed as an offering on a turtle effigy.
It is only a few yards from the donation-niche structure.
Here is how it looks today, the offering stone has been taken. (I placed the pinecone there for scale.)
Comments:
The donation niche and pedestal stone are unique and rare forms of Native ceremonial stonework. Destroying these took effort. The pedestal boulder would have taken considerable effort and a pry bar. The donation niche wasn’t simply toppled down the hill, one of its support rocks was pulled out of the ground and toppled down the hill as well.
A close examination of the leaf cover at the donation niche suggests the destruction happened before winter snowfall. For the pedestal stone, I recall seeing it last year.
It is hard to know how to best steward these types of sites on conservation and town lands. The ongoing conversation in the stewardship community for a number of years is how can we serve the public and protect and preserve these types of sites at the same time: essentially, do we educate, or do we keep them secret?
It’s almost a moot point. No amount of education or secrecy will protect things in the open woods. Both means might cut down problems in their own way, but anything just sitting out there in the open woods is at risk, be it to malicious destruction or simple careless and unintentional vandalism.
I don’t have answers to this conundrum. But I do want to share what happened, and the sadness of it. I also want to keep the conversation going.
I’d also like to note that vandalism of Native sites has occurred in Acton and Harvard as well. Its not unique to any one place, it is a product of human nature.
I’ve brought notice of the damage to the Littleton Conservation Trust. The LCT is in the process of making some changes that they feel will help mitigate against these kinds of things. They are doing their best stewardship, but like I said, no one can fully protect things in the open woods. I’ve also let the Harvard Conservation Trust know as well, they have Native sites on their lands and have been part of the conversations of how to preserve and protect. Bettina Abe and I will be carrying the conversation forward in Acton soon as well.
At the Trail Trees & Sacred Stones talk that Strong Bear and I did in Littleton on April 28, we showed pictures of vandalism that had already occurred. It’s a timely conversation, its an ongoing problem.
Strong Bear Medicine and I, in collaboration with the Littleton Conservation Trust, have been working on the Prayers in Stone Project – a stewardship project focused on Native ceremonial stone sites. Perhaps the Prayers in Stone Project can be a means by which the local communities can work together to preserve and protect these fragile sites and their heritage in the Nashoba Valley.
If you have a position in your town on a town board or a non-profit group that is involved in conservation and interested in preserving Native sites – or have a position that supports this – and would like to open dialog and think of ideas on how we can best preserve Native sites in the local area, please contact me.
Best wishes,
Dan Boudillion
Secretary
Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians
