"Sharing Mohican Knowledge and Presence in the Berkshires" Zoom presentation, Sunday

 

'The Indians' of Woodbridge CT

 

Sheila McCreven

Jun 29, 2024

 "In the book, 'History of Seymour, Connecticut with Biographies and Genealogies' published in 1879 by W.C. Sharpe, in a chapter titled 'The Indians' on page 36, the following passage provides some details connecting the native people of Seymour and Woodbridge...A small group of hikers set out to visit the last known settlement of the Paugussetts on June 29, 2024...the group of hikers soon locate the area, enclosed by a fieldstone wall with its entrance marked by two stone pillars, each with a capstone bearing an inscription — the words “Paugassett Indians” on one; and “Last Settlement 1833” on the other...Woodbridge Town Historian Marvin Aarons tells the tale:

"According to Woodbridge resident Edee Lockyer, who visited the cemetery as a child in the 1940s, the graves were then mounded up and covered with rocks. Sadly, the graves were repeatedly disturbed over many years. Today, there are no gravestones or burial mounds; rather, the grave sites are sunken."

https://www.townhistory.org/the-last-paugassett-settlement-on-the-border-between-woodbridge-ansonia-and-seymour-2/

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-last-of-woodbridge-indians.html

Full Moon Festival - Greenfield MA

 

Bring back the Wolly Mammoth

[Not rock pile related]

Colossal Biosciences Announces Historic Breakthrough: The Woolly Mammoth Is Back, Meet Baby Manny - Technology Org

How cool would it be?

Nashobah Praying Indian / Deer Island Commemoration Exhibit at the Littleton Historical Society

A message from Dan Boudillion and the Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians about an upcoming event that may be of interest to many:

Nashobah Praying Indians / Deer Island Commemoration Exhibit at the Littleton Historical Society

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,

I am pleased to announce that the Littleton Historical Society is opening a new exhibit in commemoration of the 350 year anniversary of the three months the Nashobah Praying Indians spent interred on Deer Island and Long Island during King Philip’s (Metacom’s) War of 1675-76. 

The exhibit will feature timeline and text, pictures and maps, artifacts, and Native handcrafted items. 

The exhibit will open on Sunday, February 8, from 2:00 pm through 4:00 pm. 

Both Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine and I will be there for the opening on February 8th, as will Historical Society staff.  Strong Bear indicated he will likely have some of his handcrafted Native jewelry with him for sale. 

(All proceeds of jewelry sales go to the Nashobah Praying Indians charitable organization for community programs such as the yearly Strawberry Moon Powwow.)

Also, we will be holding a public 350 year anniversary commemoration of the Deer Island internment on Saturday, May 16.  (Details on this to follow.)

For anyone at the Harvard Warner Free Lecture talk last Friday, there will be plenty of Nashobah books on hand for sale at the exhibit February 8^th. (All proceeds go to the Nashobah Praying Indians charitable organization.)

Time & Location of exhibit opening:

Sunday, February 8, from 2:00 pm through 4:00 pm

Littleton Historical Society

4 Rogers Street

Littleton MA 01460

https://www.littletonhistoricalsociety.org/

Littleton Historical Society Hours:

Wednesdays 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

2nd Sunday of each month 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Many thanks to Pam, Ann, and Donna of the Society for all their hard work pulling together the exhibit!

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Dan Boudillion

Secretary, Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians 

Native American DNA found in Greenland

How about that?

Ancient DNA Shows Vikings Were in America Much Longer Than We Thought!

Chief Quiet Storm: Native Stewardship of Mother Earth

[From Friends of Pinehawk in Acton MA]  CANCELED

If you missed Nashobah Praying Grand Indian Chief Quiet Storm in the Friends of Pine Hawk Fall Series, there is another opportunity to hear Native Stewardship of Mother Earth in Littleton this Saturday, January 10. 

Chief Quiet Storm will share how we as a community can be good stewards of the land in all spaces. She will also highlight how we can better support the pollinators and biodiversity that we rely on to sustain our life on Mother Earth. 

Chief Quiet Storm's talk was of such interest that the Littleton Conservation Trust is hosting her Saturday, January 10, at 3 PM at The Center, 33 Shattuck St, in Littleton.  

Best wishes to all for the New Year!

Friends of Pine Hawk

www.pinehawk.com

My best arrowhead find of 2025

I apologize for my long absence from these pages. Arrowheads have gotten harder for me to find. The area where I live is increasingly built on and built up. Farm fields become housing developments or solar panels. I am sure there are great sites yet to be discovered but drives to potential new spots (that are likely void) are increasingly long and thus less appealing. After years of collecting, spending a whole day for a couple of broken quartz fragments does not have the same value proposition it once did for me. I still have a few favorite spots left, and I did add a few pieces to my collection this year, of which this was my favorite. 

I found this in May in a place where there is sand and not a lot of rocks. One walks slowly, examining every stone. There is not a lot to find but sometimes there is something really special waiting to be discovered. Suddenly there is a rush of excitement at the sight of an exposed sliver of stone. You think: this is it. This is what I came here for.

Now, the really fun part. You savor the moment, take some photos. You crouch down and examine the thing. It certainly looks good but it could be anything, it could be broken, it could be just a rock, a "faker." You try to visualize what it might be, picture some wonderful thing coming out of the ground. A lot of the time there is a disappointment when you pick it up. Not this time, though.

I hope everyone finds more of whatever they are looking for in 2026. Thanks to Peter for keeping this blog going for all these years. Happy New Year to all.

Viewership Changes Here

For many years this blog has had a small community of daily visitors. Somewhere between 30 and 100 on any given day. One time, I suddenly got a flood of several thousand visitors, and it was interesting in two ways. One is that it made me uncomfortable to suddenly have "strangers" showing up. The other was that I tracked the visitors back to two different webpages that had simultaneously linked to me on a story about a flint knife blade made from exotic flint - found somewhere in the US. As it turned out one of the two webpages was a political/conspiracy theory page, accused of being a CIA front; while the other was a seemingly innocuous "find love" dating site. Who knew the CIA was doing these experiments?

Anyway, something funny happened recently: Both the Rock Piles blog and my Sphinxmoth blog had multiple repeated visits from a server in Singapore. [I can read these details because I have an embedded "STATCOUNTER".] At first Sphinxmoth had several hundred visits for several day. Then the craziness started: I am getting more than 3K daily visits to Rock piles from all over the world!

These are strangers, in no way devoted to rock piles and they are coming in with search strings that make no sense, like this:

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-10T08:34:00-04:00&max-results=100&reverse-paginate=true&start=26&by-date=false&m=1

Nobody would type this, so I am thinking it is a link from somewhere [connected to Singapore] that thousands are clicking on every day. I think someone is making a little money of this blog's content.

All of which makes me want to make some money too - off a flood of non-enthusiasts who, by coincidence, happen to be passing by. 

SO, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE ROCK PILE COMMUNITY: 

HOW ABOUT A DISCRETE ADD OR TWO ON THE LEFT PANEL

Merry Solstice

Hope we all have a good year.

PA Rock Piles....here somewhere

 Have We Finally Found It? ~ Ghost Village Searching

You just know this guy is going to pass rock piles. The question is: will he say something intelligent about them?

The Indian Cave just below Tousi Road (Hatchett Tousey, Atchetouset, Hatchatowsuck, Hatchatousset )

.   “In the spring of 1996, I was shown what is known locally as the “Indian Cave.” It’s a little over two miles upriver from the floodplains that were the cornfields used by a band of local Native Americans whom local history documents as living there between 1672/1673 and the early 1700’s. A tributary branch of the river that flows through the floodplain, known as the East Spring (or Sprane) Brook, cuts through a large outcrop of bedrock, creating a zigzag ravine shadowed by hemlocks. Boulders in the stream create many pools, the largest of which was right below “Indian Cave,” before an intense summer thunderstorm caused flooding that filled the pool with stones and debris. I tended to think of it as “Plunge Pool” and imagined people leaving the Pissepunk and jumping into this pool. The “cave” is on the west bank, about six feet above the brook. It bears some resemblance to an overhanging glacial cave, perhaps a very small “rockshelter” in the approximately forty-foot almost vertical rock face. There are no obvious marks of any metal stone cutting tools or drills but I think it possible that it may have been quarried to its present size. From the brook to the floor of the “cave” there appears to be rows of stone piled and even “chinked” or mortared with clay (there was a large deposit of clay a short distance upstream) that still remains deep within this sort of “retaining wall” just beyond the drip line of the overhang. The deep pool below the “cave” seems filled with stones that fell from the wall over time, as if the “cave” itself was walled at one time.” From: https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/01/indian-cave.html

    On December 7, 2025, I just happened to re-read a passage from William Cothren’s History of Ancient Woodbury Connecticut that included place names related to the town’s past, including “Tousey” which “lies north-west of William Hayes' house, in the south-east part of Bethlehem, and is so called from a Christian Indian, who lived there for a time. His full name was Hatchet Tousey. A further account of him will be found on page 101.” I don’t know why it took almost thirty years for me to realize that the probable stone sweat lodge or pissepunk known locally as the Indian Cave just below the end of present day Tousi Road was related to Hachett Tousey, the father of famed Paugussett basket maker Molly Hatchett.

History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut, from the First ... - Page 852

books.google.com › books

William Cothren · 1872

New Runestone in Canada

Mystery Of Lord's Prayer Rock Carved In Canada In A European Language That Vanished Before Columbus

Stone circles from Quebec

The Final Proof: Megalithic Stone Circles of Canada

New Salem Chamber

From James O.

Finally made it out to the "Bears Den" Chamber in New Salem. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but the chamber appears to be built on the southeast end of a very short esker, or at least something that looks like an esker. 

I add that caveat because on the north end of the "esker" it seems as if some earth-moving has occurred to form the end into a bowl with one clear opening. I could have been convinced that this was a small but ordinary "kettle hole" in the outwash, except for the fact that the entranceway points due west and there is a very clearly artificial mount directly in the center. 

Is this truly an esker? Or is the whole raised area of human construction? I have no idea, I'm more of a bird-guy than a rock-guy. 

I didn't notice this out in the field, but the LIDAR maps show what looks to be a stone row (maybe sunken beneath the leaf litter?) running form the side of the bowl towards the wet areas along the stream.

And a photo of the "bowl", though photos never really do it justice. There also seemed to be some out of place rocks lining the inside of the bowl.

A little green argillite arrowhead

Found in coastal RI. This is like an "Atlantic" point.

This is the first time I found something made from such green argillite. The faint notches on the sides suggest a cross-lashing - an unfamiliar feature.

Friends of Pinehawk Lecture: Native Stewardship of Mother Earth

Talk is at the Acton Library: 2PM Nov 8 All the Friends of Pine Hawk programs are free but require registration. If you haven't signed up yet, you can register for this and other 2025 programs here.

Nashobah Praying Indian Grand Chief Quiet Storm will talk about how we as a community can be good stewards of the land in all spaces. She will also highlight how we can better support the pollinators and biodiversity that we rely on to sustain our life on Mother Earth.

Community Service Day
Sunday, November 9, 1-3 PM
Community Service Day gives everyone a chance to contribute to the Nashoba Brook Conservation Land's Trail Through Time in North Acton with trail and site maintenance. There will be an optional brunch beforehand at 11:30 PM. Details will be emailed to registrants a few days in advance. Limited to 25, ages 13 and up.


And more!

The Manitou Book Discussion on Thursday, November 13, at 7 PM at the Acton Memorial Library will discuss the archaeology of the region described in this ground-breaking book that introduced many to the forgotten stone structures and standing stones hidden in our woods. The Boxborough Esker Walk on Saturday, November 15, will explore some of those features mentioned in Manitou. (The walk is currently full, but a wait list sign up is available.)

An active turtle head

Thinking of Tim M:

From The Hidden Mystery in the Rocks of Andahuaylas / The Petroglyphs of Sachapucro.

My Drive to Nevada and back

 Just so I do not forget the basic details: I drove to Pittsburgh and spent the next day driving back 300 miles to get a credit card I lost, then returning to Pittsburgh. The next day I chased the sun all day but he beat me over the horizon and I just kept driving from Pittsburgh to Columbus Ohio, then southwest to Cincinatti and Louisville Ky. I crossed the Mississippi at Cairo Illinois, turned sought through Missouri - where I started seeing cottonfields - and then Arkansas and Rt 40 West. I was getting tired and pulled over into a rest stop in western Arkansas. I slept OK in my car, peeing right out in the open late at night. The next day I did the same all day of driving, crossing OK, a bit of Texas, and most of New Mexico, till I got to Grants, where I spent the night in the parking lot of a Navajo Walmart. Next day got me all the way to my campsite.

At camp at Wamp Springs Trail (1/2 mile in) and plagued by much wind messing up my tarp. Spent two days walking around and sitting around waiting for dark. At night, the wind howled, flapped the tarp, and rocked the car. Knowing it would be impossible to sleep, I slept pretty well. I re-positioned the car and had less noise but not much less wind the next night. After two nights I upped camp and spent the morning at the glacial lake "hillocks" south of Coyote Spring. I found one broken base, not too diagnostic for me.

There is an extra little glacial lake there and I wanted to explore the north end, and took a dirt road, Sawmill Rd, east from 93 over to the broken-up land that I thought worth exploring. Well, that drive became hair-raising when the road was up on the top of the hillocks, winding past steep 20' gulllies with little road to spare and some foot-deep ruts in the road. After that little adventure, I drove back south to the access road to my little hill. Trying to setup camp with the car blocking the wind at the best angle, had me rearranging the pegs and guy ropes 3 times. But I got settled in, had coffee, had whiskey, had some corned beef hash with ketchup. I brought WAY more food than I had any intention of cooking. The next day, I explored the hill more carefully than usual, especially on the northeastern slope. Across from there, on the southwestern slope, I did find some slightly diamond-shaped bifaces. Two of them, at most 2 inches long.. These were as close as I got to realizing my dream of finding more Solutrean blades out there.

Turns out, camping alone is no fun. Who knew? After a day at my little hill, I upped camp, drove down into Las Vegas, and spent the night at the same hotel I usually stay at: the Cannery on East Craig Rd. I was able to review my route back home but it did not really matter because I ended up sleeping at other rest stops that I could not have planned. I spent the first night west of Amarillo at a truck parking stop; with the most intense stink of cow manure that I have ever experienced. Even if I kind-of like the smell, I feel sorry for that part of Texas. From Amarillo, I just continued east, back past Oklahoma City, Fort Smith Arkansas, Little Rock Arkansas, north across the Mississippi at Cairo, and on to a rest stop at Beaver Dam Kentucky.

All the way along, going and coming back, I was plagued by not being able to charge my phone reliably. When I was camping, there was no signal, and I never did figure out a reliable charging strategy. Primarily because I needed that little extra white box for iPhone charging. The only thing that worked was running my laptop from the car and charging my phone from the laptop. It did not work well and I had become more and more reliant on Siri getting me to the right route. Turning Siri on and off to save battery, while trying to get through the mess of roads and hidden bridges in Cairo was no fun. I spent about an hour being lost and Siri rescured me at the end. So I got into Kentucky and on to that rest area. It poured very hard that night and I sat at the Beaver Dam rest area, really enjoying the coziness of my little bed setup in the back of my Rav4. But my computer stopped working and stopped charging the phone, so I barely got back to Pittsburgh with Siri's support. I will say that some of Siri's instructions are insane. She'll take you off a highway into a bunch of neighborhood streets and then back onto the same highway. I had to fight with her hard, to get south onto Rt 95 in CT. Before that, I got back to Pittsburgh and spent a nice visit with the Raatz-Vargas family. So it was 4 days driving out, and 4 days driving back. I ask myself: what was the point. I think there was one and did eventually shrug off the sense that my pain was appropriate to the guilt I felt. My car's "Maintenance Required" light came on - I changed the oil in Pittsburgh on the way out but it has been more than 5K miles of driving and was time to go again. 

I was feeling pretty down when I got home but some food, shower, and sleeping in a familiar bed, with my wife nearby, are helping get things back to something like normal. Then my new PC arrived and its like Christmas.

I'll tell you a poetic thought from the road: It is afternoon and you are driving past some red boulders in a field. Each boulder makes a dark shadow in the bright light. Then you see some shadows that are not attached to boulders - they are black cows - shadows without a source.

Ancient Nipmuc Mishoonash at Lake Quinsigamond

Thursday, October 9, 7 PM, at the Acton Memorial Library

This is a reminder that the first 2025 Fall Friends of Pine Hawk talk, "Ancient Nipmuc Mishoonash at Lake Quinsigamond" by Cheryl Stedtler, is this Thursday. 

All the Friends of Pine Hawk programs are free, but require registration. If you haven't signed up yet, you can register for this and other 2025 programs here.

The full Friends of Pine Hawk 2025 Fall Program is on our website.

The 2025 Fall Program is presented with support from the Acton Memorial Library and Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area.