This is an email Tim Fohl wrote to several of the people involved with protecting rock piles sites in Carlisle, MA - which he refers to as "Indian issues". If the Carisle Mostquito, which is a newspaper, has an archive (I don't know), there are a number of interesting articles there about "Benfield A" the land parcel puchased by Carlisle for affordable housing but on which there were rock piles. Carlisle is an important test case - the first time the "Indian Rocks Defense" has been tried as a means of protecting and conserving land. As you'll see, blue spotted salamanders are an easier sell.
Greetings,
At the recent Selectman's meeting John Ballantine, the former chairman of the development Task Force, presented the results of studiesrelating to the blue spotted salamander that was found there. Look in this weeks Mosquito (www.carlislemosquito.org) for details. The bottom line is that most of the land they have allocated for building is off limits. The architect presented some potential workarounds but they have huge complications.
What the mosquito does not emphasize is that the architect, the selectmen and others all emphasized the importance of taking the Indian issues seriously. Last year they were completely oblivious and puzzled by the question. Clearly our views are gaining traction. Going forward I think the best strategy is to keep informing eople in town about ceremonial places in general. Emphasis should be on places in and around Carlisle but not exclusively on Benfield A.
To that end I am putting information on ceremonial areas into our Land Stewards Committee reports on Carlisle's conservation lands where appropriate. I think more of the sorts of thing we have been doing in the way of presentations is also useful.
In other news the Potato Cave restoration in Acton is nearly complete. You can see stuff about it on the Acton Land Stewards web site.
Best,
Tim
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This is about rock piles and stone mound sites in New England. A balance is needed between keeping them secret and making them public. Also arrowheads, stone tools and other surface archaeology.
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This is exciting news. A precedent needs to be set and Carlisle should be proud to set it. Happy to hear things are going in a positive direction.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with Mr. Fohl in that education is definitely the way to go. I also agree that it's important to show that other sites like that exist all over New England, but particularly in Carlisle.
Incidentally, is there any more information regarding artifacts found and identified at the Acton chamber? I saw plenty of terrific photos, but not much in the way of information.