Native American Ceremonial Stone Landscapes in New England: Fact or Myth?
By FlazyJ
Saturday Mar 19, 2016
Do Native
American ceremonial stone landscapes exist in New England, or is all stonework
in the region post-contact European handiwork? According to a Massachusetts
Historical Commission brochure on historic stone landscape features excerpted
below, the answer is that Native American ceremonial stone landscapes are a
myth! This is the first in a series of posts that questions this viewpoint, and
examines historical bias among New England archaeologists that precludes
acknowledging the existence of Native American ceremonial stone landscapes—and
the people who created them..."
THE LAST WORD: DEBUNKING THE MYTH OF STONE WALLS, PILES AND CHAMBERS
. . . Archaeologists also consider ethnographic and ethnohistorical information. For example, Native American oral traditions record that people did place small stones or twigs on a sacred spot as they passed by. Over time this might result in a small pile of pebbles, tiny cobbles, or sticks, but not large piles. Conversely there is a strong, documented ethnohistory of stone building traditions among the European settlers of Massachusetts. Together, archaeology and ethnohistory provide conclusive evidence that stone walls, piles and chambers are not the work of ancient cultures.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission is the guiding state agency for the protection of historic and prehistoric properties; if you have a question regarding the significance of a stone feature, please contact them . . . .
"As the self-proclaimed “guiding state agency for protection of historic and prehistoric properties”, the Massachusetts Historical Commission has assiduously ignored the beliefs of the United Southern and Eastern Tribes [USET], an inter-tribal organization with 26 federally-recognized Tribal Nation members (including Federally recognized tribes of New England), who declared in a resolution written in 2002 that their people created ceremonial stone landscapes, and that these places do exist."
From the USET Resolution:
[F]or thousands of years before the immigration of
Europeans, the medicine people of the United South and Eastern Tribal [USET]
ancestors used [ceremonial stone] landscapes to sustain the people’s reliance
on Mother Earth and the spirit energies of balance and harmony.
[D]uring and following the Colonial oppression of Southern
and Eastern Tribes, many cultural and ceremonial practices, including
ceremonial use of stones and stone landscapes, were suppressed. . . .
[W]hether these stone structures are massive or small
structures, stacked, stone rows or effigies, these prayers in stone are often
mistaken by archaeologists and State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) as
the efforts of farmers clearing stones for agricultural or wall building
purposes.
[A]rchaeologists and SHPOs categorically thereafter, dismiss
these structures as non-Indian and insignificant, permitting them to be the
subjects of the sacrilege of archaeological dissection and later destruction
during development projects. . . .
[C]laiming them as products of farm clearing, professional archaeologists
and the SHPOs annually pass judgment on the significance and potential
protection of these sacred ceremonial stone landscapes and their structures
within USET ancestral territories.
"Could it be
that consultation with indigenous people by New England archaeologists might
involve a potentially wrenching change in the balance of power, the fear of
which has caused some of them to avoid such consultations? And could it be that
deeply engrained cultural bias on the part of Eurocentric archaeologists
prevents them from recognizing Native American ceremonial stone landscapes in
the northeast?
Consider
this. For decades, the Massachusetts SHPO has refused to visit the site of a
remarkable beehive-shaped stone chamber in Upton, MA that is acknowledged by
four federally-recognized New England tribes as part of a highly significant
ceremonial stone landscape. In absentia she has determined that it is a
colonial root cellar—end of story. Yet recently-completed optically stimulated
luminescence analysis of backfill behind a chamber wall yielded dates between
1350 A.D. and 1625 A.D.—predating European settlement in the area. Is it not
time for the Massachusetts SHPO to reconsider the colonial attribution?
The time has
come to challenge the “facts” and hypotheses of New England archaeologists who
pontificate without benefit of the Native American voice (which many mistakenly
believe has vanished), and to encourage them to open their minds to the truth
that hides in plain sight all around them."
Time to End Shameful Colonial Bias in New England
Archaeology
By FlazyJ
Monday Jul 11, 2016
" In New
England, the victors and oppressors have successfully shaped the pre-contact
narrative--without Tribal consultation. It is time for that shameful practice
to end. New England is rich in Native American ceremonial stone
landscapes--places where stones were carefully placed, grouped, propped,
shaped, and/or split, etc. for sacred purposes. Celestial alignments in these
places form the foundation of ancient spiritual communication with Mother
Earth. Elsewhere in North America, these ceremonial stone features are accepted
for what they are, the work of Indigenous People. But in New England, colonial
bias--and dare I say racism--have propelled the mainstream archaeological
community to attribute all stone features in the region to European settlers.
The prevailing
narrative insinuates that Indigenous People were not “advanced” enough to
create the stone features found throughout New England. Dr. Paulette Steeves
explains this phenomenon: “The archaeological construction of Indigenous
people’s histories has been framed in Eurocentric thought and centered in power
and control.” She adds that: “Benefits of control of the past in archaeology
include the power to define the past of ‘‘others’’, capital gain, and the
creation of social memories which dehumanize and disempower ‘‘others’’.
[“Decolonizing the Past and Present of the Western Hemisphere (The Americas)”,
P. 45/49 Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress (2015) DOI
10.1007/s11759-015-9270-2]
Mercifully,
the narrative is starting to change. Why? Because after generations of
remaining silent, Native voices are speaking up. Tribal Elders are encouraging
cautious openness about ceremonial stone landscapes out of concern that sacred
places will be destroyed from ignorance of their very existence...
...It is
time for the archaeological community to wake from its colonial stupor to
actively seek Tribal consultation, and recognize that answers do not come only
from digging and peering into holes. Visit ceremonial places with openness. As
Narragansett Hereditary Elder Tribal Medicine Man Lloyd “Running Wolf” Wilcox
counselled: “In putting [ceremonial stone landscapes] in front of the public
and government for judgment, do not rely on Tribal oral history and lore alone,
that, they always find a way to ridicule and devalue. Instead, allow the
landscape to speak for itself and allow the oral history and lore to stand as
its witness.”
Places of
spirit will reveal themselves to those who are open to their message, not to
archaeologists mired in a petrified colonial mindset that blinds them to the
truth."
