Tuesday, February 01, 2022

Creating Rock Walls (CA)

 Tsektsel is derived from Yurok and means roughly "a place" (Wylie 1976).

Alyssa Alexandria photo

Paved Logging Road on U.S. Land Called Threat to Freedom of Religion

BY RUSSELL CHANDLER (AUG. 25, 1985) TIMES RELIGION WRITER

ORLEANS, Calif. — “… among the jagged rock outcroppings of the “high country” of the Siskiyou Mountains and along the banks of the rushing, salmon-filled waters of the Klamath and Trinity rivers--there is a quiet resurgence of native American tribal religion.

Ceremonial sites for traditional religious dances that had long fallen into disuse are being reconstructed in this pristine corner of northwest California at spots with exotic names like Ishi Pishi Falls, Weitchpec, Hoopa and Kota-Mein. (The latter, in the Karuk language, means “center of the world.”)

Alyssa Alexandria photo

    The death and rebirth of the world were reenacted by building sacred structures, such as dance arenas and underground sweat houses, and creating sacred fires and rock walls related to acquisition of power by shamans (priests) and their assistants…At the extreme east tip of Chimney Rock is a tsektsel , a rock circle forming a rudimentary “prayer seat.” There, a meditator can survey the entire landscape. On a recent clear day, one could see the tip of Mt. Shasta to the east, Preston Peak to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west..."

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-25-mn-24849-story.html


1 comment :

Tim MacSweeney said...

“During the 1970s and 80s a dispute arose between a majority, the people of the United States represented by the Forest Service, and a minority, members from the Karuk, Tolowa, and Yurok Indian tribes in a remote and rugged area of northern California…
https://politics.humboldt.edu/g-o-road-controversy-american-indian-religion-and-public-land