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The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map : Index >>
Stones Forum >> Resolution: U.S. Sacred Ceremonial Stone Landscapes
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Resolution: U.S. Sacred Ceremonial Stone Landscapes |
Aluta
Joined:
06-04-2002
Messages: 1534
from PA, USA
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|  Posted 03-04-2007 at 10:55
A group in the states called USET, United Southern and Eastern Tribes, Inc., has issued a resolution saying "there exist sacred Ceremonial stone landscapes which are of particular cultural value to certain tribes . . . .For thousands of years before the immigration of Europeans, the medicine people of the Tribal ancestors used these landscapes to sustain the people's reliance on Mother Earth and the spirit energies of balance and harmony "
It goes on to say that their cultures, including the use of these sites, was suppressed and that now many sites are threatened (all kinds, and they mention stone stacks, stone rows and effigies and call them "prayers in stone") and are often mistaken for field-clearing materials or agricultural walls. It goes on to mention sacrilegious archaeological dissection of sites as one kind of destruction. At the end it requests the government help them with protection of these "historical sites and sacred landscapes."
I have been to many such sites, and they are subtle but, once you know what to look for, amazing. But ask almost any archaeologist here and he or she will say they are just stuff built by early colonial farmers. It is remarkable that, after all their years of adhering to a policy of silence, the indigenous people have spoken up on behalf of the sites. Unfortunately, since recognition of the sites would get in the way of building homes, businesses and shopping centers, it will be an uphill battle getting them recognised by the government. I wish them well.
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Aluta
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| Posted 03-04-2007 at 11:12
A pdf of the resolution may be found here.
[ This message was edited by: Aluta on 2007-04-03 11:14 ]
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vlad
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from Stockholm
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| Posted 07-04-2007 at 10:26
Very interesting, Aluta. I think as well they`ve got no chance. In the modern society, there`s no social group, who could assess those claims rightly and then represent them in public discussion in a "democratic" way. Since many centuries, initiations into the Ways of the Spirit are no longer part of the social life in American and European societies. And there are many books and films which efficiently ridicule and block those paths.
"Circles of initiations" and unquestioned authority of tribe elders cannot be implemented anew in our societies ruled by a "common lowest denominator" - one and the same for everyone. Similar features are still existing but are not based on spiritual interests of leading social groups.
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Aluta
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| Posted 22-04-2007 at 21:59
I got out to one of these sites today. Buried under winter leaves, but still visible. I only wish I'd had more time to look around through the woods! There were two large cairn fields, some perched boulders, and walls both straight and serpentine, all in a site that included several springs and other typical landforms for this kind of site. What a treat. I got some photos but can't reveal location. Unfortunately, the leaf cover renders the pictures pretty uninteresting anyway.
A beautiful Earth Day!
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| Posted 23-04-2007 at 13:40
Quote:
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On 2007-04-22 21:59, Aluta wrote:
I got some photos but can't reveal location. Unfortunately, the leaf cover renders the pictures pretty uninteresting anyway.
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Aluta, Good on you. Please let us see some of the pics even if the location isn't revealed. Consider whether it is "safe" enough to enter the site with a location of the county seat (so stated.)
And Happy Earth Day to you, too! I planted brocoli and composted in honor of the day.
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Aluta
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| Posted 23-04-2007 at 15:11
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Aluta, Good on you. Please let us see some of the pics even if the location isn't revealed. Consider whether it is "safe" enough to enter the site with a location of the county seat (so stated.)
And Happy Earth Day to you, too! I planted brocoli and composted in honor of the day.
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Okay, I posted some on the rock piles blog, so I should give the Portal a few, too. It's just that compared to these magnificent menhirs and circles, these low walls and tumbled cairns covered by leaves don't look like much! I'll get to it tonight.
Thanks!
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bat400
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| Posted 24-04-2007 at 16:40
Aluta submitted a site listing on one of the stone landscapes in Bucks County, PA. You can see her photos and descriptions at:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=16641
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Aluta
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| Posted 06-05-2007 at 14:07
Here is the video made by Jim Porter, to give a sense of these sites to those who have not been able to visit them. Very nicely done.
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Hikerdoc
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25-07-2007
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from Washington Court House Ohio
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| Posted 25-07-2007 at 19:38
It's more than sad that a site like the one in Penn. went under the bulldozer and the allmighty dollar. I just returned from a hike up Spruce Hill in Ross Co. Ohio. Those that saved this spot from desecration should get some kind of medal. The natural and historical significance of this site are tremendous.
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Aluta
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| Posted 30-08-2007 at 01:21
Here is an article about a site of this type (they call it at one point a "medicine prayer hill") in Massachusetts and the Narragansett Tribe's efforts to save it.
This quotation is fascinating: Quote:
| I was told by elders we shouldn't try for partnerships (with town officials) around ceremonial stone sites, because we would have to reveal too much. |
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And this is typical:
Quote:
| He said Harris [the spokesman in this article for the Narragansett] is ''extraordinarily sincere'' about the medicine prayer hill. However, an archaeologist and a geology professor from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have looked at the site, ''and they say this structure is not what the Native Americans believe it is,'' he said. |
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No surprises there!
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bat400
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from South Central Indiana, US
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| Posted 30-08-2007 at 05:21
Sounds like the bonds of our separate cultures are pretty darn tight.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2007-08-31 02:47 ]
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Aluta
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| Posted 31-08-2007 at 17:09
Wikipedia on ceremonial stone landscapes.
[ This message was edited by: Aluta on 2007-08-31 22:05 ]
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Aluta
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|  Posted 27-01-2008 at 11:56
Comments posted on site pages disappear fast, so I thought I would post this exciting news here, too.
At the Nipsachuk site near Smithfield, Rhode Island, the 700-year-old skeleton of a young native Indian girl was found under one of the rock mounds. The Narragansett Improvement Company (not connected with the Narragansett Indians) had claimed until now that the mounds were made by colonial or post-colonial farmers clearing land for agriculture, while other parties, including the local Wampanoag Indians said they were burial or ceremonial mounds.
While there's still no telling what will happen on the land owned by the development company, this find will have an effect on this and other cases in which the origins of rock mounds are in dispute.
(In a good way!)
For the article in the Local paper, the Valley Breeze, click here.
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chimera
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from Australia
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| Posted 27-01-2008 at 20:53
Perhaps the US tribes are encouraged by Canadian and Aust. governments' policy to apologise and reconcile with their first peoples. My wife has done field work under land-sale legislation, to list Aboriginal artefacts on land if it is being sold. Nearby is a state National Park for a ceremonial cave with initiation painting, and a large ceremonial field below a towering volcanic cliff with 3 head-shaped peaks. An elder told me they used it when he was a young man.
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