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NEWARK — Led by memories of loved ones, tokens from far away places and offerings in the form of feathers, ribbons and pieces of a prayer flag tied to a staff, members of the group traveling from Chillicothe to Newark entered the Octagon Earthworks on Friday.
The steps into the mounds marked the final ones of a weeklong journey for the group, following what was thought to have once been the Great Hopewell Road between the two ceremonial sites.
"I am sure the ancestors walked it with us. I can feel God bless us," Mark Welsh, a walker who is an American Indian, told the group.
Friday, the group celebrated the end of its journey and the beginning of a new one with song, first walking through what is thought to be a purification circle just outside the octagon, according to walker Sandra Garner, and then entering the octagon itself chanting American Indian songs to the beat of a drum.
In honor of the ancient rituals, the group also honored the four directions and stopped four times through the ceremony.
"We've done something not just to honor (the ancestors) but to honor future generations," Garner said.
And while the walk itself challenged the individuals, most said it was the history of the mounds and of the ancient culture that brought them together.
"I gained some stuff I didn't even think about gaining," said Mike Ranalli, an anthropology student at Ohio State University-Newark. "What you really had time to do is learn about yourself. The first night I thought, 'God, am I really going to be able to do this?' but by the second day there was no way I wasn't doing it."
But even Ranalli admired Bob Neinast's perseverance. He hiked the nearly the entire walk barefoot.
"This was billed as a pilgrimage and pilgrimages were traditionally done barefoot," said Neinast, of Pickerington.
But like Ranalli, while Neinast said he came mostly for the hike and expected the spirituality to play a smaller part, at the end of the journey his experience was in reality, flipped, and it was the closeness of the group that made such a solid impression.
"I've been interested in the history of the mounds, but I didn't come close to anticipating the immersion we all got," Neinast said.
To celebrate the final mile of the journey, the walkers were joined by residents from throughout the area.
Most said they were lured by the history.
"Ever since we moved to the area we've been interested in the history," said Susan Haas from Hopewell. "It looked like such a neat pilgrimage."
For more, see the article by Amy Hollon at the Newark Advocate.
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