Collaborative Public Opinion Survey in Ohio: A Proposal

 

Noteworthy Events

In 2023, eight monumental earthen enclosure complexes in Ohio, including the Ohio Newark Earthworks, were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built along the central tributaries of the Ohio River over 2,000 years ago, these sites are the most representative expressions of the Indigenous tradition now referred to as the Hopewell culture. In 2024, controversial issues surrounding the Octagon component of the Newark Earthworks were resolved, with the Ohio History Connection set to assume property management responsibilities beginning January 1, 2025. 

Problem/Opportunity Statement

The Ohio Newark Earthworks and other sites scattered throughout Ohio continue to be underappreciated cultural assets. The UNESCO World Heritage designation and the January 2025 opening of the Octagon component of the Ohio Newark Earthworks, combined with the upcoming Spring 2025 Moonrise, generates a constellation of opportunities for increasing Ohioans’ awareness and deeper understanding of these cultural sites and Indigenous Peoples. 

Survey Partnership Effort

Building on previous collaborative work, The Ohio State University’s Newark Earthworks Center (NEC) is partnering with CHRR at The Ohio State University to conduct a public opinion survey on topics related to Ohio’s Earthworks and Native American citizens. Using an Ohio-specific sample from the American Population Panel, researchers will gather information on several issues, including:

• Present awareness of and previous visits to the eight Ohio Earthworks sites
• Current familiarity with the UNESCO World Heritage designation, the imminent opening of the Octagon, and the second Major Lunar Standstill of the 21^st Century (observable through 2024-2026 at High Banks and Octagon State Memorial) 

Timing

Plans are underway to field this survey in January 2025, coinciding with the Ohio History Connection assuming responsibility for property management of the Newark Earthworks.

Funding Resources 

Stephen M. Gavazzi, professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology and Director of CHRR at The Ohio State University, will provide an initial $10,000 from his program funds in support of this survey effort. This amount of funding will underwrite a survey of around 5-6 questions administered to approximately 1,000 citizens in Ohio. 

Potential for Partnerships

This survey effort is being undertaken as a first step in understanding Ohioan citizen awareness of and understanding of the Ohio Earthworks. Future partnerships would allow for an expansion of both amount and scope of survey items, as well as reaching greater numbers of survey participants throughout Ohio.  

Contacts

If you are interested in obtaining further information about this survey effort, please feel free to contact Dr. Stephen M. Gavazzi, Director of CHRR at The Ohio State University (Gavazzi.1@osu.edu).

Find out more information at https://go.osu.edu/earthworks-survey

Octagon Open Houses | October 20 and 21st, 2024

The Octagon State Memorial, Newark Earthworks Map.
Image courtesy of the Ancient Ohio Trail.

The Octagon State Memorial is one of the most spectacular surviving remnants of the Newark Earthworks and is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks.

The Octagon is connected to a perfectly circular enclosure 1,054 feet in diameter. The architecture of the Octagon Earthworks encodes a sophisticated understanding of geometry and astronomy. It is a National Historical Landmark and part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage site.

The precise geometry of Newark’s circle-octagon centers on its axial center line, beginning at the center of the Observatory Mound and pointing 38 degrees north of east. It’s a long line of sight which, if the site were cleared of trees, would lead the eye to a precise point on distant horizon. From here, as a result of generations of careful measurements and designing, the American Indians 2,000 years ago could predict, and bear witness to, the return of the moon to its northernmost position – just once every 6,789 days.

The movements of the moon are complex. Nowadays, we notice that the moon has different phases over about 29 days. But the builders of the earthworks noticed much more complicated lunar patterns: first, about every four weeks its rising point swings back and forth between the southeast and the northeast; and second, the width of this angle expands very slowly over about 9 1/3 years (about 3395 days), and then contracts again at the same rate. The moon’s setting points move the same way across the western horizon.

So there are eight points where the moon appears to reverse direction along the horizon during this long, complex cycle. Remarkably, all eight are marked precisely by these earthen walls and gateways. The architecture here tells us which one mattered the most: the extreme northernmost moonrise perfectly aligns along the central axis of the Octagon. This happened only once in 18.6 years or 6,789 days.

Portions of the Octagon Earthworks is open to the public during daylight hours 365 days a year, but much of the site is used as a private golf course for most of the year, so access is restricted. Five times this year, however, golfing is suspended and the entire site is made available to the general public.

The grounds of the Octagon State Memorial [external link] will be open to the public for general strolling and viewing from sunrise to sunset.

Octagon State Memorial, 125 N. 33rd Street, Newark, OH 43055

Take your tour with you, with The Ancient Ohio Trail [external link].

We hope to see you there!

These are the last public open houses of 2024.

For more information, visit Ohio History Connection [external link].

Octagon Open House | July 22, 2024

The Octagon State Memorial, Newark Earthworks Map.
Image courtesy of the Ancient Ohio Trail.

The Octagon State Memorial is one of the most spectacular surviving remnants of the Newark Earthworks and is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks.

The Octagon is connected to a perfectly circular enclosure 1,054 feet in diameter. The architecture of the Octagon Earthworks encodes a sophisticated understanding of geometry and astronomy. It is a National Historical Landmark and part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage site.

The precise geometry of Newark’s circle-octagon centers on its axial center line, beginning at the center of the Observatory Mound and pointing 38 degrees north of east. It’s a long line of sight which, if the site were cleared of trees, would lead the eye to a precise point on distant horizon. From here, as a result of generations of careful measurements and designing, the American Indians 2,000 years ago could predict, and bear witness to, the return of the moon to its northernmost position – just once every 6,789 days.

The movements of the moon are complex. Nowadays, we notice that the moon has different phases over about 29 days. But the builders of the earthworks noticed much more complicated lunar patterns: first, about every four weeks its rising point swings back and forth between the southeast and the northeast; and second, the width of this angle expands very slowly over about 9 1/3 years (about 3395 days), and then contracts again at the same rate. The moon’s setting points move the same way across the western horizon.

So there are eight points where the moon appears to reverse direction along the horizon during this long, complex cycle. Remarkably, all eight are marked precisely by these earthen walls and gateways. The architecture here tells us which one mattered the most: the extreme northernmost moonrise perfectly aligns along the central axis of the Octagon. This happened only once in 18.6 years or 6,789 days.

Portions of the Octagon Earthworks is open to the public during daylight hours 365 days a year, but much of the site is used as a private golf course for most of the year, so access is restricted. Five times this year, however, golfing is suspended and the entire site is made available to the general public.

The grounds of the Octagon State Memorial [external link] will be open to the public for general strolling and viewing from sunrise to sunset.

Octagon State Memorial, 125 N. 33rd Street, Newark, OH 43055

Take your tour with you, with The Ancient Ohio Trail [external link].

We hope to see you there!

Can't make it this time? The other Open Houses this year are: 

• Sunday, October 20th
• Monday, October 21st

For more information, visit Ohio History Connection [external link].

Mounds and Memory Gathering 2024: Indigenous Sovereignty, Ceremonial Spaces, and Stories of the Mound Builders

​May 15, 2024

Cartoon Room 1, Ohio Union, Columbus Campus
9 a.m. - 7 p.m.

The Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world. Honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, the entire Newark Earthworks originally encompassed more than four square miles. It was built between CE 1 to CE 400 by the ancestors of contemporary American Indian peoples who are identified today as the Hopewell Culture/Era. This architectural wonder was part cathedral, part university, part social space, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory. Through their genius, hard work, and collaborative efforts these ancestors inscribed upon the land a remarkable wealth of indigenous knowledge relating to geometry and astronomy encoded in the design of these earthworks. The Octagon Earthworks are aligned to the four moonrises and four moonsets that mark the limits of a complicated 18 year and 219 day-long cycle north and south on the eastern horizon.

This Gathering is built upon the hard work of organizers and attendees of previous Mounds & Memory workshops and the goal of this Gathering is to reunite participants in previous workshops, including representatives of the Rainy River First Nations (Ontario), the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Nation, The Ohio State University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. to share and celebrate these "monuments of the Ohio River Valley." 

Our Lecture Agenda will be posted on this page shortly.

Speakers:

• Jennifer Aultman, Chief Historic Sites Officer, Ohio History Connection
• Kevin Daugherty (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) Language Specialist and Elder
• Steven Gavazzi, Director of CHHR, The Ohio State University
• Bradley Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio History Connection
• Lucy Murphy, Professor Emeritus of History, The Ohio State University
• Kevin Nolan, Director and Senior Archaeologist of Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University
• Justin Parscher, Assistant Professor of Practice Landscape Architecture, Knowlton School of Architecture
• Richard Shiels, Associate Professor Emeritus of History, The Ohio State University

If you require an accommodation such as interpretation to participate in this event, or other accommodations, please contact Megan Cromwell (cromwell.34@osu.edu) . Requests made by April 30 will help provide seamless access.

Organized by the Newark Earthworks Center-John Low, Steven Gavazzi, Cheryl Cash, Marti Chaatsmith, and Megan Cromwell, with financial support from the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Themes Program, the Center of Religion, Center for Ethnic Studies, and American Indian Studies and our donors. Thank you.​

Octagon Open Houses | April 14th and 15th, 2024

The Octagon State Memorial, Newark Earthworks Map.
Image courtesy of the Ancient Ohio Trail.

The Octagon State Memorial is one of the most spectacular surviving remnants of the Newark Earthworks and is part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks.

The Octagon is connected to a perfectly circular enclosure 1,054 feet in diameter. The architecture of the Octagon Earthworks encodes a sophisticated understanding of geometry and astronomy. It is a National Historical Landmark and part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage site.

The precise geometry of Newark’s circle-octagon centers on its axial center line, beginning at the center of the Observatory Mound and pointing 38 degrees north of east. It’s a long line of sight which, if the site were cleared of trees, would lead the eye to a precise point on distant horizon. From here, as a result of generations of careful measurements and designing, the American Indians 2,000 years ago could predict, and bear witness to, the return of the moon to its northernmost position – just once every 6,789 days.

The movements of the moon are complex. Nowadays, we notice that the moon has different phases over about 29 days. But the builders of the earthworks noticed much more complicated lunar patterns: first, about every four weeks its rising point swings back and forth between the southeast and the northeast; and second, the width of this angle expands very slowly over about 9 1/3 years (about 3395 days), and then contracts again at the same rate. The moon’s setting points move the same way across the western horizon.

So there are eight points where the moon appears to reverse direction along the horizon during this long, complex cycle. Remarkably, all eight are marked precisely by these earthen walls and gateways. The architecture here tells us which one mattered the most: the extreme northernmost moonrise perfectly aligns along the central axis of the Octagon. This happened only once in 18.6 years or 6,789 days.

Portions of the Octagon Earthworks is open to the public during daylight hours 365 days a year, but much of the site is used as a private golf course for most of the year, so access is restricted. Five times this year, however, golfing is suspended and the entire site is made available to the general public.

The grounds of the Octagon State Memorial [external link] will be open to the public for general strolling and viewing from sunrise to sunset.

Octagon State Memorial, 125 N. 33rd Street, Newark, OH 43055

Take your tour with you, with The Ancient Ohio Trail [external link].

We hope to see you there!

Can't make it this time? The other Open Houses this year are: 

• Monday, July 22nd
• Sunday, October 20th
• Monday, October 21st

For more information, visit Ohio History Connection [external link].

Total Solar Eclipse: April 8, 2024

3:08 - 3:19 p.m.

"Though April’s total eclipse will take place around 3 p.m., as the moon’s shadow moves over the Earth, the sky will darken as if it’s night. And as the sun’s light dims, the surrounding air will become noticeably cooler and nearby bugs and animals will likely fall silent.
If you’re viewing the event from inside the path of totality, it’s during this brief time that viewers can also temporarily remove their eclipse glasses. Most mysteriously, thin and wavy bands of light called shadow bands may also be seen faintly phasing in and out across the ground in the few minutes leading up to and after totality....

But what sets 2024’s eclipse apart from 2017’s is that totality is expected to last about 4 minutes and 28 seconds, almost double the duration of the previous total solar eclipse.

This year’s eclipse path is also much wider, causing it to pass over much more densely populated areas than its predecessor. This additional time and space will undoubtedly offer scientists a larger window for making more precise measurements about the eclipses’ impacts and allow millions more onlookers to share in the delight....

While craning our necks to watch the total solar eclipse on April 8, we need to be serious about protecting our eyes, according to vision experts at The Ohio State University.

Aaron Zimmerman, clinical professor at Ohio State’s College of Optometry, says we should never look directly at the sun because there is potential risk to damage the retina."

For more information, visit "What to expect when total solar eclipse passes through Ohio" by Tatyana Woodall, Ohio State News.

Check out the new interactive Total Solar Eclipse Map on Ohio.org.

Discover adventure of all kinds in Ohio and share your Ohio Total Solar Eclipse fun with #Eclipse24 and #OhioTheHeartofitAll.

Learn more at Ohio.org/Eclipse. And for more information, check out the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA) website.

Ancient earthen structures in Ohio become a UNESCO World Heritage Site | CBS Sunday Morning News

January 21, 2024
CBS News Correspondent Conor Knighton explores the grandeur of the Ohio's first UNESCO World Heritage site, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks [external link], with Dr. Brad Lepper and Dr. John Low.

• Fort Ancient State Memorial [external link] | Ohio History Connection
• Hopewell Culture National Historical Park [external link] | National Park Service
• Hopewell Mound GroupMound City Group
• Hopeton Earthworks
• High Bank Works
• Seip Earthworks
• Newark Earthworks [external link] | Ohio History Connection
• Octagon State Memorial
• Octagon Earthworks Updates [external link]
• Great Circle Earthworks
• Wright Earthworks

Watch on CBS News Sunday Morning [external link].

Warrior Lawyers: Defenders of Sacred Justice Movie Screening and Q and A | The Moritz Office of Inclusive Excellence

 Join us for a virtual community showing of 'Warrior Lawyers: Defenders of Sacred Justice' and Q&A with Executive Director Audrey Geyer.

Monday November 13, 2023

5:30 - 7 p.m.

130 Saxbe Auditorium, The Ohio State University, Columbus

'Warrior Lawyers' (2021) is a one-hour PBS documentary that is particularly timely and relevant given our country's current reckoning with racial inequity, institutional racism, and social injustice. The program focuses on the stories of Midwest Native American Lawyers, Tribal Judges, and their colleagues who work with Native Nations, their citizens, and mainstream institutions to achieve Sacred Justice. These unseen role models strive daily to address and resolve unique and complicated historical, governmental, legal, judicial, and social welfare issues, which are most often rooted in discrimination, historical trauma, and cultural destruction. Come take a journey into past and present-day Indian Country to learn of untold stories that shine a light on Native Americans rising up to create a new path for today and for the next Seven Generations. 

Register for free at go.osu.edu/warriorlawyers. (In Person)

Following the screening, director, and producer Audrey Geyer will be available virtually to answer questions from viewers. Geyer has been a video director/producer for over 20 years. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Visions, a non-profit 501(c) 3 independent video production organization, located in Metro Detroit. Visions' mission is to produce social affairs documentaries that tell stories of Midwest communities and cultures underrepresented in the media that helps foster empathy in our viewers, expand their knowledge, and encourage dialogue, inclusiveness, and social change.

Visions has produced two documentaries on contemporary Native American issues: ‘Our Fires Still Burn: The Native American Experience’ and ‘Warrior Lawyers: Defenders of Sacred Justice.’

For more information, visit the Moritz College of Law.