Summer Trip: The Ancient Ohio Trail Route | Cincinnati, Little Miami

These itineraries suggest many opportunities to extend, deepen, and customize your travel throughout Ohio. Enjoy "early Ohio" sites like historic inns, ancient roads tracing American Indian and settlers pathways, plus canals, historic sites and early industries.

This route consists of eight optional sites:

1. Cincinnati
2. Mariemont
3. Milford and Newtown
4. Fosters Earthworks
5. Turner Earthworks
6. Stubbs Earthworks
7. Hillsboro and Vicinity
8. Fort Salem Earthworks

For more information, visit: The Ancient Ohio Trail.

Fort Ancient.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Fort Ancient, "North America's Finest Hilltop Enclosure", a key site to the

 Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Nomination, 

is close by if you want to add it to your trip!

For more information about UNESCO World Heritage, 

visit World Heritage Ohio, here.

Protect Native American Sacred Places

Observations and ceremonies are being held across the land until June 29 to mark
 the 2016 National Days of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places.

In Ohio, observations are being held at the Great Circle and Octagon Earthworks in Newark, Hopewell Culture National Historic Park in Chillicothe, Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia, and Serpent Mound in Peebles.

Preparations continue for the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to become US World Heritage Sites. American Indians are actively participating in the global recognition of these sacred places that represent Indigenous genius and accomplishment. The global focus on Ohio’s American Indian history through World Heritage could shine a light on other Native sacred sites that are in danger of being destroyed. We are all related.

Two thousand years ago, the Indigenous People living in the Ohio Valley region built more than 600 complexes of earthworks consisting of several precise geometric shapes each with specific meaning and purpose. The earthworks are enormous; they were carefully designed and landscaped, built near creeks and rivers, and the People built them to the scale of the physical world around them. Many of the earthworks have walls varying from 3 to 30 feet tall to create a level horizon as seen from inside the sacred spaces, and most are connected by walled earthen walkways.

For more information,

Visit:

• 2016 National Days of Prayer for Sacred Places (Online Word Document)
• 2016 National Sacred Places Prayer Days Happening Now
• Indian Country Today Staff, June 20, 2016.
• Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Link Page

United States Tribal Leaders Directory

U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Leaders Directory Map.

June 14, 2016.

Native News Staff has reviewed in their descriptive article about the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Leaders interactive map which "includes contact information for all federally recognized tribal governments, as well as for BIA headquarters and regional and agency officials". The print version of this resource will no longer be printed and is similar to Canada's.

To read the full article, click here.

For more information,

Visit:

• U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Tribal Leaders Directory Map
• Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
• First Nation Profiles Interactive Map

Summer Events

Planning your summer vacations,

 day trips, and activities? 

Fort Ancient Aerial View.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Don't forget to check out Our 

American Indian Events Calendar!

Eastern Shawnee Tribe of the Oklahoma members
at the Newark Earthworks Great Circle, 2012.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Not only will it show Octagon Open Houses, but it also displays Ohio and Midwest heritage sites, museums, national and state parks' events, conferences, tours, lectures, summer camps, excursions, tour opportunities, field schools, traveling exhibits, 

and so much more!

Meet Native America: Glenna J. Wallace, Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma

"In the interview series Meet Native America, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian invites tribal leaders, cultural figures, and other interesting and accomplished Native individuals to introduce themselves and say a little about their lives and work. Together, their responses illustrate the diversity of the indigenous communities of the Western Hemisphere, as well as their shared concerns, and offer insights beyond what’s in the news to the ideas and experiences of Native peoples today." 
-Dennis Zotigh, NMAI 

Chief Glenna J. Wallace, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
Image Courtesy of the National Museum of American Indian Blog.

"Where is your tribe located?

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe is one of three federally recognized Shawnee tribes, all located in Oklahoma. We Eastern Shawnees are in the extreme northeast corner of Oklahoma, in an area where three neighboring states can be accessed within minutes—Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. The tribe borders Missouri, and we can be in Kansas or Arkansas in 30 minutes, max.

Where are the Eastern Shawnee originally from?

We were known to be a wandering, traveling tribe, living in close to thirty states until we settled in Ohio in the early 1700s. We eventually shared a small reservation there with the Seneca Cayuga Tribe. Together we were known as the Mixed Band.

After the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, the Mixed Band was the first group to be forcibly removed to Indian Territory, a journey we made on foot with more than 15 percent not surviving the ordeal. That occurred in 1832, and we remained the Mixed Band until 1867, when we were separated into two distinct tribes, the Eastern Shawnee Tribe and the Seneca Cayuga Tribe. Both tribes remained in the northeast corner of Indian Territory, which became the state of Oklahoma in 1907."

To read the full interview, click here.

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma's website.

Summer Trip: The Ancient Ohio Trail Route | Tarlton, the Great Hopewell Road

These itineraries suggest many opportunities to extend, deepen, and customize your travel throughout Ohio. Enjoy "early Ohio" sites like historic inns, ancient roads tracing American Indian and settlers pathways, plus canals, historic sites and early industries.

This route consists of eleven optional sites:

1. Granville
2. Newark
3. Buckeye Lake
4. Millersport
5. Lancaster
6. Stonewall Cemetery
7. Tarleton Cross
8. Circleville
9. Logan Elm
10. Westfall (Canal)
11. Chillicothe

For more information, visit: The Ancient Ohio Trail.

Mound City, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

The Newark Earthworks.
Image Courtesy of the Ancient Ohio Trail.

Mound City, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park and the
Newark Earthworks, "The Largest Geometric Earthwork Complex in the World",
 key sites to the  Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Nomination, 

is close by if you want to add it to your trip!

For more information about UNESCO World Heritage, 

visit World Heritage Ohio, here.

Nahuatl Dictionary

Idiomas/Languages: Español | English | Nahuatl

"a searchable, online database that will continue to be expanded indefinitely, currently has interfaces in Nahuatl, Spanish, and English and aims to have advanced searching for ethnohistorians and linguists. In part, it will be the first ever Nahuatl to Nahuatl dictionary thanks to the contributions of native speakers in Mexico.."

-Wired Humanities Projects.

Search

• contains
• begins with
• is exactly
• ends with

Themes

• Anatomy
• Animals
• Architecture
• Art
• Beverages
• Cardinal Directions and Cosmos
• Childhood and Adolescence
• Climate, Weather, and Seasons
• Colors
• Crime and Punishment
• Death
• Economics and Commerce
• Education
• Food
• Gender
• Health and Medicine
• Jewelry, Adornment, and Decoration
• Kinship and Family
• Labor Issues
• Land and Agriculture
• Legal Matters and Documents
• Measurements
• Metals and Mining
• Money
• Music, Song, and Dance
• Numbers
• Occupations
• Personality, Emotions, and Psychology
• Plants and Flora
• Politics and Power
• Race and Ethnicity
• Religion
• Sexuality and Fertility
• Social Hierarchy
• Socio-Political Units
• Sports
• Tobacco
• Technology and Tools
• Textiles and Clothing
• Time and Calendar
• Transportation
• Tributes and Service
• War and Conflict
• Writing and Literacy

See entire list of Nahuatl Words

• A-Z

See a list of all loanwords from Spanish

• A-Z (1,242 entries)

In Celebration of the Summer Solstice

Serpent Mound, Ohio.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

American Indian Nations created a plethora of astronomically aligned sites within the area that is now Ohio before their forced removal in the 1800s. Their ancient cultures designed many of their sacred and living spaces around reoccurring astronomical events; like that of solar equinoxes and solstices (Serpent Mound and SunWatch Village) or marking the lunar cycle (Newark Earthworks and High Bank Works).* For more information about current celebrations, please contact each removed Nation individually.** Cultures throughout the American continents, not just within the Midwestern United States, designed sacred and living spaces which aligned with solar or lunar alignments; sites which include Watson Break, Cahokia, Chaco Canyon, and Chichén Itzá.

If you wish to attend an event in Ohio planned for the summer solstice
[June 20, 2016], feel free to check out our
 American Indian Events Calendar.

*Designing a landscape or structure to coincide with a celestial event is often referred to as an astronomical alignment. 
** For more information about Historic Nations of Ohio, click here.

For more information,

Visit:

• Native Skywatchers-Earth Sky Connections
• About
• Star Maps
• Ojibwe Sky Star Map
• Ojibwe Constellation Guidebook
• D(L)akota Star Map
• D(L)akota Constellation Guidebook
• Heartland Earthworks Conservancy
• Aligned to the Heavens
• Ancient Ohio Trail
• Serpent Mound
• Newark Earthworks
• Mound City
• High Bank Earthwork
• High Bank Works
• National Park Service
• SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
• UNESCO World Heritage
• About
• Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy
• What is astronomical heritage?
• Serpent Mound Tentative Nomination
• Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Tentative Nomination
• Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Links Page
• National Museum of the American Indian 
• Circle of Dance Online Exhibit
• Quechua Danza de Tijeras (Scissor Dance)
• Living Maya Time: Sun, Corn, and the Calendar Online Exhibit
• Youtube
• The Great Inka Road: the Cosmological Alignment of Buildings
• The Great Inka Road: Three Levels of the Inka Universe at Saqsaywaman
• The Living Road, a Short Story in Three Parts
• Produced for the exhibition "The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire"
• Star Stories
• The Solstice Project
• Ziibiwing Cultural Center
• Noongwa e-Anishinaabemjig
• 2008 Summer Solstice at the Sanilac Petroglyphs
• Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado
• Archaeoastronomy
• explOratorium
• Chaco Canyon
• Fajada Butte (Sun Dagger)
• National Weather Service
• The Seasons, the Equinox, and the Solstices
• refers to 'movement' of the Sun
• Ojibwe Cosmos: Mercury in Retrograde, Earthly Stardust and Intricate Stellar Maps
• April 25, 2016.
• First Day of Spring Marked with Sun Daggers, Light Snakes
• April 22, 2016.
• It's the winter solstice! 10 Things to Know about Sunwatch
• December 21, 2015.
• Celestial Timekeeping
• April 8, 2015.
• Alligators and Groundhogs
• March 18, 2015.
• Newly-Discovered Hopewell Mound Group Woodhenge Found to be Solstice Aligned
• July 21, 2014.

Summer Trip: The Ancient Ohio Trail Route | Fort Hill, Paint Valley

These itineraries suggest many opportunities to extend, deepen, and customize your travel throughout Ohio. Enjoy "early Ohio" sites like historic inns, ancient roads tracing American Indian and settlers pathways, plus canals, historic sites and early industries.

This route consists of eight optional sites:

1. Fort Hill Museum
2. Picnic Area
3. North Gate
4. Pond
5. East Gate
6. South Wall
7. Circular Earthwork
8. Baker Forge Gorge

For more information, visit: The Ancient Ohio Trail.

Serpent Mound.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Serpent Mound an UNESCO World Heritage Tentative Nomination, 

is close by if you want to add it to your trip!

For more information about UNESCO World Heritage, 

visit World Heritage Ohio, here.

Meet Native America: Jim Taylor, ELNUELNU Abenaki Councilman and Elder

"In the interview series Meet Native America, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian invites tribal leaders, cultural figures, and other interesting and accomplished Native individuals to introduce themselves and say a little about their lives and work. Together, their responses illustrate the diversity of the indigenous communities of the Western Hemisphere, as well as their shared concerns, and offer insights beyond what’s in the news to the ideas and experiences of Native peoples today." 
-Dennis Zotigh, NMAI 

ELNU Abenaki Councilman and Elder Jim Taylor.
Image Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian Museum's Blog.

"Where is your tribe located?

Our Tribal Headquarters is in the small town of Jamaica, Vermont, in Windham County in the southwestern part of the state.

Where is your tribe originally from?

Our original territories were the southern portions of Vermont and included abutting areas of Massachusetts at one time. Our current home lies at the heart of our ancestral territory."

To read the full interview, click here.

The ELNU Tribe of the Abenaki's website.

Summer Trip: The Ancient Ohio Trail Route | Flint Ridge, Coshocton

These itineraries suggest many opportunities to extend, deepen, and customize your travel throughout Ohio. Enjoy "early Ohio" sites like historic inns, ancient roads tracing American Indian and settlers pathways, plus canals, historic sites and early industries.

This route consists of eight optional sites:

1. Black Hand Gorge
2. Coshocton (Roscoe Village)
3. Flint Ridge
4. Somerset (Zane's Trace)
5. Glenford Fort

For more information, visit: The Ancient Ohio Trail.

Across Borders | Beadwork in Iroquois Life

"The story of the Iroquois beadwork takes us across many borders, both real and conceptual. We will travel from European glass factories to the Iroquois territories of North America. We will see how beadwork, though always a feature of everyday life, is also linked to the spiritual, economic and political worlds of the Iroquois. The story of beadwork moves smoothly between past and present. It is a story marked by continuity, innovation, determination, humor and, ultimately, survival."

-Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian.

an introduction

five objects

1. Mohawk hanging basket
2. Seneca picture frame
3. Tuscarora bag
4. Mohawk pincushion
5. Mohawk pincushion 2

exhibit-related programs

giveaways

Iroquois Creation Story

acknowledgements

Interested in visiting a similar exhibit in person?

The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University is hosting the exhibition

  Made of Thunder, Made of Glass II: Continuing Traditions in Northeastern Indian Beadwork 

through June 26, 2016.

For More Information,

Visit:

• Kanien'kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa Language & Cultural Center
• Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke
• Tuscarora Nation, New York
• "Across Borders- Beadwork in Iroquois Life"
• Lynne Williamson, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, Vol 27 Spring-Summer 2001.
• "Continuity and Creativity in Iroquois Beadwork" (PDF)
• Morgan Perkins, American Anthropologist, Vol 106 Issue 3, Jan 2008.
• McCord Museum - Montreal Historical Society
• Beadwork and the Iroquois
• Related Artifacts
• "Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life" Press Release
• Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University
• Made of Thunder, Made of Glass II: Continuing Traditions in Northeastern Indian Beadwork 
• Royal Ontario Museum
• Iroquois Beadwork: Through the Voices of Beads
• National Museum of the American Indian

Summer Events...

Planning your summer vacations,

 day trips, and activities? 

The Newark Earthworks Reconstruction.
Image Courtesy of The Ancient Ohio Trail.

Don't forget to check out Our 

American Indian Events Calendar!

Newark Earthworks Walk 2012.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Not only will it show Octagon Open Houses, but it also displays Ohio and Midwest heritage sites, museums, national and state parks' events, conferences, tours, lectures, summer camps, excursions, tour opportunities, field schools, traveling exhibits, 

and so much more!

Summer Trip: The Ancient Ohio Trail Route | Dayton Area

These itineraries suggest many opportunities to extend, deepen, and customize your travel throughout Ohio. Enjoy "early Ohio" sites like historic inns, ancient roads tracing American Indian and settlers pathways, plus canals, historic sites and early industries.

This route consists of six optional sites:

1. Carillon Historical Park
2. SunWatch Village
3. Wright Cycle Shop and Museum
4. Oregon Historic District
5. Wright Memorial (Mounds)
6. Huffman Prairie

For more information, visit: The Ancient Ohio Trail.

The Dayton Aviation Sites, a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Nomination,
 are close by if you want to add it to your trip!

For more information about UNESCO World Heritage, 

visit World Heritage Ohio, here.