Newark Earthworks Center's Blog: What Have We Been Working On?

Our small team at the Newark Earthworks Center has been busy behind the scenes this past month and a half!

Newark Earthworks.
Image Courtesy of Tim Black.

Our director Marti Chaatsmith, (Comanche Nation citizen/Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma descendant), has been busy writing grant proposals, attending the 2016 Shawnee History Summit, mapping the NEC’s future directions in collaboration with American Indian Studies Program, and building on our partnerships within The Ohio State University. Marti participated in American Indian Heritage Week activities with the Ohio History Connection, including an appearance on WOSU’s OpenLines with Ann Fisher with MacArthur Foundation Award winner Daryl Baldwin, Director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University; and Kerry Holton President of the Delaware Nation.

Sheila Carpenter has been monitoring our project deadlines, managing the office, and anticipating our plans for our move to the Ohio State University Columbus campus.

We are excited to continue working with our student workers Anthony C. and Nic H. and hope to see research from them on the blog this semester along with their work in organizing our collections of videos, photos, and digital articles. Anthony C. continues his work with our grant research, researching astronomical alignments of the earthworks, and engineering principles utilized in Ohio's earthworks. Nic H. will be working on reviewing and organizing our video collection, and grant research.

Megan Cromwell, former student employee and current contractor for UNESCO World Heritage Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks research, has been maintaining work on documenting every visit, interview, and articles by members of American Indian nations about Ohio's earthworks. During the process of this she is collecting photographs, lectures, and articles by members of nations such as the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Pokégnek Bodéwadmik | Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Wyandotte Nation, Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Shawnee Tribe, kiiloona myaamíakí | The Miami Nation of Oklahoma, and many more which describe the importance of sacred sites, how to respectfully celebrate them, and associated knowledge.

As a team we have been:

Writing grant proposals (more details underway);

Investigating proposed and established UNESCO World Heritage sites;