WARWICK — Let the landscape speak for itself.
That was one of the messages from Doug Harris, Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Narragansett Indian Tribe, who visited Warwick Town Hall to give a talk about ceremonial Native landscapes which are in danger of being destroyed.
Harris urged townspeople to protect these landscapes that have been overlooked and sometimes destroyed for the sake of housing or business developments. These indigenous landscapes have been found throughout Massachusetts, New England and even across the country.
He urged townspeople to not only move to protect these landscapes, but to think about offering tourism to show this important history to others. This tourism would not only protect these sacred landscapes, but improve the town’s economy.
During the talk accompanied by a slideshow with plenty of photographs, Harris explained the importance of ceremonial stone landscapes that are often mistaken for unimportant stones laid by farmers, or just regular rocks.
The importance of these stone landscapes stems from American Indian tradition relating to balance and harmony “in a good way,” said Harris.
According to Harris, if some sort of “trauma” happened in an area, like a person getting killed by an animal, a medicine man would say a prayer into a stone and place it in the area of trauma. After this, other tribesmen who came upon the area would also say a prayer into a stone, and this is how these piles would accumulate.
“What we end up with are memorial piles,” Harris explained.
The stones serve as balance and harmony, but if removed or destroyed, the balance and harmony disappears.
He described other ceremonial landscapes, which include stone effigies, stone rows that resemble a serpent, a skywatcher’s seat and more.
“You’ve got ceremonial stones in this area,” he assured the audience. “We would like to develop a memorandum of understanding to protect these.”