Statements                      Please click here to read letters about the Earthworks Day experience

The Newark Earthworks have played a role in the lives of many people, childhood experiences, research interest, spiritual and cultural significance as well. This page is dedicated to the telling of the story  the Earthworks has had in the lives of a variety of peoples: scientist, students, teachers, community members, people of varied views and backgrounds.

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MAXIMUM NORTH MOONRISE OVER NEWARK: AN INTERPRETATION

Focused as we are on the Octagon’s alignment to the moon, it is easy to forget that the northern maximum moonrise was also visible from other vantage points.  One such vantage point was Geller Hill.

Located roughly 7,000 feet southwest of the major earthworks, people watching the sky 2,000 years ago from that location would have seen the maximum north moon rise at a point halfway between the Octagon and Great Circle – balanced in effect, between those monumental earthworks.  Viewed from Geller Hill, as the moon cleared the distant horizon, it would also have been reflected in the dark waters of the lake that early maps show extending between the earthworks.  At this moment, the three realms of earth, sky, and water were connected in a way that was visible to the sky watchers.

It was also at this moment that the 18.6-year lunar cycle that anchored generational time and set the reckoning of days, events, and lives, began anew.  Thus in the space of an instant, and through the alignment of earth, sky, and water at the beginning of a temporal cycle, time and space were connected through human consciousness, to the mythic beginning.  In this way, the world of the Hopewell was re-created, renewed, and re-vitalized for yet another 18.6 years….reason enough, I would think, for the Ancient Ones and ourselves, to mark this special day and celebrate our participation.

William F. Romain, Author of Mysteries of the Hopewell:  Astronomers, Geometers, and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands.

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Archaeological sites or sacred places?  An American's Perspective:

“To the Indigenous Peoples of North America, the archaeological sites found on North American soil are not ‘archaeological’ sites.  They are sites where our relatives lived and carried out their lives. …

Today many of our people are reconnecting with these sites after many years of being denied the privilege of practicing our own religion at these very sacred areas.  In the past, trips were made in secret and hidden from curious eyes.

If you go to see a Sacred Site, remember you are walking on ‘holy ground,’ and we ask that you respect our culture and traditions.”

William Tallbull (1921-1996)

Northern Cheyenne elder

Excerpted from “Archaeological sites or sacred places? A Native American Perspective,” in Archaeology, 4^th edition (2006), by David Hurst Thomas and Robert L. Kelly, p. 485. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont, California.

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	I have for many, many years been interested in various peoples and cultures of the ancient past
whose remnants and ruins show that these people were highly intelligent, skilled builders of
societies and capable of advanced planning and construction! Indeed, what we would call engineers,
scientists, astronomers and the like! Being both an engineer and a physicist, I have time and time
again been over- whelmed by the accomplishments of these prehistoric people!  It goes particularly
for the numerous peoples of the whole of the Americas.
	
	I have over the years studied the various South American cultures (Inca, Tiwanaku, Moche, Chimu,
Nazca etc), the corresponding peoples of the Meso-Americas (Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Olmec etc) and, of
late, even the North American Indians (Anasazi, Cahokia, Hopewell, Adena etc).  Particularly, the
latter groups have surprised me, since, generally, so little is known of what they accomplished.  I
have on numerous occasions tested this on friends and relatives, members of my own family who would
consider themselves very well educated!  Most of them, if not all, shake their head displaying their
ignorance!!
	
	So, I have over the last few years been giving lectures on these people both as singular events as
well as part of a lengthy course on the issue of "Ancient Mysteries".  When I first got a glimpse of
the Hopewell and their remnants, it was by a chance encounter of a sketch of the Circle & Octagon
construction by the Squier & Davis.  From then on I was sold on finding out as much as possible about
the Hopewellians! The rest is history and will take too long time to go into here!  The geometrical,
astronomical, civil engineering skills of these people was amazing and I hope that the 2005 event in
late fall will be a great eye-opener to everybody who should know about it!  Let's hope that somebody
from UNESCO and NGS will be there!!  They should!
	
	Jens A Tellefsen, Jr, PhD

             Research Group of Laserphysics and Quantum Optics,
	Department of Physics,
	Royal Institute of Technology (KTH),
	Stockholm, Sweden

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   There are three reasons why I will attend the Octagon Moonrise event on October 22nd:

   (1) Nearly a half-century ago, a young boy, his brother, and friends played with great joy on those mounds.  The Observatory Mound was especially fine for sledding in winter and riding a bicycle down in summer.  (The country club folks were apparently more laid back in those days.)  The children didn't think much at all about the mounds:  they lived nearby and the mounds were simply given as part of their neighborhood.

   (2) About two centuries ago, Newark, Ohio was founded by settlers who deemed the mounds of the Licking River Valley a nuisance for farming and a useful source of earth for building.  Their thoughts were of survival and profit, their energies expended on economic needs and desires.  To their minds, the Indians had not enriched the land by taming it.  They did not need to read John Locke to know that "the meanest day laborer in England is clad better than the king of the Indians."  The mounds embodied the primitive beliefs of savages; they stood in the way of progress.
   In retrospect, who does not wish that our forefathers had foregone their destruction of the mounds?  They lived and prospered, but what a price was paid!  Newark would today be one of the most interesting destinations in this country, renowned for the scope and beauty of what the Adena and Hopewell achieved there.
   Licking County now seems poised at a second crossroads, or perhaps has unwisely crossed it.  It will soon end up absorbed by the dreary, hideous sprawl that has disfigured much of our country, eliminating the area's longtime balance of urban and rural.  (Think miles of 21st Street.)  Decisive, thoughtful steps must be taken to preserve farms and green space.  Our ancestors chose to satisfy their immediate interests without much reverence for the land and space they seized and exploited.  Do the citizens of Licking County now want to make a second ineradicable mistake?

   (3) Several centuries ago in Europe, the modern age was born.  Modernity was founded in the belief that humans, with the right understanding of nature, could master fortune.  No longer would we need the help of a god or gods; a proper method would allow us to understand and control nature for the "relief of the human estate," in Francis Bacon's famous phrase.  The fruits of this modern turn--e.g., advanced medicine and technology--are undeniable.
   But the modern "scientific" account of nature and the world, though powerful, is problematic.  Most obviously, our new power can be used for noble or ignoble ends.  Science is oblivious to that moral distinction.  The human concern for the beautiful is to be understood as an instrument of something more fundamental and lower, e.g., Freud's account of beauty as sublimated id or, with today's geneticists, as a useful means to maximize reproductive options.  The human and humane things are ephemera.
   What has any of this to do with the Octagon Mound and October 22nd?  The Octagon embodies a deep knowledge of nature and its cyclical movements.  But it does so without prodding, punching, or torturing nature (aka experimenting) to force it to reveal its secrets for the sake of our manipulation and use of the results.  The religious Indian way seems akin to the secular ancient way of the Greeks:  knowledge as contemplation and thoughtfulness about what is "put on our plate."  Such knowing doesn't seek to control nature; it is for its own sake as the highest human activity.  The Octagon reasserts us into the world as respectful wonderers, not as wannabe masters.  The mounds are an antidote to what ails us.

   These things are why an aging academic from Brooklyn, whose carefree cries and bicycle tires once abused those old mounds, sad at what was lost and is still being lost, will return at last to let that ancient earth's quiet wisdom teach him.

Roger McDonald

Brooklyn, New York

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Newark Earthworks Comments

      I'm an archaeologist – currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley and of Ojibwe heritage.  I visited the Newark Earthworks in late Feb. of this year as part of a job interview at OSU.  I was profoundly moved while visiting the Earthworks.  I was with about half a dozen scholars, who were part of the team interviewing me and as I walked across the landscape my eyes were filled with tears.  Not sadness, not happiness exactly - just a very deep feeling of calm.   I could feel the most powerful connection with that place.  It was uncomfortable to be having such a powerful spiritual moment during this formal, professional event (a job interview when everyone is carefully watching you!) – but I was still profoundly affected by that interaction with the earthworks. 

      The team with me was very understanding.  I wanted to leave a gift to honor the ancestors that made such an amazing place and my companions were kind enough to give me some copper (an old penny) and allowed me some time alone to pray and leave that gift.  It was a fantastic experience and one I will keep with me and share with my own children in the future.  It would be so wonderful if others could have the chance to experience the power of that place and if it could be used for traditional ceremonies again, for future generations.

      I can only speak from my own perspective and don't presume to offer 'the' Native American perspective about the Newark earthworks.  From my own perspective, for many reasons I find it deeply troubling that the earthworks continue to be used as a golf course.  This is a very powerful place and it should be treated with reverence and respect.  It is critical that local Native people be consulted about the use and future of the Newark Earthworks and that they have access to this place, to care for her, and to be cared for by her.  The golf course keeps this important relationship from growing.

      With the quick pace of development in this society we are lucky that the Newark earthworks were not destroyed.  Although the golf course played an important role in preserving the site from destruction and further development in the past, I feel it's time of being a temporary steward of this place has passed.  Times have changed and we are now in a position to return the care of the site to its traditional stewards - the Native people of this region. 

      Over time I think people are beginning to recognize the power of places such as the Newark Earthworks.  Something many Native people have recognized for millennia is that the past is an ever living part of the present and the future.  These sites remind all of us of that connection – that time is not linear, and the past is always with us.  In caring for the past, we care for ourselves and future generations.  I think these sites have a power in them - by their very nature they move us to reflect and question, to wonder and ponder.  That helps make people mindful of what was important in the past and brings to mind the ways those same things are still so crucial for all of us today.  Things like the well-being of family, community, and wider society – how interconnected these things all are.  And how interdependent we all are to each other.  These are important lessons for us all to reflect on and I think Newark Earthworks and other powerful places like it have the power to help us do that. 

 Q:Do you believe if it is possible for a small group of people devoted to gaining respect and recognition for the N.E. to make a difference when the owner of the land, the OHS, recently extended the lease on the land to the Country Club for another 78 years?

Is it possible - Yes!  But I don't think it'll be easily accomplished.  The future of the Newark Earthworks revolve around two primary things:  money and power, and these things are difficult to challenge.  So, if efforts are to be successful I think those working on behalf of the Newark Earthworks have to find ways to effect the money and power of those currently in control.  The voice of a small group can certainly be powerful - particularly when justice is on your side.  I think much of the issue here is getting the word out and providing ways for people to join forces to work towards a single cause. Once the average person learns about this site and its meaning to local Native groups and others interested in the site, they will be more likely to support positive action for change.  People are usually very willing to help, but in many cases they don't know what is most beneficial, or they may not even be aware of the problem and why it matters so much.  I think if these things can be addressed in collaboration with local Native people then there is a limitless power in what can be accomplished on behalf of the Newark Earthworks. 

Q:In the spiritual realm, is using the Octagon Earthworks for a golf course like using Vatican City for golf?  Or some other analogy that would help my readers appreciate the value of this place?

It's actually impossible in many ways to make an effective comparison about playing golf on the Earthworks and playing golf in Vatican City or inside a church.  What the comparison doesn't convey well is the crucial issue of power - who has the power to control how your sacred sites and places are used?  People might think about playing golf in Vatican City and get  upset or feel it is wrong, but what they need to image is the entire force of colonization that created and continues to effect the situations we are in today.  Consider the fear of communism during the last century or the fear of terrorism today.  Try to imagine those fears becoming a reality and the feeling of seeing your local church "preserved" as a recreation area, while you aren't allowed to spend time praying in your church anymore.   It wouldn't matter if the 'outsiders' who took control were communists, terrorists, or space aliens, the point is that you no longer have the same control over your way of life, your spiritual practices, and important places - someone else does.  Of course the situation with Native people and the Earthworks is more complex than that, but with this example I think you can begin to have insight into the last 500 years of colonization and the importance of the current struggles and triumphs for decolonizing these sacred places. 

- Sonya Atalay

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A Voice of the Mounds

            A Shawnee woman has agreed to give we Mounds a voice. The Great Circle Mound is speaking first. I greet you in a good way. My grounds are special, sacred to the Indian people. They come here to pray, a great deal like their ancestors did. The Natives of old, gathered here, speaking to their Creator, in the spring, asking for good crops. The women were honored then, because they are the life givers and responsible for gathering foods, to feed their families. After their prayers, there were games while the food that was gathered was being prepared and all ate well. Later, in the summer, the people, gathered again, thanking their Creator for their crops. In the fall, the people, came once more, for their spiritual gathering, honoring their men folk. They provided the food for their people, during the winter. My grounds were used for other rites, as well, such as when the people went to the spirit world. It is now my wish, to give my time over to the Octagon Mound, who wishes to speak. So much disrespect is shown to my friend. I leave you in peace.

            The Great Circle Mound pays me honor, in a good way. We stay connected by, what the people call a road. There were eight doorways, from which the people once entered my grounds. Trade and games and councils were held. Within my walls, I’ve watched much joy and sorrow. Behind my walls, lay the secrets of a world, I cannot share with you. For they belong to the Natives ancestors. The Native people hold our grounds, with honor and great respect. Still feeling the presence of their ancestors, when they come to pray. Other nations come to visit, as well but cannot understand, why the ghost faced figures with iron sticks, insist on holding them back. Well, one day, they too, will be gone like dust in the wind. A smaller mound, wishes to speak. I leave you in peace.

            I am honored, my brother, for being able to speak. Being a smaller mound, I am known as a burial mound. Within my grounds, lay the remains of the Old Ones known as the Mound Builders. They are the people who gave us life and honor. So many of us have been destroyed and pillaged. So much of the precious remains and their belongings have been taken. All in the name of research and progress but to the Natives, it is just plain greed. Why? Why, is there no respect? Why is it that the ghost faces do not give honor, due to the First People of these Americas? There’s a cold Wind Spirit, beginning to blow across my face, so with that, I the Burial Mound, will leave you in peace.

            Being the Shawnee woman who has written the words of the mounds, I feel spiritually connected, to these sacred beings, as I walk and leave my moccasin prints, hopefully in a good way, with my ancestors. I too, leave you in peace.

- Helen Griffin (Shawnee)

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        The Newark Earthworks have fascinated me since I first visited these enigmatic geometric monuments many years ago.  Their vast scale makes it almost impossible to comprehend the patterns in the graceful curving and linear embankments without reference to a plan of the site.  It was, however, immediately clear to me that I was in the presence of a deep intelligence and a passionate commitment to creating something of enduring power and imperishable beauty.  When I was hired, in 1988, by the Ohio Historical Society to be the site archaeologist for the Newark Earthworks it was a dream come true, but I was a bit intimidated as well.  Relatively little was known about the site and I was afraid I had little of substance to share with visitors regarding the purpose and meaning of these magnificent earthworks.  I wanted what I said and wrote about this wonder of the world to be worthy of its creators.  So, I have devoted much of my professional life to learning more about this special place.  My respect for the intelligence and artistry of the ancient American Indian architects of the Newark Earthworks only has increased.  And I am in awe of the energy and persistence of the people who, armed only with pointed sticks and baskets, transformed a landscape into ritual architecture of breath-taking proportions.

The 2005 moonrise presents an opportunity to experience, on a visceral level, something of the purposes for which these giant earthworks were built; but it’s important to keep in mind that this site is not merely a giant cosmic alarm clock.  These vast earthen enclosures are among the world’s most profound architectural expressions of a set of religious beliefs.  They are every bit as extraordinary as Cheop’s Great Pyramid, Turkey’s Hagia Sophia, and Japan’s Itsukushima Shrine.  The lunar alignments incorporated into the architecture were a way of establishing a link between the spiritual powers that inhabited the “Above World” and the human communities who participated in the construction of this monumental geometry.  Jay Miller, an anthropologist at the Ohio State University, has compared the process of creating mounds and enclosures to Christian communion.  The earth is transformed by human efforts and divine inspiration, into “something else – safer, more nourishing, and more inspiring.”

I will never know everything I want to know about the Newark Earthworks, but I already know enough to feel awe and deep respect for the peoples who created this wonderful architecture.  Moreover, I am immensely grateful to the early European American residents of Newark for their efforts to preserve at least substantial remnants of the ancient grandeur that preceded them in this place by more than fourteen centuries.  Many Ohio communities were not so far-sighted or conscientious in treasuring their heritage.

Bradley Lepper

Newark, Ohio

July 2005

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       I am pleased that Denison faculty and students have been able to take good educational opportunity of the Newark Earthworks. Professor Mike Mickelson repeatedly has been able to connect his archeo-astronomy courses with this resource, and in the current academic year the Laura C. Harris Symposium at Denison has focused its attention upon native American culture and the historical, social, and archeological significance of the mounds. I am pleased that Professor Ron Abram of the Art Department has also been able to introduce his drawing and printmaking students to the earthworks.


      Because of the rich educational opportunities represented by the events you are planning for this autumn, I am happy to lend Denison's support to the enterprise. Several Denison faculty, I note, have been involved in development of this idea from its early stages. I also understand that our campus planetarium may have a role to play in studying the lunar observatory. Because of the value of the events to our campus and our community, I am also happy to make a financial commitment to the enterprise in partnership with other local entities and OHS as the budget to make three nights possible becomes clear. With such a wide range of supporters, all of the participating parties, I hope, will be able to move forward to complete planning for the event and begin advertising it to the public. I know that many people will be
interested.


Sincerely,

Dale T. Knobel

President and Professor of History
Denison University

 

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       As an archaeologist and historian I view the Newark Earthworks in a context of place; their physical place on the natural landscape and the many changes to them since they were constructed by Native Americans nearly 2,000 years ago, and their symbolic place in the cultural landscape of the very different societies that built them and other similar places, and that now care for them 2,000 years later.  I am awed by their large scale and apparent simplicity of design, but realize that 2,000 years ago their construction and use was a complex process requiring a convergence of things natural and cultural, and I am inspired to know more about how and why.  I have many more questions than answers, and know that others do too.  

      Because I and other people want to know more, I am concerned about the preservation of this and other places that can yield information important in understanding human history; history we can learn about and from.  I want to see these places preserved so that scientists have the opportunity, the privilege, to study them and tell others about what they have found and know about these enigmatic places, and so that others can visit them and make their own connections with them, appreciating and respecting the special places that they are.

      The moonrise phenomenon events at the Octagon Earthworks provides an opportunity to be both awed and inspired about this and other human achievements.  Thank you to everyone, past and present, for making it possible.

Al Tonetti

Columbus, Ohio

July 2005 

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      As a historian of America, I find that there are few things I value more than those rare places that link us with our past. And as an Ohioan, I find it an honor that my state contains a site generally regarded as one of the 70 wonders of the ancient world. Who could have imagined that Newark Ohio would be the home of one of only three American sites to merit such a distinction? And who could have imagined that Newark Ohio would be the home of a historical wonder that merited equal standing with the Parthenon, the Easter Island Statues, and the Great Wall of China.

      Sadly, in this modern age, our society has become quick to embrace all forms of change as "progress" without stopping to think about what is lost by such changes. As a result, we are a nation with only the most tenuous links to the past (here in Ireland, by contrast, I can rarely travel more than a few miles without seeing some remnant of the nation's history). The Newark Earthworks are one of the last reminders of what this nation once was, and it should be honored and celebrated accordingly. Students should be brought there from throughout the state and beyond; college courses should be taught there; and the traditions and ceremonies of the current generation of Native Americans should be held there and celebrated.

      The Newark Earthworks tells us where our society came from; our treatment of that site tells us much about where we are now. I commend the Newark Earthworks Initiative for its efforts to preserve and celebrate this critical link with America's heritage.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Lerner
Mary Ball Washington Distinguished Fulbright Professor of American History
University College-Dublin
Dublin, Ireland

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When the ancients constructed our mounds, it seems unreasonable that charting of astronomical events was their purpose.  I believe, without much knowledge of their archeological history, that they must have had less sophisticated reasons.

Maybe they planned their gathering place due to a more worldly, and pressing, concern:  TRIBAL SURVIVAL.  Perhaps disease or famine had reduced or obliterated enough villages that the elders sought relief from their gods through that major appeasement effort.  If they knew that increased childbirth was their solution, is it any wonder why they would fashion our circle mound after a uterus no longer empty?  And might the octagon mounds represent an ordered civilization into which the newborns would arrive after they traverse a "canal" from another circle?

For no matter what purpose, the construction process itself must have been a marvel of communication and leadership skills for the Native Americans of that time.   
 

Richard A. Rice

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Time and Timelessness in Worship

Jeff Gill

First published in the Newark Advocate, Saturday, 24 September 2005.

England’s vast and towering cathedrals have just under a thousand years of history and tradition built into them. This can be a challenge as well as a delight, for both today’s worshipers and historians, let alone tour guides. 

In the 1100’s and 1200’s when most were dedicated and begun, the Anglican world was part of Roman Christendom, what we now call the Catholic Church. In the 1500’s the Church of England chose a different course than the Lutheran Reformation sweeping Europe, but still decisively split with the Bishop of Rome (aka "the Pope," or "il Papa" as father of the church on earth as vicar of Christ in heaven).

Today the Anglican Communion, represented in America by the Episcopal Church, is the tradition holding services in these cathedrals. Occasionally, sometimes with humor and infrequently with a touch of bitterness, an English Catholic will speak of "wanting our churches back," but with 500 years on either side of the usage, which is the right way to worship in a British cathedral?

We have an interesting and even more complicated challenge here in Licking County. While Canterbury and Westminster have not yet reached their 1000 mark, the ceremonial sites of the Newark Earthworks, the Great Circle by Heath and Octagon State Memorial off 33rd St., are acknowledged by scientists to be at or beyond 2000 years of age.

What is the proper way to acknowledge the worship dimension of sites built before written language in this area? We know the descendants of the builders, modern American Indians (some like that label, others Native American, most prefer a tribal name like Shawnee or Miami) still live in the Ohio Valley.  But like the Church of England over just a quarter of the two millennia represented by the Newark Earthworks, the modern version of ceremony and ritual may not accurately image what was accepted practice in the beginning.

For the organizers of the events taking place this fall around the Newark Earthworks, and the moonrise cycle of 18.6 years pointed out by the main axis of the octagon, the answer has been humility.  Humility is really the only reasonable approach to a structure of such age and significance, and humility is certainly called for in welcoming faithful people of so many traditions to a common event.

We know so little for certain about the valley between Raccoon Creek and the Licking River 2000 years ago, but we know that the movement of the moon and sun and stars were of crucial importance for life itself, in farming and harvest and surviving the winter. Rituals that kept the people together, and brought hope for the future, even simply the hope of another spring, had to be at their heart.

Beyond that is speculation, and the hints from living traditions around us still.

October 22 will give the public a chance to share, with humility, in a quiet simple observance of the moon rising at a predictable but irregular spot on the horizon, defined by earthen walls built by hand. Moonrises before and after that date will give Native Americans and scholars a chance to expand their circle of understanding of this monumental site, and of each other.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; you can offer to volunteer to help with the Oct. 22 events during the day or at the Octagon that night by e-mailing him at disciple@voyager.net.

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Many people believe that the modern world with all of its advance technology is superior to all cultures and societies of the past.
        I contend that this is a flawed assumption.  I contend that in this modern age we have lost true values; that we have become blind to true realities.
        In our haste to make a buck, we do not take time to care for the aged, we do not take time to raise our children with meaningful values and understandings.  We have become blind to our interrelation with God’s creation.  This artificial world does not allow us to see the havoc that global warming, destruction of bio-diversity, pollution and radiation will have on future generations.
        The 18.6 year moonrise cycle marked by the Octagon Mound is much more than marking the passage of the moon.  The 18.6 year cycle is equivalent to an entire generation.  It requires one to learn from the elders.  It requires sharing and teaching with the children.  It requires one to understand our interrelationship with all of God’s creation.
        I believe that the ancient ones with God’s intervention have left us a roadmap that will help us to regain our spiritual centers and help us to avert future global disasters.
        Take time from your busy schedule and tune in to the true meaning of the moonrise at the Octagon Mound.  The ancient ones truly had the superior culture.

Mark Welsh
Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio

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      At around 10:30 in the evening, I got on the bus to the Octagon Earthworks.

      We waited in the parking lot of the Moundbuilders Country Club. A mist was rising and there were clouds around the periphery of the sky, but I could see a number of stars overhead. Just before moonrise the spiritual leader, Wanbli Gleska Cikala brought out his eagle feather and said a prayer. He walked out on the path and the drummers followed, and we followed them, pausing to waft the smoke of burning sage over our bodies before entering the Octagon. We walked slowly, mindfully, stopping every so often. There was a sense of anticipation in the air. Would we be able to see the moon rising at the expected point above the Earthworks?

      When the procession stopped, Wanbli Gleska Cikala said another prayer and the drummers began singing. The man next to me swayed in time to the drumming. After a few songs, the drums quieted and the people sang together. The sound was softer, and it was beautiful, their voices rising and falling, sometimes calling in response to the leader, sometimes carrying on alone. Even though we could not see the moon rise above the horizon, I noticed at one point it got lighter and a cloud above us lit up, the way the moon lights a cloud. I felt a lightening of the mood in the group as well.

      I imagined the people singing the moon up through the clouds, and moved off to the side of the group and climbed up and over a mound, scanning the sky for the moon. I drifted away from the group, suddenly feeling the need to be alone, to escape the piercing lights of the country club, to feel my way in the dark. I walked along the mound that marked the trajectory to the moonrising point, but not inside it—I did not want to come between the moon and the drum. Instead I walked on the outside of that mound, and then followed another mound away. At one point, the sound of the drum had changed—it was moving, and from the top of a mound, I saw the recession had begun, so I hurried to rejoin the group.

      We walked back through the parking lot. The police were there. “Why?” I wondered--is a gathering of Indians still cause for concern? The first bus came and filled up and drove away. I put my jacket down in the dewy grass and sat. After finishing their cigarettes, the drummers began to sing, “My Girl,” joyfully and in harmony—and there was laughter. We were all tired, but we had been there, participated in the moonrising ceremony and affirmed that Indian rituals have a place in our communal and professional lives.

      Just as we arrived back at the hotel, I saw the moon rise above the clouds, rust-colored, misty around the edges, and half-full, tilted, like a cup pouring nectar into the sky.

by Kelly Sassi

ksassi@umich.edu

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