Artist Gerry Lang (Chowanoke Nation) and Dr. John Low ( Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) standing in the LeFevre Gallery with Cracking Wing III, Quantum Memory Series.
Students at the "Return from Exile: the Mixed-Blood Art of Gerry Lang" exhibit, LeFevre Art Gallery, The Ohio State University Newark.
Dr. John Low (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) beginning a tour at the Octagon State Memorial, Newark Earthworks.
Artist Gerry Lang (Chowanoke Nation) at the LeFevre Art Gallery describing his Return from Exile exhibition.
Aerial view of the Serpent Mound in Peebles, Ohio.
The Newark Earthworks Center exists today as an academic research center on the Newark campus of the Ohio State University.
Our primary focus is to promote research, support faculty, contribute to student experiences, support appreciation of the ancestral sites and peoples, and contribute to a campus and university environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Our value and relevancy is centered on respect, recognition, preservation, celebration, and promotion of Indigenous peoples and their achievements, past, present, and future.
Our mission-driven uniqueness has guided the organization since its formation. And it is that mission that has been so powerfully effective for over fifteen years in attracting faculty, students, constituents, stakeholders, and the public to become united with our efforts.
"When a group of Pokagon Potawatomi elders came to visit the Newark Earthworks in 2014, One elder, Majel DeMarsh, reminded me of what I have been taught all my life; that "these sites are not sacred because of what was built here. These structures were built to acknowledge the sacredness that preexisted humans. These sites only confirm and celebrate the power that is already here."
-Director Dr. John Low (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), Newark Earthworks Center.
"Tribal participation in the interpretation and management of the ancient and historical landscape is vital to the Indigenous legacy of Ohio. The tribes who lived in the Ohio Valley during the historical era were the most recent Indigenous caretakers of the earthworks. They lived among the earthen complexes, the effigies, and the grave mounds. They knew earthworks existed, understood they were made by their ancestors, and did not disturb them."
-Associate Director Marti Chaatsmith (Comanche Nation, descendant of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Newark Earthworks Center.
We are shaping our work one basketful at a time, just as the Ohio River Valley's monumental earthworks were built.
We respect, recognize, preserve, celebrate, and promote Indigenous peoples and their achievements, past, present, and future.
Our work endeavors to reflect our mission and values of ourselves and The Ohio State University with excellence and impact, diversity and innovation, inclusion and equity, care and compassion, and integrity and respect.
