Latest
Mounds and Memory Gathering 2024: Indigenous Sovereignty, Ceremonial Spaces, and Stories of the Mound Builders
May 15, 2024
Cartoon Room 1, Third Floor, Ohio Union, Columbus Campus
9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
The Newark Earthworks are the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world. Honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, the entire Newark Earthworks originally encompassed more than four square miles.
It was built between CE 1 to CE 400 by the ancestors of contemporary American Indian peoples who are identified today as the Hopewell Culture/Era. This architectural wonder was part cathedral, part university, part social space, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory. Through their genius, hard work, and collaborative efforts these ancestors inscribed upon the land a remarkable wealth of indigenous knowledge relating to geometry and astronomy encoded in the design of these earthworks.
The Octagon Earthworks are aligned to the four moonrises and four moonsets that mark the limits of a complicated 18 year and 219 day-long cycle north and south on the eastern horizon.
This Gathering is built upon the hard work of organizers and attendees of previous Mounds & Memory workshops and the goal of this Gathering is to reunite participants in previous workshops, including representatives of the Rainy River First Nations (Ontario), the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Nation, The Ohio State University, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. to share and celebrate these "monuments of the Ohio River Valley."
Speakers:
- Jennifer Aultman, Chief Historic Sites Officer, Ohio History Connection
- Kevin Daugherty (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) Language Specialist and Elder
- Steven Gavazzi, Director of CHRR, The Ohio State University
- Bradley Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio History Connection
- Lucy Murphy, Professor Emeritus of History, The Ohio State University
- Kevin Nolan, Director and Senior Archaeologist of Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University
- Justin Parscher, Assistant Professor of Practice Landscape Architecture, Knowlton School of Architecture
- Richard Shiels, Associate Professor Emeritus of History, The Ohio State University
Photos and/or video is being taken at this event and may appear in The Ohio State University marketing materials. By attending this event, you hereby authorize the university to use your image in any and all use related to the educational mission of the university without compensation. Please notify the Newark Earthworks Center hosting the event if you wish to attend but not have your image used in this way. Please contact Megan Cromwell (cromwell.34@osu.edu).
If you require an accommodation such as interpretation to participate in this in-person event, or other accommodations, please contact Megan Cromwell (cromwell.34@osu.edu) . Requests made by April 30 will help provide seamless access.
- The Ohio Union: Visiting the Union
Agenda:
9:00 - 9.30 a.m. John Low, Director of the Newark Earthworks Center, “Welcome”
9:30 - 10:30 a.m. Bradley Lepper, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio History Connection, “An Archaeologist's Perspective on the Newark Earthworks”
10:30 - 11 a.m. Break
11:00 - 12:00 p.m. Kevin Nolan, Director and Senior Archaeologist, Applied Anthropology Laboratories (AAL), Ball State University; and Justin Parscher, Assistant Professor of Practice Landscape Architecture, Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University, “Modeling Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks”
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Steven Gavazzi, Director of CHHR, The Ohio State University, “Land Grant, Land Grab Universities”
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Licking County Ohio Earthworks and the Newark Earthworks Center (45 minutes), Lucy Murphy, Co-Founder of the Newark Earthworks Center; and Richard Shiels, founding Director of the Newark Earthworks Center
3:00 - 3:30 p.m. Break
3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Kevin Daugherty (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi) Language Specialist and Elder, "Contemporary Connections to the Mounds and Sky"
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Jennifer Aultman, Chief Historic Sites Officer, Ohio History Connection, “World Heritage Ohio and the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks”
5.30 - 6:00 p.m. John Low, Director of the Newark Earthworks Center, Closing Remarks
CABS Bus Route:
Campus Area Bus Service is a free transit service provided by The Ohio State University Transportation and Traffic Management. CABS is dedicated to providing clean, reliable, and hassle-free transportation on and around Ohio State’s Columbus Campus. Track CABS in real-time via the Ohio State app.
The Ohio Union is a stop on the Campus Connector route every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. The High Street and 15th stop on the Buckeye Express and East Residential lines is close to the Ohio Union if you don't mind some walking.
- Buckeye Express, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., every 15 minutes
- Campus Connector, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., every 15 minutes
- East Residential, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., every 30 minutes
CABS Bus Route Map 2024 (PDF).
Parking:
The Parking garages adjacent to the north side of the Ohio Union are operated by CampusParc. Their number is
614-688-0000 and their website is: http://www.osu.campusparc.com
Parking Rates
30 Minutes $2.75
1 Hour $5.25
2 Hours $9.00
3 Hours $12.50
4 Hours $16.00
Daily Max $17.25
Lost Ticket $44.50
Organized by the Newark Earthworks Center-(John Low, Marti Chaatsmith, Megan Cromwell); Cheryl Cash; and Stephen Gavazzi; with financial support from the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Themes Program, the Center of Religion, Center for the Study of Religion, and American Indian Studies and our donors. Thank you!
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 are 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.
The Octagon State Memorial is open to the public from dawn to dusk three more days this year. Octagon Open Houses of 2024: July 22, October 20-21. Part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Mounds and Memory Gathering 2024: Indigenous Sovereignty, Ceremonial Spaces, and Stories of the Mound Builders. May 15, 2024, Cartoon Room 1, Ohio Union, Columbus Campus 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. More details are available on our News page.
"The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage." Edited by Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy Jordan, and Richard Shiels. The Ohio State University Press. Available for purchase June 2023! $24.95 in Paperback and PDF EBook editions. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to support the Ohio History Connection and the Newark Earthworks Center in their efforts to manage and interpret the site for the world. For more information, visit: https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814258705.html
The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is an inscribed UNESCO World Heritage site as of September 19, 2023! The inscription recognizes the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage considered of outstanding value for all of humanity. For more information, visit our News page. Aerial view of the Hopeton Earthworks, part of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Chillicothe Ohio. First Capital Aerial Media, Tim Anderson Jr.
"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.
