A Community Dilemma

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A Community Dilemma

• The Debate of Public Access to the Ancient Newark
  Earthworks

2
Newark, Ohio

• a typical town of the American heartland.
  Seventeen centuries ago, this was a center for a
  very different culture (Earthworks Virtual
  Explorations of Ancient Newark, Ohio)

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The Newark Earthworks

• Geometric earthen structures constructed during
  the prehistoric time period (SB 271, signed into
  law June 7, 2006).
  
• Ohio Indian Mounds Hallowed Ground and a Nice
  Par 3 (NY Times).
  
• mysterious mounds (Newark Advocate July 11,
  1822, Sen Jay Hottinger, June 7, 2006).

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Culture/degradation

• The Newark Earthworks are part of a complex
  system of geometrically designed mounds as a
  lunar observatory and a landmark for ceremonial
  rights of the Native Americans who traveled from
  the other side of the then unconquered United
  States.

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A historic dilemma

• Another fact proves their great antiquity, and
  that is, that the Indians, who inhabited the
  county when it was first discovered by the
  Europeans, and whose descendents are still
  remaining in it, cannot give any account of them
  (Advocate July 1822).
• Verne E. Chatelain of the national parks
  service, Washington, D.C., has visited these
  works and is converted to the idea that the
  federal government should have a interest in
  preserving them (Jones, early 1900s).

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The difference in todays debate

• Until recently, much of the controversy has
  focused on debate of the unknown. Who were these
  people? . . . Fueled by speculation based upon
  recovered artifacts, the debates were purely
  subjective.
• This most recent controversy is differentit has
  been regarding a tangible concern physical
  access (resulting in a public experience) to the
  Earthworks.

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Websitesthe issue is control
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The city gets involved?

• City Council states The Ohio Historical Society
  and Moundbuilders Country Club should work
  together to provide access for the general public
  to Octagon Earthworks on 3 evenings. The
  Council declares October 22nd to be designated
  Newark Earthworks Day (March 21, 2005).
• The Council rescinds its resolution (April 4,
  2005).
  
• Mayor Bain forgets that it was rescinded (May
  2006).

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The OHS

• Bill Laidlaw, president it is the role of the
  Historical Society to unite all the groups to
  educate the community on this project. There are
  numerous layers and lessons that can be learned.
  The OHS is constantly searching for ways to keep
  people focused, to develop long term objectives
  that are reasonable. In the past year hes had
  some success in getting people back on the same
  page and heading toward the same objective.

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Community Voicesthe older generation

• the older men could not see why I was so
  interested in a bunch of uneducated heathen
  that lived in ancient times. One man said we
  should let the golf course bulldoze the mounds.

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Community Voicesthe younger generation

• The elementary children said . . . the mounds
  belonged to Native Americans who came here from
  all over to dance and sing to The Great Spirit at
  Thanksgiving time. They also said that they were
  smart people who studied the Moon and stars.

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The role of education

• Kenneth Burke events like Auschwitz and
  Hiroshima have caused people to realize a truly
  New Situation is with us in which prejudice must
  be eliminated.

Problems in education can be overcome by the
power of language to create realities.
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Miller Elementary

• Miranda West The Earthworks are important
  because they are not from this period and most
  people today do not think that people from the
  past have the mind to create something like the
  Earthworks. Since the Earthworks are actually a
  calendar, they are a piece of the early Hopewell
  Indians that we can hold onto and learn about.
  The community can learn about them and pass their
  knowledge onto their children, grandchildren, and
  great-grandchildren.

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Community Voiceslocal Native Americans

• We have always had lands taken away from us. It
  would be nice just one time to have a right be
  given to us, rather than taken away. --Wold
  

Im sorry about the golf course blocking the
meaning or, should I say, TRUE meaning of the
Many Blessings that should be the gift to many to
feel the spirit within the land around the
mounds. --Cherokee Farmer
Our people have always been close to our
ancestors and would like to have the right to
hold ceremonies in Newark as our ancestors did
long ago. --Redbyrd
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Community Voicesother Native Americans

• Native American mounds are sacred ground and
  should be treated with respect. When you go to a
  cemetery you dont step on other peoples graves
  it doesnt matter if you know the person or not.
  Its just the respect you pay.

I think turning the Earthworks into a golf
course is a clear act of racism. . . Anyone in
this country that feels that racism against
Native Americans is no longer present in todays
world is blind.
--Amanda Birkhimer, Shawnee
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The screen of sacred

• You are part of every-thing!  You are part of the
  fire, you are part of the water, you are part of
  the green, you are part of the stars, and you are
  related to everything.  You are related to the
  stones, to the trees, to the fish, to the
  creepy-crawlers, to the ones that fly, to the
  ones that walk on all fours, and to the ones that
  walk on two legs.  Everything is sacred and,
  therefore, you are sacred too.  That's what we
  mean when we say, Mitakuye oyasin. 

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
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The problem of access

• Greg Clark Landscapes do the rhetorical work of
  constituting a common identity forand thus a
  shared set of attitudes and actions ofthe
  various people who inhabit them.

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• Because of public restrictions, Native Americans
  do not have the same opportunity to experience
  their heritage and the pride that goes it at the
  Earthworks as other Americans are able to do with
  the Statue of Liberty and the Washington D.C.
  monuments.

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The question of the golf course

• It is difficult to go to the mounds and envision
  the sacred rituals and ceremonies of the Native
  American culture and past because the golf course
  is impossible to ignore. Degradation and
  commercialism are now intertwined with the sites
  sacredness. The site has become an example of how
  modern commercialism has destroyed another piece
  of living history, and how it has caused another
  racial attack against the true founders of
  America.

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Those other moundbuilders

• The former MCC groundskeeper, an active member
  for the past 60 years since MCC opened its doors
  in 1911, they have invested over three million
  dollars into the maintenance and preservation of
  the land so that they can equally enjoy the
  social activities of the club and preserve the
  historical value of the land. He believes in
  preserving the Mounds and feels that they bring
  uniqueness to the entire Newark community.

• The father of the bride the night of the Sept.
  moonrise ceremony MCC wedding he was
  celebrating an event important to his belief
  system and respected the needs of the Native
  Americans, historians, and scholars to celebrate
  a different event based on the values of their
  belief system.

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The question of power

• Dudley Weeks true power consists of the
  attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors
  that give people and groups the ability to act or
  perform effectively.

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2 views of the power issue

• All sides involved in a conflict must enter the
  resolution process with an attitude of power
  with rather than power over others. . . .
  Shouting threats back and forth between groups
  will fuel the fires of conflict.
• As the Country Club and the Ohio Historical
  Society deem it appropriate to mandate the
  specific dates of access to these sites and even
  the types of acceptable conduct, they disempower
  the local groups whom ceremony and tradition
  first imbued with power.

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What next?

• Perceptions of the other party that develop
  within the group can arise from stereotypes or
  ignorance. Such images obstruct the opportunity
  to get to know the other people for who they
  really are, and in so doing block the development
  of what might be mutually beneficial
  relationships (Weeks).

"We have a lease, and we have rights," said Ralph
Burpee, the club's general manager.
"Playing golf on a Native American spiritual site
is a fundamental desecration," said Richard
Shiels, OSUN history professor.
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A public experience

• Identification develops, as individuals align
  and differentiate themselves in relation to each
  other, in communication among those who live and
  work together (Clark, citing Burke).

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GOV. TAFT SIGNS EARTHWORKS BILL
Today, you are our teachers.
--Governor Taft to Miller 4th graders