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We wish to study Native American burial grounds in Hueston Woods and their relationship to Four Mile Creek. We plan to study the land to learn if there were scientific reasons for placing burial grounds near a river, as well as, studying the historical and current emotional relationship Native Americans share with rivers. This project will connect to the ideas of sublime nature, human connections with nature, and preservation through an interdisciplinary method. We hypothesize that the Native Americans chose to locate their burial grounds by bodies of water, such as Four Mile Creek, for religious reasons, as well as, physical environmental reasons. We believe by analyzing the placement of Native American burial mounds we can find a connection between the Adena and Hopewell tribes and Three Mile Creek, as well as, by studying these cultures and traditions we can prove that an emotional bond with nature is an inherent human quality which is experienced across years and cultures.
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Book/Journal References
Grose, Teresa. ÒReading the Bones: Information Content, Value, and Ownership Issues Raised by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation ActÓ Journal of the American Society for Information Science 47 (August 1996): 624.
This source will help us research the legislation concerning Native American burial mounds.
Hoffman, Thomas J. ÒMoving Beyond Dualism: A Dialogue with Western European and American Indian Views of Spirituality, Nature, and ScienceÓ The Social Science Journal 34 (April, 1997): 447.
This source will help us understand Native American culture and then link culture with nature and science.
Flanders, Nicholas E. ÒNative American Sovereignty and Natural Resource ManagementÓ Human Ecology 26 (1998): 425.
This source shows how Native American rights are tied to water rights and preservation throughout the nation.
Chambers, David Wade. ÒSeeing a World in a Grain of Sand: Science Teaching in Multicultural ContextÓ Science and Education 8 (1999): 633.
This source will show to make our project more interdisciplinary as it shows how the arts, sciences, and Ôindigenous modes of knowingÕ are related to understanding nature.
Morris,Roma J. ÒThe Whole Story: Nature, Healing, and Narrative in the Native American Wisdom TraditionÓ Literature and Medicine 15 (May 1996): 94.
This source will be used in our analysis of Native American traditions and their references to nature in literature.
John, G.E. ÒCultural Nationalism, Westward Expansion and the Production of Imperial Landscape: George CatlinÕs Native American WestÓ Ecumene 8 (April, 2001): 175.
This article ties together art, nature, and Native American relocation in the time frame of the 1800Õs thus giving us an historical perspective for our project.
Stanlake, Christy. ÒSeventh Generation: An Anthology of Native American Plays (review)Ó Theatre Journal 52 (March 2000): 144.
This resource will be used in analyzing Native American literature and how nature is expressed and related to in such works.
Hughes, Robert. ÒThe Wilderness and the WestÓ American Visions. New York: Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1997.
This article will help us tie our research to the idea of the human emotional connection with nature, as well as, to the idea of how people then represent nature in their artwork.
McShine, Kynaston. ÒOn Divers Themes from NatureÓ The Natural Paradise Painting in America 1800-1950. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1976.
This article will also help in tying our project to the class themes of the human connection to nature and how we represent nature in our art, along with providing something to compare Native American connections and representations of nature to.
James, Peter and Nick Thorpe. Ancient Mysteries; New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1999.
This source provides information about the traditions surrounding Ohio Native American burial mounds, and will thus be useful as part of our cultural and historical research.
Forty, Jo. Mythology: A Visual Encyclopedia. London; PRC Publishing, 1999
This book shows many different Native American artifacts and art pieces and will thus aid us in our cultural and art study of Native Americans.
Telesco, Patricia. Folkways: Reclaiming the Magic and Wisdom; St. Paul, Minnesota; Llewellyn Publishing, 1995
This book describes cultural customs from around the world with many focusing on Native American customs which are inspired by nature.
Kellert, Steven. Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in human evolution and development; Washington DC; Island Press, 1997
This book would give us insight on the biophilias across various cultures. There is a chapter entitled ÒThe quest for exploration and discoveryÓ that we feel would be beneficial to our topic as well.
Potter, Martha. OhioÕs Prehistoric People; Columbus; The Ohio Historical Society, 1968.
This book deals with the Paleo-Indian tribes that were located on the Ohio Valley, as well as the Adena and Hopewell people. There are also numerous pictures and maps of the area as well.
Dragoo, Don. Mound for the Dead: An Analysis of the Adena Culture; Pittsburg, PA. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 1963.
This book gives an in depth look at the Adena culture through the mounds and artifacts that are left behind. There are many images and pictures of the mounds in the book, and information on their individual height and size.
MacLean, J.P. The Mound Builders: Archeology of Butler County; Cincinnati; Robert Clarke & Co, 1887.
This book looks specifically at Butler County and all of the historical and anthropological sites in the area, including the sites that we are looking at for our research project.
*We also have contacted the special collection library in order to learn where to obtain some maps from when the Adena and Hopewell tribes dominated the area around Four Mile Creek.
Internet References
The Library of Congress. The First American West: The Ohio River Valley 1750 Ð 1820. 2002; available from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icuhtml/fawhome.html; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This website will give help us with our historical research and provides links to other sites with maps, scientific descriptions of the land, and traditions surrounding burial mounds.
Cultural Analysis of Indian Art and Photography. Available from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jamarcus/photo2.html; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This website talks about Native American Art and its relationship to nature and religion. It also gives a timeline of Native American history which lists different events and legislation that affected the lives and traditions of Native Americans.
Teachserve. Native Americans and the Land. 2002; available from http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian.htm; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This site talks about how Native Americans utilized the land, and gives many links to sites which talk about the relocation of Native Americans and other effects of European settlement on Native tribes and the land.
National Council for Science and the Environment. Native Americans and the Environment: Cultural and Historical Issues. 2002; available from http://www.cnie.org/NAE/culture.html; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This site provides links to many other sites which address various ideas including the relationship between Native Americans and the land, how Native American techniques have been utilized in preservation and restoration programs and changed how scientists view ecosystem stability, as well as, the symbolic roles nature takes in Native American art and literature.
American Indian Heritage Foundation. Essay on Native American Environmental Issues. 1995; available from http://www.indians.org/library/intro.html; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This website discusses why Native Americans value nature and how they are involved with environmental efforts throughout the years.
AIM Support Group. Census Numbers of the Greater Cincinnati Area. 2002; available from http://home.cinci.rr.com/aimsupport/2002_03_24_aim-blog-archive.html; Internet, accessed 10 February 2003.
This website gives numbers of how many Native Americans are still living in Butler county and the surrounding areas, and we hope will provide a way for us to get in contact with nearby Native Americans whom we can interview.
* In addition to these resources we will also draw upon the resources about the Hopewell and Adena tribes offered by Andy Garrison.
Interdisciplinary Approach
We will be studying the cultural history and traditions of Native Americans who resided in Butler County. We will be researching past legislation which pushed the Native Americans away from their burial grounds, as well as, what present legislation protects these sacred areas. We plan to study this from a scientific perspective by characterizing the physical areas and land use present in this area of Four Mile Creek and researching if Native Americans chose this spot for scientific reasons along with their traditional reasons. Through the use of maps, topographical information, physical characteristics, and resource texts we plan to determine Four Mile CreekÕs impact on Native American land development and cultural traditions.
Research Design
Our research design will focus mainly on the land use around the burial grounds and how it pertains to the ecological use of Four Mile Creek. We also plan on researching different Native American works of art and literature which connect to the emotional dynamic of the river. And we hope to study how pre-European practices may have affected stream water quality, as well as, the topography of the land. We are currently getting in touch with different historians around the Oxford area and plan to interview them about what the land may have looked like before colonization by Europeans. We have also contacted MiamiÕs Havighurst Special Collection Department to locate and view maps of the Four Mile Creek watershed before Europeans were here, in hopes of understanding how the Native Americans chose their settlements around Four Mile Creek.
Materials and Methods
We will be utilizing people and historical archives as we learn about the Native American traditions and culture. Artworks and literary works will be used to determine how the river relates to Native American cultural values. Local historians will be contacted and archives will utilized to study the landÕs past and present topography and ecology, and how this may affect stream water quality. We plan to utilize a laser measuring instrument to take the dimensions of the actual Indian Mound, along with a measurement wheel to measure the distance between the Mound and Four Mile Creek. The research team will utilize a cooperative effort to complete our study of the connections between Native American burial mounds, nature and of course rivers. We also will utilize population and relocation statistics to show how the burial mounds were related to not only the natural environment but also the human environment in the past.
Tentative Research Time-Line
February 25th Ð Library Research
February 26th Ð Contacted Phillip Shriver and Hueston Woods for possible reference materials and other information
February 28th Ð Visit Indian Mound for ÔhandÕs on experienceÕ
March 4th - Contacted Phillip Shriver again
March 5th - Contacted Havighurst Special Collections Department for map access
March 21st - Revisit Mound for measurements
March 28th - Meeting for research
April 2nd - Meeting for research and possibly revisiting site for more measurements
Interviewing local historians and archivists at undetermined date in March or April
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