Made the List

The tribes who you know here had rich lives before they came.

There is evidence there were Indigenous people in what is now Ottawa County before the tribes arrived in the 1800’s. The tribes who were forced here by the US Government from lands they had loved with tribal people they had had alliances before the US Government was ever established. Their efforts to hold that ground got them sent here. They had fought to stay home. They left behind more than memories. They left behind landmarks that can be seen from space.

The relationship they had with the universe is known now by walking their lands and the earthen mound structures they created show us at moments in our annual lunar calendar that they knew where they were and how they aligned with it.

You will know people in your life who have made a difference, to you, to your church, your community. You also know a person, or my hope is that you will come to know a person who had a desire, a grand desire and sought out a way to gain it. That goal was to have the massive man-made earthen structures join the cluster of sites on this planet that rank as the most incredible.

We famously quote Dr. Chuck Ross for saying, “How did those Indians know about that?” and our whole country could be saying that! Native and non-native.

We, ourselves were called savages and incapable. When demeaned enough some could begin to believe it. But these were our people who figured out this complex landscape architecture and built it over a period of 500 years, carrying the baskets of dirt, piling and mounding up the structures in precisely the way they are constructed to align with lunar configurations that happen only every 18.6 years. The structures remain as evidence of the great minds and the determination of generations of people to build the Ceremonial Earthworks of the Hopewell people.

These are our people now; their relatives may live next door to you. The woodland tribes who reside in Ottawa County: the Eastern Shawnee, the Shawnee, the Ottawa, the Peoria, the Miami, the Seneca, the Wyandotte. Their people did this work. And all were forced out and away from those places and the tribal faces in Ohio were all but removed.

Think about the pyramids, the Great Wall, Pompei - landmarks valued internationally with legal protection by treaty for the unique significance each demonstrates. UNESCO administers and determines listings to the status as World Heritage Sites. Many are man-made, some are unique places on earth unchanged by man with the understanding they should be left untouched to preserve them for humanity for their outstanding value to humanity.

Since a year ago July there are 1248 sites in 120 countries. I wanted to know more about those places. It is easy, just go to landmarks on their website and page through the countries and click on any one. You will see known and for me many unknown wonders of the world.

But number 1248 was built by the tribal ancestors of people in your neighborhood, or perhaps your own relations did it.

I was sitting in the Intertribal Council chambers when Chief Glenna Wallace recounted the day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2023. The previous application was discussed for 3 hours by the committee and that site failed to be accepted. When the Earthworks application was presented, the chair asked for discussion, hearing none, the site was accepted. The audience applauded and Glenna was allowed to speak. She wanted to shout with joy, she said, and claimed her face was moist and believed her voice trembled but she spoke for her descents in that moment and the entire audience joined in applause for the approval of this ancestorial site.

I wanted to stand and applaud!!! She and many of the tribal leaders who filled the chairs at Intertribal Council had been involved in the effort as well as the teams of people who came on board in the state of Ohio. It all mattered and the place of the ancestors is recognized for its outstanding universal value and will be protected into the future.

At a recent Intertribal Council meeting, Chief Glenna invited each in the room to attend a special Stomp Dance, held only a few weeks ago. The people in Ohio who had worked so hard wondered where all the tribes go when they left that state. The event was for them, for us, for joy celebrating the past with people who helped secure it for the future.

Respectfully Submitted,

Rebecca Jim

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/