Native American Stone Structures Sourcebook

A “Rock Piles Community” Project

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About the Project

Researchers have amassed a wealth of information over many years on the subject Native American stone structures. This information is scattered throughout published articles, books, blog entries, and researchers’ files making it difficult to find it. This project is a grassroots effort to address this problem. The purpose of the project is to gather together in a single authoritative sourcebook all known historical, anthropological, archaeological, and oral history sources discussing the construction and use of stone structures by Native Americans. The Native American Stone Structures Sourcebook will be made available in both digital and print formats.

How Can You Contribute to the Project?

The project seeks contributions of any historical, anthropological, archaeological, and oral history references to Native American stone structures. The contributions should be from reliable sources like travel journals, eyewitness accounts, letters, government records, deeds, court records, histories, archaeological excavations, anthropological studies, oral histories, interviews with Native Americans and so forth.

The project’s primarily focus is on ceremonial stone structures, however, references to stone food storage structures, stone fish weirs, and other utilitarian stone features are also sought. The project also seeks contributions of archaeological reports which identified one or more stone structure(s) as Native American in origins. Furthermore, the project seeks contributions of materials on specific boulders, rocky outcrops, and natural features like springs which were the site of ritual activities. Finally, the project seeks contributions of materials related to the Native American use of split stone (boulders, bedrock, cliffs, etc), caves, and rockshelters for ceremonial and spiritual purposes.

What type of stone structures is the project interested in?

Stone structures include (but are not limited to) cairns, stone heaps, stone mounds, rock piles, stone walls, chambers, enclosures, niches (natural or man-made), boulder features (stacked, pedestal, perched, supported, balanced, rocking, etc), effigies, stone lines springs, fish weirs, food caches, etc.

Project Editor

James Gage

info[at]StoneStructures.org

Submission Guidelines

1. Please provide a complete citation. For books please include author, title, edition, publisher, place of publication, and date. For articles appearing in journals, magazines and newspapers please include the name of the publication, article title, author, volume, issue number, and start and end page of the article. Materials from archives or library special collections should include the repository’s name and their reference number (i.e. Box ##, etc).
2. The references should be from reliable and credible sources.
3. Transcriptions of the relevant passages are appreciated but not required. Photocopies, scans, or links to digital version of the book may be submitted instead.
4. The editor will need to verify the accuracy of all quotations and transcriptions. The inclusions of photocopies, scans, or a link to digital version of the book would be very helpful.
5. For materials that are copyrighted, written permission of the copyright holder is required to quote or transcribe the materials.
6. An editorial summary will be used in place of a quotation or transcription for long articles, chapters, or copyright materials for which permission was not obtained. The author of the summary will be noted unless anonymity is requested.
7. A list of contributors will be included in the sourcebook. A contributor may request that his/her name not be included. The list will be in alphabetical order by last name.

Where to Submit

E-Mail

info@powwowriverbooks.com (10 megabytes limited per email)

U.S Mail

James Gage
Powwow River Books
163 Kimball Road
Amesbury, MA 01913-5515

Deadline

To be Announced

Publication

The editing, layout, publishing, and indexing of the Sourcebook will be handled by Powwow River Books (publisher) for free. The distribution of the book will be handled by Powwow River Books, StoneStructures.org and any other organizations and websites who may wish to partner with the project. The current plan is to distribute the Sourcebook in a free electronic format under a Creative Common License (creativecommons.org). It will also be printed in trade paperback format and sold at cost plus a small additional charge of 25 cents. This additional charge will go into an account to finance the distribution of free copies of the print edition to educational institutions like museums, libraries, and non-profits organizations.