Native Americans Gather for Sacred Ceremony

Chelsea Stickel Members of the Dacotah Travelers, Albert Running Wolf, left, 32, Kirk Standstraight, 21, Roger Wells, 43, and Mark Welsh, 50, drum a prayer song at Moundbuilders Country Club on Saturday. More than 100 Native Americans gathered at the country club's Octagon Earthworks mounds for a ceremony.

NEWARK -- They gathered in a circle under an autumn sky and as the fall leaves drifted downward upon them, their prayers lifted upward.

More than 100 Native Americans from more than half a dozen tribes gathered Saturday at the sacred Indian ceremonial mounds at Octagon Earthworks.

"The spirits of the sky must come together with the spirits of the Earth," said Barbara Mann, 56, of Toledo.

An Ohio Seneca elder, Mann gave a prayer that has been recited for generations whenever tribes come together for such a ceremony.

Members of tribes such as Shawnee, Cherokee, Miami, Wyandot and others gathered to spiritually cleanse themselves and to pray for healing, for the safety of those traveling and for those who are ill.

Four men held and pounded what is called a "western drum" and sang in their native tongue a song called "God have pity upon us."

Mann said as a result of ancient Indian bones being removed from the burial site, an imbalance between the Earth and the sky is bringing havoc.

"If you haven't noticed, the seasons are a mess," she said.

The remains of an estimated 10 Native Americans were once buried at the site of the current clubhouse of Moundbuilders Country Club, she said.

By the bones not being returned to the Earth, the journey of life to death is not truly complete, she explained.

"The marrow of the bones is where the Earth spirit resides. The sky spirit lives in your head. Either of those not sent off properly will create havoc," she said.

A professor at the University of Toledo, Mann said the initiative to get the remains repatriated and reburied is a national movement.

"We want the golf course taken back. We want this turned into what it was supposed to be in 1910, a public park," she said.

The Moundbuilders Country Club has a lease on the Octagon Earthworks -- part of the Newark Earthworks complex -- until 2078 from the Ohio Historical Society and operates a golf course there.

Through negotiations with the country club and OHS, tribal leaders were able to get "golf-free" days where there would be no golfing and Native Americans could hold ceremonies on the land they believe is sacred.

"We're not doing this for personal glory," Mann said.

The area woman who championed the fight for those in her tribe and other tribes is Barbara Crandell, a 74-year-old Cherokee.

At the ceremony, Crandell said: "I felt the spirit of the people and it brought tears to my eyes. This is one of the greatest days of my life."

Crandell considers the site to be public land. While on the observatory mound in June 2002, Crandell was arrested after she refused to leave while the club was open to golfing.

While maintaining her innocence, Crandell was later convicted of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor charge, and fined $250 plus court costs.

She appealed, but a higher court upheld the conviction.