A note from Joan Luster

Joan Luster, President Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut, sent this note and asked to pass it along.

Courtesy Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut, Inc.

"In case you, or anyone you know, doubt that indigenous people of New England built stone piles, we want to share the following information on "cairns"

Indians of New England built at least two types of memorials, with both brush and stone:

mehquanuma-onk = remembrance of persons, a memorial.

mehquantamoo-onk = remembrance of inanimate objects, a memorial.

Source: Natick Dictionary

A keeper of Algonquian oral history was called a mehquantouy ( one who remembers)"