Last updated: February 27, 2023
Place
Welcome Message
Photo courtesy Eastern Shawnee Tribe
You are about to discover a little-known wonder of the ancient world. Hopeton Earthworks is one of five Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks managed by the National Park Service near Chillicothe, Ohio. These earthworks were recently recently nominated to the World Heritage List along with two other Ohio earthworks managed by the Ohio History Connection: Fort Ancient and Newark Earthworks. These American Indian monuments will be recognized as masterpieces of human creative genius, alongside Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall of China. If you're not familiar with these amazing earthworks, you're not alone!
Read on as Chief Glenna J. Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma tells the story of her first encounter with the Ohio earthworks, and invites us to join her in a journey of discovery:
"I am a world traveler, having journeyed to many impressive sites in more than seventy countries. Ohio is one of the ancestral homes of the Shawnee people, who came from the east and lived in the Ohio Valley for three hundred years – long before American settlement. The first time I saw the Hopewell earthworks in Newark, I experienced a shock of disbelief. I had never heard of any of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks! Yet, there before me lay an extensive, intricate array of earthen walls and landscapes - earthworks built by Native Americans nearly two thousand years ago, carrying one basketful at a time. These places embody precision and beauty, containing mathematical complexities in their design and astronomical alignments to the sky.
My Shawnee ancestors protected and preserved them so we can appreciate them today. The day I first visited Newark, I made a commitment to learn all I could about all of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, to teach others about them, and to preserve them. Join me!"
Read on as Chief Glenna J. Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma tells the story of her first encounter with the Ohio earthworks, and invites us to join her in a journey of discovery:
"I am a world traveler, having journeyed to many impressive sites in more than seventy countries. Ohio is one of the ancestral homes of the Shawnee people, who came from the east and lived in the Ohio Valley for three hundred years – long before American settlement. The first time I saw the Hopewell earthworks in Newark, I experienced a shock of disbelief. I had never heard of any of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks! Yet, there before me lay an extensive, intricate array of earthen walls and landscapes - earthworks built by Native Americans nearly two thousand years ago, carrying one basketful at a time. These places embody precision and beauty, containing mathematical complexities in their design and astronomical alignments to the sky.
My Shawnee ancestors protected and preserved them so we can appreciate them today. The day I first visited Newark, I made a commitment to learn all I could about all of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, to teach others about them, and to preserve them. Join me!"