![]() “One of the things I’ve studied is the way national museums around the world tell people their own histories,” she said. Weiser, who studies rhetoric, believes that Americans can be divorced from the history of our country and that the earthworks are a key piece to re-narrating that story. The book is one step, but we need a more comprehensive approach.” “But our site needs interpretation for people to understand it. “People come to World Heritage Sites,” she said. The UNESCO title doesn’t come with any money, Weiser said, but the designation does generate tourism dollars, which can go toward new facilities and learning aids. This makes the preservation of the Hopewell Ceremonial sites that much more important. “You’re bringing people from all over.”Īt one time, there were as many as 600 sites in Ohio that had earthworks, but with the removals of Indigenous people as European settlers moved farther west, many sites were damaged or destroyed. “This site was clearly attracting visitors, pilgrims, tourists, in the same way that a medieval cathedral would,” Weiser said. Sites like the Newark Earthworks served as cultural and spiritual gathering points for Hopewell participants from across the country. Hopewell refers to an Indigenous movement that took hold in eastern North America around 2,000 years ago. “In addition to Ohio State faculty, we had staff from the Ohio History Connection, local and state people who’ve been involved for decades, Native Americans with ancestral ties to the site, even Ohio’s former First Lady Hope Taft.” This summer she, Shiels, and local historian Timothy Jordan published a book gathering together the reflections, teachings, and photos of 25 of those key supporters. “I’m the smallest cog in this,” Weiser said. The center was founded by Richard Shiels, emeritus associate professor in the Department of History, and Marti Chaatsmith (Comanche/Choctaw), associate director of the center, and is now directed by John Low (Pokagon Band of Potawatomi), associate professor in the Department of American Indian Studies. ![]() Ohio State’s Newark Earthworks Center has played an integral role in uniting diverse supporters to promote the significance of the Hopewell efforts. Department of the Interior that applied in March of 2022, many Newark colleagues, like Weiser, contributed time and talent behind the scenes. The effort to earn that title was over a quarter century in the making, Weiser said, and involved support from organizations all over the state. Other World Heritage Sites include the Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef and Stonehenge. In September, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks sites, which includes the Newark Earthworks, became Ohio’s first UNESCO site and just the 25th in the United States. “I’d heard about it for decades.”Īt the time, that was a rare request for an English professor, but almost 20 years after her first visit to Newark, Weiser could celebrate these same earthworks earning World Heritage status from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “I said, ‘You know, I’d like to see the Newark Earthworks,’” said Weiser, a distinguished professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the Newark campus. She declined both in favor of something else. When Elizabeth Weiser came to Newark to interview for a job at The Ohio State University’s regional campus, she was offered a tour of local neighborhoods and schools. ![]()
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