Mary Pember: New Age movement threatens sacred mound

The mound is on the National Register of Historic Places and is being considered as a U.S. nominee to the UNESCO World Heritage sites. According to Glenna J. Wallace, chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, the Shawnee consider Serpent Mound a sacred site. The Eastern Shawnee were originally from Ohio but left the area along with several other tribes as part of the federal Indian Removal Act of 1830. Nine tribes removed from Ohio settled on reservations in Oklahoma; by about 1850, most had officially been “removed.” Today, there are no federally recognized tribes in Ohio. “Although we don’t claim that we built Serpent Mound, historically we respected and protected the various mounds and earthworks in Ohio,” says Wallace.

In recent years, Serpent Mound has become a mecca for New Agers. A story in the The Columbus Dispatch last year offered a glimpse into that world. The headline for the story declared, vandals admit muffin-crystal-thingie assault at serpent mound. According to the story, a group of people from the organization Unite the Collective posted a video showing people burying “what may be” hundreds of small muffin-shaped devices called orgonites in the mounds, hoping they were “[lifting] the vibration of the earth so we can all rise together.” They describe themselves as Light Warriors.