Chillicothe, Ohio, and the Glacial Edge — A leading interpreter and citizen of the Shawnee spoke about his nation’s prehistory, history, culture, and connection to ancestral landscapes.
Talon Silverhorn returned to Chillicothe and the World Heritage Hopewell Earthworks Ross County, in a free event hosted by the Friends of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park and Ohio University Chillicothe. He has been busy at Ohio’s newest and 76th park, “Great Council State Park” near Xenia.
Silverhorn spoke for more than an hour to an audience of about 60 in Bennett Hall Auditorium, showing educational slides and QR codes, before taking questions and chatting.
He said his title “Copper and Maple” refers to a cyclical relationship with the land – with maple sugaring at the time of rebuilding and coming out of winter camps – while copper is a sacred ancestral material, with astronomical implications.
Silverhorn covered permaculture and unsustainability over 20,000 years in a “timeline of tribal identity and relationship to the landscape.”
He started with life along the ancient glacial edge, then fast-forwarded to the Adena and Hopewell, and considered the urban cultures of Cahokia and Mexico and how they collapsed even before European arrival.
He ended with the cost of trading with European culture, and a hopeful future of tribal nations encouraging sustainability with ancestral crops.
Silverhorn said he wanted to offer a foundational reframing of his own history – and he avoided the typical warfare history, focusing on an ethnological and ecological view – which he pointed out as he answered a question on Tecumseh.
The event was not recorded, but Silverhorn said he would share a reading list with the Friends of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. He said much of his content is also covered at Great Council State Park.
Hear him in his own words – and see his dog named after maple sugar – in the below interview video.
From the Friends of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park:
“Talon Silverhorn is a Citizen of The Eastern Shawnee Tribe and has been an interpreter since 2007. He grew up on the Shawnee Reservation in Oklahoma and participated in traditional aspects of his culture, such as ceremonies, hunting traditions, and material arts. Up to this point, Talon has interpreted at historic sites and museums across the U.S. and Canada, focusing on material culture and its connection to deeper cultural beliefs.”
Learn more in the Facebook pages of the Friends of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, as well as their websites. Also find the website and Facebook page of Great Council State Park.
Also, from 1:00 to 3:30pm today, see Navajo Dancers, and hear some of the legacy of General William T. Sherman in Bennett Hall.
“Ohio University Chillicothe is honored to host the Dineh’Tah Dancers, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who will perform traditional dances of the Dineh people. (These dances have been modified to respect the actual songs and dances used in sacred religious ceremonies.)
“A representative from the Dineh’Tah group will begin the performance with an Ohio history related presentation on General William T. Sherman and his role in peace treaties through the Indian Peace Commission of 1867-1868.”
