Beattie Park in downtown Rockford is more than just a public green space. It's home to groups of mounds created by Native American tribes as a place of gathering, peace, and burial. Indigenous people still meet there.
Juanita MacVenn is the treasurer of Rockford'sNative American Awareness Committee, or NAAC.
Her late husband, Mac "Spotted Horse," helped form the committee. He passed in 2017.
The NAAC began the "Honor The Mounds" event which took place Aug. 10.
"It's not a Pow Wow," said MacVenn. "It's called a gathering because it's a teaching place, too."
The day started off with dancing, as part of the Grand Entry, to an honor song played by the main drum, according to MacVenn. It's followed by demonstrations, an honoring of veterans, group dances, and traditional performances.
MacVenn has Cherokee, Blackfoot, and Shawnee roots. She said the Indian part of her identity is what's most important to her.
"A lot of people in Rockford have native heritage," she said. "But they were told as kids, 'Don’t tell anybody.'"
She's one of hundreds of people who gathered in the public park for the 24th annual mound gathering.
Shannon Fie is an associate professor of anthropology at Beloit College who specializes in Midwest archeology. She said most effigy mounds were made as early as 600 AD up to around 1100 AD.
"What we understand as effigy mounds are primarily a Midwest phenomena," she said.
She said Native American communities rooted in Illinois were heavily relocated throughout the modern historic era.
Fie noted a diversity of reasoning behind the creation of mounds depending on the tribes who made them: "Different parts of the Midwest see different patterns in the representation of different [animal shaped mounds]."
Beloit College has acollection of more than twenty mounds, she said, that are located in the middle of campus. And she's seen more involvement from students to protect and acknowledge them. The college is situated on land once inhabited by the Sac, Fox, Ho-Chunk, and Potawatomi.
Back in Rockford's Beattie Park, they look like small abrupt hills. But they're a collection of specific shapes like a circle (or conical mound), a linear form (or linear mound), and a turtle.
"First off, we're trying to protect the mounds like the one with the tall plants on them," said MacVenn as she motioned toward a large rise and highlighted erosion. "That's a turtle effigy mound. And we're having trouble with the mowers because they keep moving the head down."
The Burpee Museum,Rockford Park District, and engaged community members have played a part in preservation efforts since the land was donated to the city in the 1920s.
MacVenn said not all mounds have been saved. North Main Manor, an apartment complex, was built on a bird effigy mound used as a burial site, she said.
"There are mounds along the Rock River going south, there are some going north," she said.
Preserved sites are considered to be sacred ground and can become places of gathering and celebration of Native American culture. MacVenn says people visit here from across the country, and only a fraction of mounds have been protected throughout the centuries.
A small fire surrounded by cedar branches arranged in a circle burns on a pile of stones near the arena where people dance.
It's kept by Thunder Ruthven from Brookfield.
"This is a place to get recentered, to get back into that spiritual mode and push away the nonsense of the day," he said.
He said this fire is the spiritual center of the gathering, and the area is shaped like a circle to represent strength, cycles of life, and the seasons.
"Normally, a female would be teaching these things, I'm sharing what little I know so we can facilitate what we need," he said.
Ruthven identifies as Anishinaabe Métis.
"When we're approaching the fire, we're doing it as a place of prayer. A place for our ceremonies," said Ruthven.
People enter the circle shape to offer tobacco into the fire, or to walk in reflection. He said drummers tighten up loose drum skins in the fire's heat, and dancers will consecrate themselves and their regalia, or traditional dress.
"When the drums come in, they come here and they consecrate themselves in the smoke of the fire," he said.
Ruthven said he uses the opportunity as overseer of the fire to educate. He said he'd like to see people learn directly from multiple Native American elders more often than they might from textbooks because many were written by non-Natives. Ruthven noted that caused information to be misinterpreted or miscommunicated in the past.
"So go to the source. It's good to learn some things out of books. But remember, there's missing pieces," he said.
For Ruthven, being involved in the Native American community and culture in northern Illinois brings him stability.
"Especially nowadays, there's a lot of divisions between the different groups that comprise what America is. This brings balance for me. It brings perspective back to me," he said.
Len Badillo was the emcee. He's White Mountain Apache, born in Chicago. He said he practices Ute traditions, and is one of the spiritual leaders of the Awareness Committee.
"It's sacred area we have [at Beattie Park]. It's like a cemetery, if you think about it," he said. "You know, you don't want to go in a cemetery and rip it up and build a highrise."
He said the meaning of the gathering is greater than just the mound honoring; it's all about sharing traditions.
"So this is our way of life and we'd like to share it right now," he said. Badillo pointed out that indigenous people like Native Americans or American Indians are at the heart of protecting and taking care of threatened natural environments, water, and animals.
He said the committee is looking for more volunteers. Badillo said they hold monthly meetings and ceremonies like sweat lodges and are working to develop and manage a native village in Lockwood Park. MacVenn said it recently sustained damage from a fire.
"That's why we do this, to make the people aware of what we're doing. They have a good time here, maybe they come and help," Badillo said.
Daniel Many Hawks was born in Rockford and identifies as Ojibwa. For him, honoring the mounds is about respecting their past and future.
"We want to see them preserved. We ask that you do not walk on them as it wears them down a little bit and we ask that great efforts are made to preserve them," he said.
Many Hawks noted what he called a cedar tree planted close to the mounds, surrounded by wood chips. Many Hawks said it's spiritually significant as a place to offer something like tobacco. Emotions, thoughts, and prayers are all represented in tobacco offerings.
"So when you can offer that to the base of the tree, the spirits are hearing that. They’re familiar with that. They know that. And that's offered in many different ways. But that's what the tree is here for," he said.
He says he's extremely proud of his heritage, and is here to support those who've brought their traditions to the forefront as well. He commended the Awareness Committee for making that space.
"This group continues to do something good to educate on our culture, to give the people something to come to. Maybe get the people to start caring again. So I'm here to support that," he said.
He said he feels a responsibility to be an educator because there's always more to learn:
"There's so much. You have to realize that any of this information is not the end. This information continues forever to be built upon, just like the fire."
If someone thinks they've found a mound in Illinois, Professor Fie said they should contact an expert.
"If you suspect you have a mound on your property, or human remains of any kind, you should contact the State Historic Preservation Office," she said. "It is illegal to disturb a burial, whether it's modern or prehistoric."