Scattered throughout the wooded uplands of the Catskill Mountains are a large number of standing lithic structures that have mostly been ignored by conventional archaeologists. Often dismissed as colonial era stone walls and field clearing piles, these formations are increasingly emerging as part of a Native American tradition of ritual building practices that reflected a sophisticated world view and sociocultural belief system. Utilizing GIS software, hundreds of sites and structures in the region have been geolocated, providing a basis for understanding these sites in their original context. This is only the first step in a larger effort to rediscover the cultural heritage and knowledge of Native Americans.

Glenn Kreisberg is an author, outdoor guide, and radio engineer, who researches archeoastronomy and landscape archaeology in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains of New York. His books include Spirits in Stone, Mysteries of the Ancient Past and Lost Knowledge of the Ancients.