This following talk was given January 30, 2023 by zoom to the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society.

Here's the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=c0VKHWxP-B4&feature=youtu.be

Feedback encouraged :)

Here is what I have discovered now that I notice, and/or follow culturally modified trees and then use the publicly available LIDAR maps to check if there is any subsurface engineered landscape (Note that I do no excavation so rely on tree falls, road cuts and erosion to determine subsurface geology).

1. Flat foundation mounds - dwelling nature unknown but road cuts show most of these mounds consist of siltstone boulders and quartz chunks and pebbling. There are usually dozens of the rectangular mounds lining only one side of the main trail and often canoe drag lines can be seen leading to them in the field and on the LIDAR
2. Harbours below the foundation mounds. Often the harbours are long dried up and very ancient.
3. Tracks of mixed siltstone quartz and granite chunks leading between monumental mounds and ancient harbours. These seem to be a way to keep water flowing all seasons using piezoelectricity. The monumental mounds may have been for water storage as erosion and road cuts often show them to be cased with siltstone and filled with quartz sand and pebbling.
4. Burials including monumental conical cremation mounds
5. Monumental Weirs
6. Monumental aquaculture ponds
7. Ceremonial areas - especially where scaffold burial trees are found - these usually do not include engineered structures but foot traffic and trampling can be confirmed on the LIDAR. But I have also found stone circles and megaliths.
8. probable very ancient village sites "serviced" with underground water engineering. These sites are more ancient than the foundation mound features mentioned above but are often in the same areas.
9. other features whose nature can only be wildly guessed at without excavation

Right now there is no official protection given to these trees on "Crown" Land or elsewhere.

Please photograph any you find out there, upload the geolocated photos to iNaturalist and add them to this project. One day your record may be the only clue we have about what lay below, and what came before.

Mary Macaulay, P.Eng.

Twist Trees - vertically twisted trees, which can be of like or dissimilar species twisted together like red licorice, are correlated with magnetic anomalies. What does this mean? If you are out in the field using a compass or google maps or any device which uses an internal compass to locate where you actually are at time of reading, you will notice the device has great difficulty pinpointing your location. If for example, you are next to an electromagnetic mound (yes these abound in Mi'kma'ki and are generally about 50 m in diameter with a moat - for Nova Scotia you can check your lidar at https://nsgi.novascotia.ca/datalocator/elevation/ - your device will cause you to circle at a set radius from the centre of the mound. If you want to get to the top of it ignore your device and walk up hill. These mounds don't take long to climb up, maybe 5 minutes, especially if you follow the trail trees that are almost always there to help you along. And yes, these mounds are cultural, not geological, as the mining people who are looting them would have you believe. Natural formations do not build themselves moats, nor borrow fill from the surrounding landscape ("borrow pits" is the archaeological term for this). Why and how are the mounds so strongly electromagnetic? Why the looting? And why are the Australian aboriginals at loggerheads with the gold miners out there? Stay tuned. Or speculate in the comments - as is your wont..

Prior to the mid-20th century L'nu'k passed along the tradition of growing and planting trail trees along their sacred pathways. Sadly, forced centralization and the kidnapping of several generations into Residential School meant L'nu'k lost the knowledge of this sacred practise.

Fieldwork suggests that each heir to this tradition was assigned his/her species in childhood, nursed them from seed somewhere (trail tree nursery?), planted them along the trail, and then over his/her lifetime culturally modified them as appropriate. These trail trees are now critically endangered in Mi'kma'ki and we are at risk of losing the knowledge of direction, seasonality and spatial significance to the landscape they represent. We welcome observations of snags, and deadfall as well as standing live examples to this project. We are still relearning how to translate this language and welcome knowledge, theory and even speculation.

What we think we know, is that the path between the forks of trail trees represented the direction, if more than one direction was indicated this was a crossroads or a turn tree. If there were many modified branches in all directions this was an arrival and/or prayer tree. Some were used as burial markers. Note: If you find what you think is a L'nu'k burial in Mi'kma'ki this should be reported to the local band. It is illegal for anyone, even an archaeologist to disturb an indigenous burial in Canada.

We only have theories for Twist trail trees. Some of them are:

1. Whistlestops? - twist trees appear on the trail tree trail as we approach signs of an indigenous village and seem to become less twisted the closer we get. 6 twists away - 6 whistles etc. So perhaps the trees were there as distance markers and/or a reminder to give a warning to villagers of your approach?
2. Trail tree ancestor burials - twist trees sometimes appear on burials with two different species. Did grandson bury grandad with his signature trail tree and then twist his own signature species in respect? We don't know. If you do, please share :)
3. Meeting place from two different directions (2 villages)

There is a lot that we don't know and continue to discover and that is the fun of this project. Please join us.