Native Sites in Ohio Named to World Heritage List
This article was published by Yes! magazine in November 2023. Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe gives the keynote speech at UNESCO’s celebration of the naming of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, in Ohio, to the prestigious World Heritage List. She is seen here at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Photo courtesy Ohio History Connection. “My im med iate reaction is to shout, and shout with joy,” Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma told attendees at a September UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The United Nations agency had just named the ancient Indigenous-made Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to its prestigious World Heritage list. At the same time, Wallace said, she was humbled and honored that the world had finally acknowledged her ancestors’ achievements. The eight earthworks complexes in central and southern Ohio join nearly 1,2