"(The Indians) were not industrious, neither have art, science, skill, or faculty to use either the land or commodities of it; but all spoils, rots, and is marred for want of manuring, gathering, ordering etc....(The Indians) do but run over the grass as do the foxes and wild beasts."
Robert Cushman
Reasons and Considerations Touching the Lawfullness of
Removing Out of England and into the Parts of America (1621)
 

In May of 1996, I followed a pair of zigzag stone rows built along the riparian zone of a stream that supplied water to a village known as "The Fresh Water Fishing Place in the Middle." Local histories document this village as being occupied from "the time of first settlement," 1659, to about possibly 1734, when "the purchase" was divided into "homelotts." At that point in time I had been puzzling for six years about the great number of zigzag stone rows I’d been finding in this and other places in the Western Connecticut town I was living in.

I eventually ended up in a swamp, also bounded by the remnants of zigzag rows, on the hillside above the village. Inside of the row, along both stream and swamp, were many stone piles or mounds, often on the north side of boulders. I noticed a large stone perched on one of the largest of boulders. It’s color, like that of old bones, caught my eye. I pushed aside the wild roses and blackberry canes to take a closer look.
 

 
There were actually two stones on the five foot long, four foot wide flat boulder. The larger appeared to me to be a life sized bear’s head, a pecked, ground, and polished "sculpture" that rocked when touched. The other was an oddly shaped stone, that seemed to have pit marks on it’s upper surface. A friend of mine, Matin Ariola, said that the marks reminded him of the base part of a drill type of fire starter. That remined me of an illustration in Frank G. Speck’s "Delaware Big House Ceremony." This created a "pure fire," as opposed to one started with flint and steel or matches.
 

Looking for a connection to Native Traditions concerning fire and bears, I found this by Gladys Tantaquidgeon in "Folk Medicine of the Delaware and Related Algonkian Indians (1972,1995)" (pg. 60):

      "Wild animals, as pointed out by F.G. Speck (1931: 28-29), are in general considered to exist in clan relationship with humans. The latter are said to be "kings among animals." Clean pure animals of the forest are referred to in terms of human relationship and their spirits must be propitiated before they can be sought for food. If the supernaturals are appeased through sacrifices, the animals will allow themselves to be taken, but if the proper ceremonies are not carried out, they can never be approached by humans. Therefore, a hunter is obliged to pray and sacrifice tobacco before starting on the hunt...
The Delaware consider the bear and deer to be the greatest of all animals. The bear is also called "Our Grandfather." Both animals are considered closely akin to the Indian, but the Delaware believe that the bear has the most human-like traits..."
 
My best guess is that the Bear’s Head Stone is a Tobacco Sacrifice Stone. Histories of the Saybrook, CT area include mention of Obed and "Obed's Sacrifice Rock." Obed appears to have been a "son of a Hammonassett Chief; and after the subjugation of the Pequot, a servant to Gov. Fenwick: that Fenwick did give him...two acres more or less near the confluences of Pychaug & Menunketezuck rivers, known as Obed's Homake." He later lived near Springbrook Rd, "passing most of his time in the retirement of his wigwam or the solitude of the chase." Obed's Sacrifice Rock was a boulder "contiguous" to his "aboriginal structure." The author continues to write in a language somewhat similar to American English, "Upon this symbol of pristine faith, was kindled from time to time, a fire which consumed the sacrifices tendered, with sweet incense from bay and birch; mingled with the fumes of tobacco."

I think this translates to something similar to: "On a boulder near his wigwam, Obed would burn a tobacco-mixture called kinnickinnnick, following a tradition that can be traced to the Lenni Lenape, as recorded by Gladys Tantaquidgeon and Frank Speck." My friend Wendell Deer With Horns uses shells in which to burn tobacco, so with this in mind, I brought a quahog shell and some tobacco up to the Stone. I gathered some juniper bark on the way to place upon the base stone, as tinder.

The edge of the shell fit perfectly to the rounded edge of the base stone. I imagined that once the tinder was smoldering, it was swept onto the tobacco in the shell.
There is a depression on top of the Bear’s head that seemed a likely place for the shell, once the tobacco was burning. I placed the shell in this depressionn and turned it until it fell into place with an audible click.
 

 
 
On another nearby boulder, Mr. David Wagner noticed this deer’s head shaped stone that I imagine was used the same way. Rather than in a depression in the Deer’s head, I found that the stone to the right of the effigie had been pecked to accept the quahog shell.
 
On the hillside on the opposite side of the floodplain, about a half-mile away, I came upon another possible Deer’s head on a large boulder. It’s about the same size as the other, but has since been removed. (When I asked the property owner if I could photograph this stone, he told me of rumors of a Bigfoot-like creature in the area. See: Mesingw & Bigfoot.)
 
A much larger possible Elk or Moose Head on a remnant of Zigzag Stone Row by my workshop.
 
Another Bear’s head found at the top of a large mound. Note the eye on the left, possibly scratched into the stone with a metal tool or a nail, while the other seems to be a natural feature of the stone.