Cairn mound created to pay homage to Native Americans who hunted and lived on this hill

This is a picture of where I placed my cairn mound. It is placed above the head of the Thunderbird. I didn't plan on creating any of this. But when I was raking rocks off the trails, I started pulling up big slabs of limestone. I thought these were cool so I started collecting them and knew I could create something. Since this is a documented 4,300-year-old Native American quarry site with the state of Texas, I thought a cairn mound would be perfect! Heck, I had plenty of rocks to work with. Of course, after that came the Thunderbird!

I created the border first and then filled it with dirt and smaller rocks.

These are the limestone slabs I pulled up, which I placed on top of the mound.

This portion of limestone slab that juts out of the side is used to put objects on as offerings, such as tobacco, herbs and stones. From my research of Native American cairn burial sites, the spirit of the person buried can leave the underworld through an opening in the ground. So I dug a small opening that goes from underneath the offering table and  the mound connecting the two creating  a portal to both worlds of the living and the dead. Remember, it's symbolic.

The ends face north and south and the center west and east with this view facing west, where the sunset is perfectly aligned with the mound in the summer.

Finished...