If you were born and raised in Ohio and worked your way through school here, you probably remember learning about our history of indigenous people and the earthworks left behind by native tribes.

Many of the names of Ohio cities, towns, lakes and rivers draw from that heritage. At least 14 counties in the state draw from Native American words, including Ashtabula (Algonquian), Coshocton (Delaware) and Pickaway (Shawnee). Other counties, such as Huron, Ottawa, Seneca, Tuscarawas and Wyandot are named for tribes that once called parts of Ohio home.

Three ancient mounds are less than an hour from the Mahoning Valley.

Two are in nearby Ashtabula County. In Conneaut, the Indian Mound Metropark is located at 431 Mill Road. In Andover Township — also known as West Andover — the Owens Mound is off Stanhope Kelloggsville Road, off U.S. Route 6 west of Pymatuning Valley High School and the village of Andover.

In Columbiana County, the Negley Indian Mounds are located in the unincorporated community of Negley, in Middleton Township. They are near the intersection of Walnut and Commerce streets.

Other parts of Ohio also feature impressive ancient mounds and efforts are underway to preserve and protect them. There are still spots in the Buckeye State where Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks have been protected. They are so important, the earthworks became Ohio’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

As part of Ohio World Heritage Week April 11-18, events in Newark, Heath, Columbus and Chillicothe will spotlight these treasures. There are still eight sites, managed by the Ohio History Connection and National Park Service, that stand as monuments to the people who built them approximately 2,000 years ago.

“Every World Heritage Day is an opportunity to recognize the local, national and international significance of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks,” Ohio History Connection Executive Director and CEO Megan Wood said, according to a report by the Newark Advocate. “During World Heritage Week, we are pleased to showcase these masterpieces of ancient landscape architecture built by American Indians.”

Those include Great Circle Earthworks in Heath, Fort Ancient Earthworks in Oregonia, Octagon Earthworks in Newark, Seip Earthworks in Bainbridge, Mound City Group in Chillicothe and High Bank Works (between the Hopeton Earthworks and Mound City).

“The sheer scale of these structures, along with their meticulous alignment with the movements of the sun and moon, tells the story of a culture with sophisticated knowledge of geometry and astronomy that they build onto the land through earthworks and mounds,” according to Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks website.

During next week’s opportunity to showcase them, Ohioans and out-of-staters alike will be eager to learn more about that culture and the marks it made on the land and who we are as a country today.