I usually put my totems of living elders around where the circle will be, I can just see the edge of the circle, so I use that as a guide untill I can get it cleaned off. After the elder passes away, I put the totem in their grave site to mark the place whre thy were buried. If ou still want to read the tombstone, click on the bottom of the totem, and it shows what the tombstone says. Of course, I hve only had about five elders alive at once, so I dont know how far around the circle i can go. I've read a couple other people put them on the graves, too, must be popular.