Earthshapers & Placemakers: Abenaki History in Deep Time

The physical layout of the Abenaki territory we call “Ndakinna” includes multiple waterways, valleys, mountains, rock formations, etc. that shape the contours of the land. Many of these are still known by locative terms, in the Abenaki language, that describe their physical details. Some places are also known through oral traditions that reference ancient events like glaciation, species evolution, and climate change, encoded in stories of other-than-human “earthshapers.” This talk considers how these stories expand our understandings of the time-depth of Abenaki history in this region, and continue to shape our relations to this landscape, past and present.

Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki) is Professor Emerita of Anthropology and founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research
focuses on oral traditions, museum collections, and cultural heritage, and she directs “The Wampum Trail,” a project designed to reconnect wampum belts in museums with their related Indigenous communities. Dr. Bruchac is also a member of the Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Culture. She has long served as a consultant to New England museums, including Historic Deerfield, Historic Northampton, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and Old Sturbridge Village. Her book Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists (University of Arizona Press 2018) was the winner of the inaugural Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award.

Sponsored by: Abenaki Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, Vermont Humanities, and The Vermont Arts Council