STONE LANGUAGE – An American Abenaki Bioculture Seminar Series

10:00 AM-3:30 PM
Community Room, The Vermont History Center 60 Washington St., Barre, VT

Upcoming seminar schedule:

• 2026 TOPICS TBA – Hold these dates: January 10, February 14, April 11, and May 9

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December’s seminar will be a focused discussion of the Conservancy collection in the Vermont History Center by its founder, Dr. Fred Wiseman, who will discuss its history and the cultural  learning that happened along the way in the accumulation of this important material heritage and legacy.  This collection covers a little known culture region — Vermont, New Hampshire and Western Maine; and time period (mostly 1790-1970) — and so the joys and pitfalls of working in an intellectual vacuum will be explored.

Over the decades, Dr. Wiseman found that provenance, the documented origin (place of original use) became the most important attribute of an object sitting in an antique dealers shop or the auction block. As time went on, through a process of acquisition, study and reselling questionable items, Wiseman began to see patterns and similarities that demonstrated a regional “American Abenaki Style” in items such as beadwork and basketry, as well as the documented historical presence of more cosmopolitan indigenous items such as basketry fish traps, and “Niagara-style” beadwork that confirm a culturally complex Indian presence in the region.

Recently the collection has emerged as a bedrock source of Vermont Abenaki pride in their history and culture in a time when these precious commodities are under assault.  There will be time for discussion during and after the introductory PowerPoint lecture and examinations of the collection in the Historical Society’s Research and Exhibition Gallery.