Speaker Series: Encountering Ndakinna: Reconsidering Abenaki History in Vermont and New Hampshire

New Speaker Series Zoom Presentation: Encountering Ndakinna: Reconsidering Abenaki History in Vermont and New Hampshire

Indigenous histories are deeply rooted in northern New England, particularly in present-day Vermont and New Hampshire, a region collectively known to Abenaki people as Ndakinna (“our homeland”). Early colonial explorers recognized the abundant natural resources that made this territory so hospitable, but failed to recognize the complexities of Abenaki foodways and lifeways. The inherently fluid and flexible structure of family bands, the seasonal nature of homesites, and the ready access to travel routes enabled people to strategically relocate as needed to gather resources, adapt to climatic change, and evade conflict. In the late 1600s, in the aftermath of King Philip’s War, many Native refugees from the middle Connecticut River valley relocated northward in diaspora, seeking refuge in Abenaki territory. During the French and Indian Wars, some Abenaki and other Native refugees joined new inter-tribal settlements organized around French Catholic missions, further confusing the picture of the past. During the late 1700s, provincial governors, soldiers, land speculators, and settlers alike colluded in re-writing regional history by promoting the notion that colonial settlers were the first permanent inhabitants and Abenaki people were wanderers who had abandoned the territory. This talk features new research into archaeological records, historical archives, and other sources that document Abenaki persistence and survivance, despite past and present attempts at erasure.

Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki) – in her multi-modal career as a performer, ethnographer, historian, and museum consultant – has long been committed to critical analyses of colonial histories and recoveries of Indigenous histories. She holds a BA in Theater and History from Smith College, and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Bruchac is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, and Associate Faculty in the Penn Cultural Heritage Center (https://anthropology.sas.upenn.edu/people/margaret-bruchac). Her research has been supported by grants from the American Philosophical Society (2011), School for Advanced Research (2012), and Mellon Foundation (2021), among others. Since 2014, she has directed “The Wampum Trail,” a restorative research project designed to reconnect wampum belts in museum collections with their related Indigenous communities (https://wampumtrail.wordpress.com/). 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 Northampton, Historic Deerfield, 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 (https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/savage-kin).

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