The East Montpelier and Calais Historical Societies will meet on Monday, October 21 at the Old Brick Church in East Montpelier Village at 6:00 p.m. for a potluck supper (optional) followed by an intriguing program introduced below. If you plan to attend the supper, please bring a dish to share and your own place setting. Warm beverages will be provided.

The program will start at 6:45. It is free and very accessible. For inquiries contact Sandal at this email address.

"Murder in Plain Sight? An Abenaki/Settler Mystery on the Vermont Frontier" presented by Damian Costello.

This talk comes out of a murder story found in the history of Montpelier that I unexpectedly discovered researching the history of my community. The story is not part of the public telling of our history and is excellent for helping to flesh out northern New England Native and early American history in a new, more nuanced way.

The basic story can be found in this article:
https://montpelierbridge.org/2022/01/classic-montpelier-histories-show-deep-abenaki-presence/

Calling all genealogists, local historians, and amateur detectives! This program will examine an unsolved story of murder from Central Vermont. Local history briefly records that in 1790, the original American settler to the Montpelier area, Jacob Fowler, killed an unnamed "Indian" in a dispute over a trapline.

We will reconstruct the biographies of the two participants through historical documents, genealogical work, and the fiction of local historian D.P. Thompson and explore the bigger questions of this formative time in Vermont history. Audience participation and expertise is encouraged.

Damian Costello received his Ph.D. in theological studies from the University of Dayton and specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology, Indigenous spiritual traditions, and colonial history. He is an international expert on the life and legacy of Nicholas Black Elk and the author of Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism. Costello was born and raised in Vermont and his work is informed by many years of ethnographic work on the Navajo Nation. Costello serves the director of postgraduate studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, an Indigenous designed and delivered ATS accredited graduate school.

Event Info

Nov 22, 2024, 7 to 8 PM

Nov 23, 2024, 5 to 9 PM

Nov 24, 2024, 4 to 5:20 PM