Calling all genealogists, local historians and amateur detectives! "Murder in Plain Sight? An Abenaki/Settler Mystery on the Vermont Frontier" will be presented by Damian Costello at the Monday, October 21, meeting of the Calais and East Montpelier Historical Societies, 6:45 pm at the Old Brick Church, 60 Church Street, East Montpelier. Damian will examine an unsolved story of murder from Central Vermont. All are invited.
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. The biographies of the two participants will be reconstructed through historical documents, genealogical work and the fiction of local historian D.P. Thompson and will explore the bigger questions of this formative time in Vermont history.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.
Damien was born and raised in Vermont and his work is informed by many years of ethnographic work on the Navajo Nation. He serves as director of postgraduate studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community (formerly the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies), an Indigenous designed and delivered accredited graduate school.
A potluck supper will take place at 6:00 with the program starting at 6:45.
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