You are invited to join us for our January Free Monthly Lecture on Zoom
Sunday January 19, 2025 2-3pm

Click here to register (This event is Zoom only & registration is limited)
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpduiqqzopGtDtJY8pq1pJFuN5xhIg4j0B#/registration

January '25 Lecture

ABOUT THIS MONTH'S LECTURE:
Native histories are deeply rooted 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 survival strategies that enabled Abenaki people to relocate as needed to gather resources, connect with kin, and negotiate conflict. During the French and Indian Wars, some Abenaki families joined French Catholic missions, but most remained in their homelands. During the late 1700s, provincial governors, soldiers, land speculators, and settlers (including Ethan Allen) colluded in re-writing regional history by promoting colonial settlers as the supposed first inhabitants and portraying Abenaki people as wanderers who had abandoned the territory. This talk features new research conducted for the National Park Service into archaeological records, historical archives, and other sources that document Abenaki persistence and survivance, despite past and present attempts at erasure.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
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. Her research has been supported by grants from the Five Colleges (2004), American Philosophical Society (2011), School for Advanced Research (2012), and Mellon Foundation (2021), among others. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Bruchac is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Penn, and former Associate Faculty in the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. Bruchac directs "The Wampum Trail," a restorative research project designed to reconnect wampum belts and other cultural heritage objects in museum collections with their related Indigenous communities. She has long served as a consultant to Historic Northampton, Historic Deerfield, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and Old Sturbridge Village. Her 2018 book – Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists (University of Arizona Press) – was the winner of the inaugural Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award.

A recording will be made of this presentation and available on our YouTube page (@EthanAllenHomestead) at a later date.

Event Info

Jan 7, 2025, 4 to 10 PM

Jan 11, 2025, 12 to 2 PM

Jan 12, 2025, 5:30 to 8:15 PM