Post by sader1970 on Jun 9, 2022 10:04:15 GMT -5
From the T&G:
www.telegram.com/story/news/2022/06/09/indigenous-peoples-point-enduring-presence-worcester-county/10001104002/?utm_source=telegram-DailyBriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=list_article_headline&utm_content=NTEG-MASSACHUSETTS-WORCESTER-NLETTER65
Into the city's fabric: Indigenous peoples point to enduring presence in Worcester
Henry Schwan
Telegram & Gazette
[picture of Holy Cross] The College of the Holy Cross campus in Worcester, occupying the former Pakachoag settlement.
WORCESTER – As Worcester kicks off a yearlong celebration of its 300th birthday with this weekend's Tercentennial celebration, the Indigenous community is remembered as woven into the city’s fabric.
Cheryl Dinsdale traces her family to Nipmuc peoples who lived in the 1800s in what is today Sturbridge. Dinsdale, 51, lived most of her life in Worcester before she recently moved out of the city, and feels many people don’t know that Indigenous descendants still live in the Worcester area.
“People make assumptions, that we’re Hispanic, this or that. I see a lot of people who don’t even realize (descendants of Indigenous peoples) are still here,” said Dinsdale, who plans to march in Saturday’s Tercentennial Parade in downtown Worcester.
To spread awareness of Indigenous presence in Worcester, Dinsdale thinks the city should sponsor events, like powwows, that highlight Indigenous cultures.
An "ugly" history that marks Indigenous perseverance is how John “Jim” Peters, Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, paints Worcester's 300th anniversary and the Native communities' place in it.
“Nipmuc peoples have always been in the Worcester area,” said Peters. “It’s been a very ugly history. Since (the English settlers) put Nipmuc peoples on boats and sent them to Deer Island (internment camps in the 1600s during King Philip’s War), many died there.
“(Nipmucs) have been continuously in that (Worcester) area. They’ve been quiet for a number of years. They just continue their existence, continue to be affected by the colonization."
[picture of Doughton] ]Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, challenges the narrative that the Indigenous in Worcester vanished through the ages due to diseases and encroachments brought on by the white settlers.
“Those of us who are historians, there are well-established people (of Native heritage) living in the Worcester area, Worcester County, Northern Connecticut and the general area,” said Doughton, who said he is of Native heritage.
Doughton serves on Worcester's Tercentennial Committee and is on a subcommittee that will produce a commemorative book for the city's 300th birthday and a new Worcester history.
The Indigenous settled in three main areas of what is today Worcester, according to Doughton – Asnebumskit Hill, the area of Worcester, Leicester and Paxton near Worcester Regional Airport; Wigwam Hill by Lake Quinsigamond; and Pakachoag, an area along the Worcester/Auburn border that includes Quinsigamond Village and the College of the Holy Cross.
Long before Worcester’s establishment as a town 300 years ago, Indigenous peoples found the area a desirable place to put down roots because of an extensive river system. They subsequently cleared lands for trails and farming.
When English settlers arrived in the interior lands in the 1600s, they found the area ripe for settlement, largely because lands had already been cleared.
'Praying Towns'
Puritan missionary John Eliot spread Christianity to the Indigenous peoples in the 1600s, and established the first of several “Praying Towns” in Natick. Other praying communities followed, including Hassanamesit in what is today Grafton and Pakachoag in Worcester.
Published reports indicates modern Worcester occupies a portion of an 8-mile-square territory set aside in 1667 for future settlement by the Colonial legislature, known at the time as the General Court.
In 1674, English settlers arrived at the north end of Lake Quinsigamond, near modern Plantation and Lincoln streets, an ideal location because the land was already cleared.
The settlement was destroyed by Indians in 1675 as part of King Philip’s War, an Indigenous uprising to push the English out of their native lands.
The uprising failed, many Indigenous were killed, disbanded to other territories or sold into slavery. Others remained, integrated into the community and built lives.
As for when the name “Worcester” came to be, that occurred in 1684 when English settlers returned to Quinsigamond. They chose an area in the vicinity of Lincoln Square, Main Street and the present Worcester Common.
The area was abandoned in 1702 due to fears of Indian attacks during Queen Anne’s War, and was resettled in 1713.
A Native urban community grew in Worcester in the 1800s. In 1840, seven households of Native heritage with total of 32 people represented more than 20% of all "colored" people in Worcester, according to reports.
Jump ahead to 1870, and there were 93 people in 22 Native families, representing 18% of Worcester's population. That same year, Natives reported working in several occupations, including laborers, barbers, stoneworkers, hardware store workers, farmers, waiters and carpenters.
'Problematic'
Many published accounts refer to Indigenous Nipmuc peoples who populated areas from New Hampshire and Vermont, down through Worcester County and into Northeastern Connecticut and Northern Rhode Island.
Doughton said his historical research indicates that while separate groups of Indigenous peoples lived in those areas, there was never a Nipmuc tribe or nation.
“Whether they constituted a tribe or nation is problematic. There is nothing that I am aware of in the historical record to substantiate an alleged Nipmuc nation in the 18th century.
“As a historian, I have not seen any historical justification for even using the term Nipmuc in an historical context. I think, based on material I have seen, Nipmuc in the 17th century refers to geographical space and not people in a nation or tribe.
"There have been people of Native heritage living consistently in Worcester since contact (by English settlers) in the 17th century....Nipmuc is actually a recent reflection on a Native American past.”
Peters disagrees with Doughton’s assessment.
For one, Peters said it’s inaccurate to compare Indigenous ways of life to the government structures of the Europeans who took Native lands.
“(The Nipmuc) were hunters and gatherers. They lived in groups of families that moved from one place to another, camps in winter and summer," said Peters.
“They were all related in those areas, lived together and separate. It was a different structure than the example of Europe. You can’t compare those in the same way.”
Doughton's assessment of no Nipmuc nation or tribe is also based on his comparison to other tribes. He said what people call Nimpuc were communities of people with a shared heritage.
That is different, Doughton said, compared to citizens in a Native American nation, like the Penobscot or the Wampanoag in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
“The situation of people from the Central Massachusetts area is very different and not really comparable,” he said.
On that point, Peters said colonization destroyed the structures of different tribal groups, and the Indigenous people were forced into a different way of life.
Currently, Nipmuc Nation is not recognized as a federal tribe by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Court appeals are challenging that decision, said Peters.
An executive order by former Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1976 indicated Massachusetts never ceased to recognize its Indigenous tribes. It also spells out that state agencies will deal directly with the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribal Council in Grafton on matters affecting the Nipmuc Tribe.
According to Peters, the Hassanamisco have always been recognized in its relations with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Integral role
With this weekend’s full lineup to celebrate Worcester’s 300th birthday, Doughton explained Indigenous peoples have played an integral role throughout Worcester’s history.
One challenge to recognize it is Native peoples are often blended into a “people of color” category that doesn’t highlight specific Indigenous accomplishments.
More:Black History Trail comes to life in Worcester; story told of historical contributions
One such accomplishment is part of the Worcester Black History Trail. Officially unveiled last week, the trail includes five public markers, including one at May and Westfield streets that describe the 18th-century residence of the Afro-Indian Hemenway family.
The family was involved in the abolitionist movement, and one of its members, Alexander Hemenway, was a sergeant in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first unit of Black soldiers that fought for the Union in the Civil War.
Future in Worcester
As for what the future holds for the Indigenous descendants in Worcester, Doughton said the community will continue to make significant contributions in the city.
“Those of us with Native heritage in Worcester are part of a community of shared experience based on long-standing kinship interactions. That has meant our forebears have been a community and remain a community.”
For Love Richardson, liaison and public relations representative for the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council, Native peoples are survivors.
"We would not be here today if not for our ancestors. Horrible things were done to us. We've been survivors. We're still here, still living and breathing," said Richardson.
Dinsdale mentioned more events are needed, like the powwow hosted earlier this month in Rutland by the Worcester Inter-Tribal Indian Center, to spread awareness that Indigenous peoples and their cultures are alive and well in the Worcester area.
Peters wants all to know that Native peoples aren't going anywhere, despite a difficult past.
“We’ve always been here, expanded in Worcester and the Central Massachusetts area,” he said. “If it wasn’t for (English) boats coming here, we would have been quite an extensive network of people.”
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram
Henry Schwan
Telegram & Gazette
[picture of Holy Cross] The College of the Holy Cross campus in Worcester, occupying the former Pakachoag settlement.
WORCESTER – As Worcester kicks off a yearlong celebration of its 300th birthday with this weekend's Tercentennial celebration, the Indigenous community is remembered as woven into the city’s fabric.
Cheryl Dinsdale traces her family to Nipmuc peoples who lived in the 1800s in what is today Sturbridge. Dinsdale, 51, lived most of her life in Worcester before she recently moved out of the city, and feels many people don’t know that Indigenous descendants still live in the Worcester area.
“People make assumptions, that we’re Hispanic, this or that. I see a lot of people who don’t even realize (descendants of Indigenous peoples) are still here,” said Dinsdale, who plans to march in Saturday’s Tercentennial Parade in downtown Worcester.
To spread awareness of Indigenous presence in Worcester, Dinsdale thinks the city should sponsor events, like powwows, that highlight Indigenous cultures.
An "ugly" history that marks Indigenous perseverance is how John “Jim” Peters, Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, paints Worcester's 300th anniversary and the Native communities' place in it.
“Nipmuc peoples have always been in the Worcester area,” said Peters. “It’s been a very ugly history. Since (the English settlers) put Nipmuc peoples on boats and sent them to Deer Island (internment camps in the 1600s during King Philip’s War), many died there.
“(Nipmucs) have been continuously in that (Worcester) area. They’ve been quiet for a number of years. They just continue their existence, continue to be affected by the colonization."
[picture of Doughton] ]Thomas Doughton, senior lecturer in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, challenges the narrative that the Indigenous in Worcester vanished through the ages due to diseases and encroachments brought on by the white settlers.
“Those of us who are historians, there are well-established people (of Native heritage) living in the Worcester area, Worcester County, Northern Connecticut and the general area,” said Doughton, who said he is of Native heritage.
Doughton serves on Worcester's Tercentennial Committee and is on a subcommittee that will produce a commemorative book for the city's 300th birthday and a new Worcester history.
The Indigenous settled in three main areas of what is today Worcester, according to Doughton – Asnebumskit Hill, the area of Worcester, Leicester and Paxton near Worcester Regional Airport; Wigwam Hill by Lake Quinsigamond; and Pakachoag, an area along the Worcester/Auburn border that includes Quinsigamond Village and the College of the Holy Cross.
Long before Worcester’s establishment as a town 300 years ago, Indigenous peoples found the area a desirable place to put down roots because of an extensive river system. They subsequently cleared lands for trails and farming.
When English settlers arrived in the interior lands in the 1600s, they found the area ripe for settlement, largely because lands had already been cleared.
'Praying Towns'
Puritan missionary John Eliot spread Christianity to the Indigenous peoples in the 1600s, and established the first of several “Praying Towns” in Natick. Other praying communities followed, including Hassanamesit in what is today Grafton and Pakachoag in Worcester.
Published reports indicates modern Worcester occupies a portion of an 8-mile-square territory set aside in 1667 for future settlement by the Colonial legislature, known at the time as the General Court.
In 1674, English settlers arrived at the north end of Lake Quinsigamond, near modern Plantation and Lincoln streets, an ideal location because the land was already cleared.
The settlement was destroyed by Indians in 1675 as part of King Philip’s War, an Indigenous uprising to push the English out of their native lands.
The uprising failed, many Indigenous were killed, disbanded to other territories or sold into slavery. Others remained, integrated into the community and built lives.
As for when the name “Worcester” came to be, that occurred in 1684 when English settlers returned to Quinsigamond. They chose an area in the vicinity of Lincoln Square, Main Street and the present Worcester Common.
The area was abandoned in 1702 due to fears of Indian attacks during Queen Anne’s War, and was resettled in 1713.
A Native urban community grew in Worcester in the 1800s. In 1840, seven households of Native heritage with total of 32 people represented more than 20% of all "colored" people in Worcester, according to reports.
Jump ahead to 1870, and there were 93 people in 22 Native families, representing 18% of Worcester's population. That same year, Natives reported working in several occupations, including laborers, barbers, stoneworkers, hardware store workers, farmers, waiters and carpenters.
'Problematic'
Many published accounts refer to Indigenous Nipmuc peoples who populated areas from New Hampshire and Vermont, down through Worcester County and into Northeastern Connecticut and Northern Rhode Island.
Doughton said his historical research indicates that while separate groups of Indigenous peoples lived in those areas, there was never a Nipmuc tribe or nation.
“Whether they constituted a tribe or nation is problematic. There is nothing that I am aware of in the historical record to substantiate an alleged Nipmuc nation in the 18th century.
“As a historian, I have not seen any historical justification for even using the term Nipmuc in an historical context. I think, based on material I have seen, Nipmuc in the 17th century refers to geographical space and not people in a nation or tribe.
"There have been people of Native heritage living consistently in Worcester since contact (by English settlers) in the 17th century....Nipmuc is actually a recent reflection on a Native American past.”
Peters disagrees with Doughton’s assessment.
For one, Peters said it’s inaccurate to compare Indigenous ways of life to the government structures of the Europeans who took Native lands.
“(The Nipmuc) were hunters and gatherers. They lived in groups of families that moved from one place to another, camps in winter and summer," said Peters.
“They were all related in those areas, lived together and separate. It was a different structure than the example of Europe. You can’t compare those in the same way.”
Doughton's assessment of no Nipmuc nation or tribe is also based on his comparison to other tribes. He said what people call Nimpuc were communities of people with a shared heritage.
That is different, Doughton said, compared to citizens in a Native American nation, like the Penobscot or the Wampanoag in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
“The situation of people from the Central Massachusetts area is very different and not really comparable,” he said.
On that point, Peters said colonization destroyed the structures of different tribal groups, and the Indigenous people were forced into a different way of life.
Currently, Nipmuc Nation is not recognized as a federal tribe by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Court appeals are challenging that decision, said Peters.
An executive order by former Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1976 indicated Massachusetts never ceased to recognize its Indigenous tribes. It also spells out that state agencies will deal directly with the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribal Council in Grafton on matters affecting the Nipmuc Tribe.
According to Peters, the Hassanamisco have always been recognized in its relations with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Integral role
With this weekend’s full lineup to celebrate Worcester’s 300th birthday, Doughton explained Indigenous peoples have played an integral role throughout Worcester’s history.
One challenge to recognize it is Native peoples are often blended into a “people of color” category that doesn’t highlight specific Indigenous accomplishments.
More:Black History Trail comes to life in Worcester; story told of historical contributions
One such accomplishment is part of the Worcester Black History Trail. Officially unveiled last week, the trail includes five public markers, including one at May and Westfield streets that describe the 18th-century residence of the Afro-Indian Hemenway family.
The family was involved in the abolitionist movement, and one of its members, Alexander Hemenway, was a sergeant in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first unit of Black soldiers that fought for the Union in the Civil War.
Future in Worcester
As for what the future holds for the Indigenous descendants in Worcester, Doughton said the community will continue to make significant contributions in the city.
“Those of us with Native heritage in Worcester are part of a community of shared experience based on long-standing kinship interactions. That has meant our forebears have been a community and remain a community.”
For Love Richardson, liaison and public relations representative for the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council, Native peoples are survivors.
"We would not be here today if not for our ancestors. Horrible things were done to us. We've been survivors. We're still here, still living and breathing," said Richardson.
Dinsdale mentioned more events are needed, like the powwow hosted earlier this month in Rutland by the Worcester Inter-Tribal Indian Center, to spread awareness that Indigenous peoples and their cultures are alive and well in the Worcester area.
Peters wants all to know that Native peoples aren't going anywhere, despite a difficult past.
“We’ve always been here, expanded in Worcester and the Central Massachusetts area,” he said. “If it wasn’t for (English) boats coming here, we would have been quite an extensive network of people.”
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram