Events

A Tribal Geography of Martha’s Vineyard

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Holly Herbster and Jane Miller of Public Archaeolgoy Laboratory, the organization that conducted the original Pine Hawk dig in Acton, discuss the integrated volume of archaeological, historical, and cartographic information about the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe they have amassed to form a useable Geographical Information System. Free.

Nashoba: Land Between the Waters

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

New England historian and archaeologist Electa Tritsch develops videos for community access television that combine her historical and environmental interests. She will show and discuss her video Nashoba, which explores the land of the Nashoba Indians. The video was funded in part by grants from the Littleton and Concord Cultural Councils. Free.

Terror to the Wicked

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Author Tobey Pearl discusses her forthcoming nonfiction book that addresses how twelve 17th century colonial jurors – against the backdrop of the Pequot War – unexpectedly convicted four fellow settlers for the murder of a local Native American. Free.

The Upton Cave

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Cathy Taylor, Caretaker with the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Trust, describes an Algonquian 'hussanegk', a stone built chamber with a 14' tunnel leading into a dome shaped sphere. It is aligned with celestial events with cultural features on Pratt Hill including the Pleiades setting in May and the summer solstice sun set in late […]

Land of a Thousand Cairns

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Mother-son research team Mary and James Gage present a case study of three farms with ceremonial stone landscapes owned by three generations of one family in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, an area with one of the densest concentrations of cairns in the Northeast. Their in-depth research reveals how ceremonies and cairns fit into the purposes and […]

The New Antiquarian

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History Research Associate Ted Timreck describes the re-interpretation of the old stone ruins of the Northeast. He discusses the working partnership that has formed between professional scientists, Native representatives, and avocational researchers around the identification and preservation of the stone monuments and ceremonial landscapes of Eastern, Native North America […]

Book Discussion: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

Acton Memorial Library 486 Main St., Acton, MA, United States

Author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz launches a full-bore attack on what she perceives as the glaring gaps in U.S. history about the continent's native peoples. The conventional national narrative, she writes, is a myth that's “wrong or deficient, not in its facts, dates, or details but rather in its essence.” Copies of the book will be available […]