EVENTS
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA
1630: from shawmut to boston
WALKING TOUR, TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2026, 5:30-7PM
ROXANNE REDDINGTON-WILDE
If May doesn’t suit you, join us in June! Strolll through history with our original walking tour, 1630: From Shawmut to Boston! Meet the people, places and ideas of 1630s Boston - built on the Native land but created in a Puritan English image. Places are limited, so register now! Price: $10/person.
We start in 1630 on the slopes of the Shawmut peninsula. The English Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony looked to create an ideal society as seen through their own – and no one else’s – eyes. Boston, as they renamed the place, became its center. Meet the people, places and ideas that turned Shawmut into Boston.
“LAND AS IDOL”: JUSTIFYING LAND EXPROPRIATION
DANIEL RICHTER WITH BRAD LOPES
ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 30, 2026, 7:00-8:30pm ET
Age of Exploration, papal bulls, terra nullius? What were the justifications that English Puritans used to explain their expropriation of Native land? Renowned historian Daniel Richter tackles the question of justification in an exploration of theory and practice of colonial land annexation. “Land! Land! Hath been the Idol of Many in New-England,” lamented Puritan clergyman Increase Mather. Join this trenchant presentation, moderated by Aquinnah Wampanoag educator Brad Lopes.
stolen relations: UNCOVERING UNTOLD STORIES
PANEL DISCUSSION, OCT 7, 2026, 7-8:30PM
LINFORD FISHER, CHERYLL TONEY HOLLY, PAULA PETERS AND LORÉN SPEARS
From the first moments of European colonization, Native people in the Americas were captured and enslaved - most of them remaining unnamed and unknown. Now you can find the names and lives of thousands of them, thanks to the groundbreaking Stolen Relations project. The result of collaboration between reearchers at Brown University and a dozen regional Native nations, the Stolen Relations database tells the stories of nearly 8000 people. Find out what this remarkable database has to offer - rich documentation, suprisingly intimate details, and many names - from the core team involved in its creation.
“You knocked it out of the park with this lecture. Have signed up for them all.”
—attendee, Enslavement & Resistance series