The Eastern Pequot emerged as a distinct Pequot community in the decades after the devastating Pequot War of 1636-1637 and secured a reservation in what is now North Stonington, Connecticut, in 1683. They have persisted on this land, one of the oldest reservations in the United States, as a culture, a community, and an Indigenous nation.
In 2003, the Eastern Pequot developed a collaborative relationship with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston to form the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School. The program focuses on studying Eastern Pequot history from the 17th to 19th century and situating that history in the many thousands of years of Indigenous history in southern New England. The goal has been to advance their aim of historic and cultural preservation and their educational and community objectives.
The program also contributes to broader academic conversations and student training in Native American history, colonialism and its legacies, Indigenous culture linking past and present, and the role of community-based archaeology in bringing voices to the foreground that have been marginalized in the past. It involves university students and tribal members working together to honor, preserve, and draw power from land and from place. Summer 2022 marked the nineteenth year of the collaboration and the twelfth year of active archaeological fieldwork on the reservation.
This presentation was led jointly by Stephen Silliman, professor of anthropology and director of the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School, and Natasha Gambrell, Eastern Pequot Tribal Councilor and participant in the field school since 2008. They discussed the nature of the collaborative work and how it functions to honor Eastern Pequot history and culture, in both the past and the present.
They also discussed how the course of history from the 17th to the 21st century has palpable effects on the Eastern Pequot today. The end of “colonial” America was not the end of colonialism for Indigenous New Englanders, and the Eastern Pequot protection of their land, now and then, has been vital to their community’s well-being. The presenters revealed ways that this community and its archaeological allies have demonstrated Eastern Pequot persistence and have sought to improve archaeology’s practice and interpretations by doing so as a community-based effort.
Stephen W. Silliman is professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he has taught since 2001. He received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000. He has worked with the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation for almost 20 years in a community program – the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School – that involves teaching, research, and service. The field school has enrolled more than 120 students since it began. He has published 4 books and 40 chapters and articles with some reprinted and translated into Portuguese and Mandarin.
Natasha Gambrell is a proud member of the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation. She graduated in 2015 with a B.A. in English from Eastern Connecticut State University, and in 2017 was elected to the Eastern Pequot Tribal Council as the youngest person ever to serve on that governing body. She continues now in her second term. She has worked on the Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School Project in various capacities since 2008, including the most recent summer 2022 field season. She and three other Eastern Pequot members co-authored an article in 2019 with Dr. Silliman in the journal, Archaeologies. Natasha is an Eastern Blanket, Northern Traditional, and Jingle Dress dancer and regularly represents her community in speaking and performative events.
Image: Robert “Little Bear” Sebastian and Ashbow Sebastian, Jr. inspect a smoking pipe artifact from the Eastern Pequot reservation in Stephen Silliman’s archaeological laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Credit: Harry Brett/UMass Boston