For centuries Native people in New England lived as part of the land, with the land part of them - a relationship fundamentally disrupted by the arrival of European immigrants. English Puritans were also deeply attached to their homelands, and many named the new colony’s towns after their place of origin. The map of New England quickly became dotted with English placenames: Boston, Reading, Lancaster, Plymouth. But they brought with them, as well as love of place, a conception of land as property which could and should be bought and sold, fenced and bounded, commodified and transformed into wealth.

In this powerful presentation (click on video recording above), Lance Young (Eagle Wolf), sachem of the Nemasket Nation, explains the relationship between New England’s Indigenous people and the natural world in this powerful presentation at the Boston Public Library, what has been lost, what remains today, and what the wider modern world stands to gain by understanding Indigenous perspectives on the land. Image:Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center