EVENTS
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA
book club: whose story?
ONLINE, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET
EVANA ROSE TAMAYO
For centuries, mainstream understanding of King Philip’s War was based on accounts such as Mary Rowlandson’s story of her captivity and ransom. But then William Apess, Pequot minister, author and activist, came along. His Eulogy on King Philip, published in the early 19th century, turns Rowlandson’s captivity narrative on its head. In our virtual book club, we’ll read and discuss writings from each of them - conflicting views powerfully argued. What will you think?
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT TURNERS FALLS?
ONLINE, WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET
DAVID BRULE, DAVID NAUMEC AND LIZ COLD WIND SANTANA-KISER
The monument to Captain William Turner proclaims a great colonial victory, 350 years ago on May 19, 1676: this panel discussion tells you the truth, based on a 13-year, National Park Service-funded investigation. David Brule, president of the Nolumbeka Project, archaeologist David Naumec, and Liz Cold Wind Santana-Kiser, tribal historic preservation officer of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians, all played pivotal roles in this groundbreaking investigation. In this panel, they’ll explain what the evidence tells us, and why and how we need to remember the past differently.
THE LONG LEGACY
IN PERSON AND LIVESTREAMED, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2026, 5:30-7:30pm ET
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, COPLEY SQUARE
CHERYLL TONEY HOLLEY, PAULA PETERS, MACK SCOTT AND KIMBERLY TONEY
Forced displacement, enslavement, land seizures and dispossession, a global diaspora and suppression of languages - the war that bore the name of Metacom, or Philip, left a long and devastating trail of destruction. Join this important panel discussion, live at the Boston Public Library and livestreamed, in asking: what is due to the people of the Eastern Woodlands? How do we reckon with this bloody history and its legacy today? The final event in our Metacom’s Resistance series.
TO VAX OR NOT TO VAX? SMALLPOX IN early BOSTON
WALKING TOUR, SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2026, 2:30-4PM
MICHAEL PROCHILO
Smallpox: the great killer of the 17th century. Europeans brought the disease to New England, causing the deaths of untold numbers of Indigenous people - up to 90% of some tribes. It left villages abandoned across the region in what Puritan colonists thought was a providential sign that they had the right to seize the land. But even the English, with some immunity, suffered terribly from this disease. This brand new PHB walking tour, researched deeply by Michael Prochilo, takes you into the disease-ridden past, with the terrors of sudden, inexplicable death and a dramatic debate: should Bostons vaccinate - or not? Meet at Park Street Station for an amazing walking tour!
“You knocked it out of the park with this lecture. Have signed up for them all.”
—attendee, Enslavement & Resistance series