"Sharing Mohican Knowledge and Presence in the Berkshires" Zoom presentation, Sunday

 

'The Indians' of Woodbridge CT

 

Sheila McCreven

Jun 29, 2024

 "In the book, 'History of Seymour, Connecticut with Biographies and Genealogies' published in 1879 by W.C. Sharpe, in a chapter titled 'The Indians' on page 36, the following passage provides some details connecting the native people of Seymour and Woodbridge...A small group of hikers set out to visit the last known settlement of the Paugussetts on June 29, 2024...the group of hikers soon locate the area, enclosed by a fieldstone wall with its entrance marked by two stone pillars, each with a capstone bearing an inscription — the words “Paugassett Indians” on one; and “Last Settlement 1833” on the other...Woodbridge Town Historian Marvin Aarons tells the tale:

"According to Woodbridge resident Edee Lockyer, who visited the cemetery as a child in the 1940s, the graves were then mounded up and covered with rocks. Sadly, the graves were repeatedly disturbed over many years. Today, there are no gravestones or burial mounds; rather, the grave sites are sunken."

https://www.townhistory.org/the-last-paugassett-settlement-on-the-border-between-woodbridge-ansonia-and-seymour-2/

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-last-of-woodbridge-indians.html

Full Moon Festival - Greenfield MA

 

Bring back the Wolly Mammoth

[Not rock pile related]

Colossal Biosciences Announces Historic Breakthrough: The Woolly Mammoth Is Back, Meet Baby Manny - Technology Org

How cool would it be?

Nashobah Praying Indian / Deer Island Commemoration Exhibit at the Littleton Historical Society

A message from Dan Boudillion and the Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians about an upcoming event that may be of interest to many:

Nashobah Praying Indians / Deer Island Commemoration Exhibit at the Littleton Historical Society

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,

I am pleased to announce that the Littleton Historical Society is opening a new exhibit in commemoration of the 350 year anniversary of the three months the Nashobah Praying Indians spent interred on Deer Island and Long Island during King Philip’s (Metacom’s) War of 1675-76. 

The exhibit will feature timeline and text, pictures and maps, artifacts, and Native handcrafted items. 

The exhibit will open on Sunday, February 8, from 2:00 pm through 4:00 pm. 

Both Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine and I will be there for the opening on February 8th, as will Historical Society staff.  Strong Bear indicated he will likely have some of his handcrafted Native jewelry with him for sale. 

(All proceeds of jewelry sales go to the Nashobah Praying Indians charitable organization for community programs such as the yearly Strawberry Moon Powwow.)

Also, we will be holding a public 350 year anniversary commemoration of the Deer Island internment on Saturday, May 16.  (Details on this to follow.)

For anyone at the Harvard Warner Free Lecture talk last Friday, there will be plenty of Nashobah books on hand for sale at the exhibit February 8^th. (All proceeds go to the Nashobah Praying Indians charitable organization.)

Time & Location of exhibit opening:

Sunday, February 8, from 2:00 pm through 4:00 pm

Littleton Historical Society

4 Rogers Street

Littleton MA 01460

https://www.littletonhistoricalsociety.org/

Littleton Historical Society Hours:

Wednesdays 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

2nd Sunday of each month 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Many thanks to Pam, Ann, and Donna of the Society for all their hard work pulling together the exhibit!

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Dan Boudillion

Secretary, Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians 

Native American DNA found in Greenland

How about that?

Ancient DNA Shows Vikings Were in America Much Longer Than We Thought!

Chief Quiet Storm: Native Stewardship of Mother Earth

[From Friends of Pinehawk in Acton MA]  CANCELED

If you missed Nashobah Praying Grand Indian Chief Quiet Storm in the Friends of Pine Hawk Fall Series, there is another opportunity to hear Native Stewardship of Mother Earth in Littleton this Saturday, January 10. 

Chief Quiet Storm will share how we as a community can be good stewards of the land in all spaces. She will also highlight how we can better support the pollinators and biodiversity that we rely on to sustain our life on Mother Earth. 

Chief Quiet Storm's talk was of such interest that the Littleton Conservation Trust is hosting her Saturday, January 10, at 3 PM at The Center, 33 Shattuck St, in Littleton.  

Best wishes to all for the New Year!

Friends of Pine Hawk

www.pinehawk.com

My best arrowhead find of 2025

I apologize for my long absence from these pages. Arrowheads have gotten harder for me to find. The area where I live is increasingly built on and built up. Farm fields become housing developments or solar panels. I am sure there are great sites yet to be discovered but drives to potential new spots (that are likely void) are increasingly long and thus less appealing. After years of collecting, spending a whole day for a couple of broken quartz fragments does not have the same value proposition it once did for me. I still have a few favorite spots left, and I did add a few pieces to my collection this year, of which this was my favorite. 

I found this in May in a place where there is sand and not a lot of rocks. One walks slowly, examining every stone. There is not a lot to find but sometimes there is something really special waiting to be discovered. Suddenly there is a rush of excitement at the sight of an exposed sliver of stone. You think: this is it. This is what I came here for.

Now, the really fun part. You savor the moment, take some photos. You crouch down and examine the thing. It certainly looks good but it could be anything, it could be broken, it could be just a rock, a "faker." You try to visualize what it might be, picture some wonderful thing coming out of the ground. A lot of the time there is a disappointment when you pick it up. Not this time, though.

I hope everyone finds more of whatever they are looking for in 2026. Thanks to Peter for keeping this blog going for all these years. Happy New Year to all.

Viewership Changes Here

For many years this blog has had a small community of daily visitors. Somewhere between 30 and 100 on any given day. One time, I suddenly got a flood of several thousand visitors, and it was interesting in two ways. One is that it made me uncomfortable to suddenly have "strangers" showing up. The other was that I tracked the visitors back to two different webpages that had simultaneously linked to me on a story about a flint knife blade made from exotic flint - found somewhere in the US. As it turned out one of the two webpages was a political/conspiracy theory page, accused of being a CIA front; while the other was a seemingly innocuous "find love" dating site. Who knew the CIA was doing these experiments?

Anyway, something funny happened recently: Both the Rock Piles blog and my Sphinxmoth blog had multiple repeated visits from a server in Singapore. [I can read these details because I have an embedded "STATCOUNTER".] At first Sphinxmoth had several hundred visits for several day. Then the craziness started: I am getting more than 3K daily visits to Rock piles from all over the world!

These are strangers, in no way devoted to rock piles and they are coming in with search strings that make no sense, like this:

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-10T08:34:00-04:00&max-results=100&reverse-paginate=true&start=26&by-date=false&m=1

Nobody would type this, so I am thinking it is a link from somewhere [connected to Singapore] that thousands are clicking on every day. I think someone is making a little money of this blog's content.

All of which makes me want to make some money too - off a flood of non-enthusiasts who, by coincidence, happen to be passing by. 

SO, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE ROCK PILE COMMUNITY: 

HOW ABOUT A DISCRETE ADD OR TWO ON THE LEFT PANEL

Merry Solstice

Hope we all have a good year.