We Are the Land: The Power of Place in Indigenous Life in New England

700 Boylston Street,Boston MA 02116

14 September, 2022

Description

In this introduction to the Partnership of Historic Boston’s fall lecture series, Nemasket sachem Lance Young (Eagle Wolf) examines the concepts of land and place from an Indigenous perspective, where reciprocity, respect, and balance are not only needed but required. Click here to register for all events in The Power of Place: An Indigenous View of Land, Place and Belonging in Early New England and Today. The concept of place always has been centrally important to eastern woodland and coastal Indigenous Ninnimissinuok (people). For the gift of the land, we accepted our sacred role as caretakers of the land as a living body with spirit and power. The places we inhabit contain our people’s genealogy, histories, stories, spirituality, and the blood and bones of our ancestors. Therefore, it was essential for our people in centuries past to remain in the place as stewards and guardians, an inseparable part of these places and spaces we have always walked. Like our ancestors before us, who were bonded to each other not only by hereditary bloodlines but, more importantly, by the lands they inhabited and the places over which they accepted stewardship, today we, too, do not see a separation from our place. On the contrary, it is foundational to our lives, vision, and interconnectedness to all creatures. And also like our ancestors, when we talk about the power of place, we do not speak of property, boundaries, territories, fences, bridges, roads or buildings, square feet, or monuments. Instead, we speak of the sacredness of the place we have always belonged and Âs Nutayuneân – We Are Still Here! Lance Young (Eagle Wolf) is sachem of the Nemasket Nation, Wolf Clan, and a descendant of the Nemasket squa sachem Aime, daughter of Ousamequin Massasoit, chief sachem of the Pokanoket. He is an adviser to the Partnership of Historic Bostons. Note This is an in-person presentation at the Boston Public Library, Raab Auditorium. We will record it and post it on our YouTube channel and website. Image Life before colonization was collaborative and intertwined with the natural world. A reconstructed Pequot village, at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Connecticut Credit Mashantucket Museum and Research Center