Schaghticoke forum draws interest in regional history

PINE PLAINS — The Schaghticoke First Nations (SFN) Roundtable at Pine Plains Free Library on Saturday, Dec. 3 brought up a wealth of genealogical information, current projects, dreams for going forward, and a host of questions from the audience that reflect the complexities of this moment in our nation’s history. About 60 people were in attendance.

Dyan Wapnick of Little Nine Partners Historical Society began the program with an acknowledgement of the unceded land known as Shekomeko, and a hope that the erasure of its indigenous peoples can be rectified to ensure fairness for their living descendants.

Though the Pine Plains Bicentennial scheduled for March 2023 will celebrate its “discovery,” she noted, it was already inhabited by a complex and sophisticated indigenous culture.

Valerie LaRobardier, SFN Tribal Genealogist, presented a series of slides outlining the difficulties of drawing upon sources from the earliest colonial days. Questions of perspective, of oral versus written sources, alternate name spellings, and similarly named individuals who were numbered for convenience (‘Gideon 33’) made for a good introduction.

Of special interest were the Praying Towns set up in western Massachusetts to Christianize Indians, with British families installed as ‘models of civility’. To a modern eye, it is noteworthy that they were led by “a speculator in Indian lands”, one Ephraim Williams. In the ensuing decade, thousands of acres of Mohican lands were “secured” — many if not most without compensation.

The role of the Moravian Missionaries was a fascinating exception to this phenomenon: they  were allies to native Americans; they socialized with them, advised and protected them, when necessary, from the actions of some of the colonists. Their careful documentation, while not always flawless, affords us knowledge that would otherwise be lost.

The post-break presentation by Sachem (Chief) Hawk Storm began with a reminder that the indigenous peoples of the United States were “not as isolated and separate as some would have us believe”. While conceding that there are differences among tribes, he stressed that all in this region were under one governing body, led by those who called themselves simply the Algonquin word for ‘Easterners’.

Sachem Hawk highlighted his group’s many efforts at building the dream of a world where clean food and water, as well as satisfying livelihoods connected to the land, are available to all.

Caskoak (‘place of the herons’), their 73-acre parcel near Copake, has already begun its transformation into an Agro-Food-Forestry paradise, with 3000 new trees planted, all of them fruit- or nut-bearing. Plans are afoot to build “a Conservation and Cultural Center where we can host workshops and conferences, bringing indigenous voices from around the world to share their knowledge and experience.” An Indigenous Exchange Program would bring others into Indigenous Peoples communities for “full immersion training”.

What is planned is future-focused stewardship of both land and communities:  “Our goal on this land is ecosystem restoration, reconnecting communities with the land, and providing a real-time example of a food-focused initiative that is based on the use of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge.”

As the meeting drew to a close, audience members raised the thorny issue of recognition by state and federal authorities; and the question of how to deal with historically objectionable artifacts, mascots and other representations — like the head of Sassucus, a Pequot chief, in a local high school’s logo — elicited some spirited responses. The image in question was the side wall, recently painted over, of the former Pine Plains Platter restaurant, depicting Indians in a way that some found offensive. As a counterpoint, Sachem Hawk cited John Gast’s 1892 painting, “American Progress”, with its suggestion that American Indians fled willingly from the new technology of the age. Conversations, he holds, are more educational than obliteration.

Millerton attorney and historian Ed Downey likely spoke for many in the audience when he praised Valerie LaRobardier’s impressive research and commended Dyan Wapnick for giving us the opportunity to understand our world more fully. “That’s the primary reason we study our history”, he said.  “To better understand who we now are as a community, we need to know more about those who preceded us here.”