With Dr. Margaret Bruchac

One of the most intriguing gravestones in Northampton’s Bridge Street Cemetery belongs to Sally Maminash (1765-1853), a Mohegan/Nonotuck woman identified as “The last of the Indians here. A niece of Occum. A Christian.” Stories from the newspaper recount cryptically tragic details: her mother Elizabeth murdered; her father’s gravestone stolen; and Sally trapped in a lonely corner of the room, reading her Bible. Dr. Margaret Bruchac revisits the writings of local town historians to show how seemingly “unknown” Indigenous histories can often be recovered by dismantling the romantic stereotypes that situated Native peoples in distant times and locales.

Sponsored by Mass Humanities