Cultural Heritage Projects

A popular mythology of Monument Mountain is of the William Cullen Bryant poem that perpetuates the myth of a Mohican maiden who threw herself off the top of the mountain in the face of forbidden love. In 2020-21, the Trustees worked with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community to create a new interpretive sign for the base of the mountain that discusses the Tribe’s history, continuance, and the significance of the mountain. The Tribe also advocated for and chose a new name for the mountain’s peak: “Peeskawso Peak,” which means ‘virtuous woman’ in Mohican. Read more about this on: The Berkshire Eagle, WBUR, or Mass Live.

Preservation planning projects involve documenting and including important sites in Mohican history in databases such as the National Register of Historic Places. This work ensures that the sites are recognized for their cultural value and that the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) is consulted before construction occurs at these locations. In Stockbridge, the THPO will be documenting and submitting ten properties along Main Street to the National Register of Historic Places. At present, the National Register listing for Stockbridge Main Street omits Mohican history and historic figures such as Sachems Konkapot and Umpachenee, who are fundamental to the Town’s founding and early history. With the support of Williams students, the THPO has already submitted the site of Umpachenee’s Wigwam (18 Main St) to the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS). Now the site will be documented as having historic significance at the state level, which will help ensure that the Tribe is consulted before any work is done on the site and mark it as a potential place for future research. Documenting Mohican cultural heritage sites in this way aids in preservation and increases visibility and understanding of the sites’ significance both locally and nationally.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s Cultural Affairs Department works on many projects to promote education on Mohican history, many of which pertain to the Tribe’s history here in Stockbridge. In 2018, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community organized a day-long festival in Stockbridge including presentations on Tribal history and a self-guided walking tour of the town. The virtual “Footprints of Our Ancestors Walking Tour” created in 2019 is another educational project based in Stockbridge. Ongoing educational work includes an exhibit opening August 2021 by the Cultural Affairs Department at the Berkshire Museum in collaboration with the Stockbridge Library and the Berkshire Historical Society. The Cultural Affairs department has also worked on developing curricula that better reflects Mohican history with schools across Berkshire County. Educational projects have been crucial for deepening Tribal members’ knowledge of their history in the homelands, as well as informing visitors and locals in Mohican homelands. Education also seeks to combat the erasure of Mohican history that has lasted for centuries.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has been involved with repatriation projects in Stockbridge as early as the 1970s when the Tribe began petitioning the Trustees of Reservations for the return of their Bible and Communion set. Today, the Historic Preservation Office uses the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990) and private donations to repatriate many culturally significant objects from museums, local governments, and individuals throughout their homelands. As Stockbridge has been an important location in Mohican history, there are numerous past and ongoing repatriation projects here. A current project involves repatriating objects purchased for the Mission House collection at the same time as the Bible and Communion set. The Tribe recently repatriated artifacts from a 1993 archaeological study by UMass Amherst at Kampoosa Bog. The Tribe has been working with the Town of Stockbridge to seek permission to repatriate several 18th century documents and records important to Mohican history in Stockbridge from the Town Clerk’s office. Given the Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s three centuries of land dispossessions and removals by colonists, the return of cultural items that were forced to be left behind or taken from the Tribe is incredibly meaningful and greatly welcomed.

Read more about some other recent and ongoing repatriation efforts: The carved powder horn of Sachem John W. Quinney and tribal documents that are held by Stockbridge Town Hall (and a recent update!)

(clockwise) Historic Preservation Officer Nathan Allison with recently repatriated artifacts from the 1993 Kampoosa Bog study; Historical documents such as these found in Stockbridge are also important cultural heritage items that the Tribe is seeking to repatriate; Mohican scoop or eating vessel repatriated by Greg and Paula Gimblette of Stockbridge (L); Stockbridge-Munsee President Shannon Holsey and then Councilman Jeremy Mohawk celebrate Gimblette in a ceremony for the repatriation of a Mohican bow discovered within the fireplace of his 1750 home in 2018.

(clockwise) Murals designed by the Historic Preservation Office on Interstate 87 in New York near the Albany International Airport as part of mitigation for impact to a cultural site; Through a Town of Stockbridge Community Preservation award, Stockbridge-Munsee Community was able to conduct a ground penetrating radar analysis of several locations in Town for potential burial sensitivity. Former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Sherry White participates in the testing, 2015; Tribal members meet with Archaeologist Casey Campetti near the site of the 1783 Ox Roast to hear about recent archaeological findings.

The Historic Preservation Office’s site protection work often involves Government-to-Government consultation on ground disturbing projects to protect cultural sites. The office reviews over 300 projects annually across Mohican and Munsee homelands, spanning six states in the Hudson and Housatonic River Valleys. The goal is to ensure that adequate archaeological research is conducted before construction so that ancestral sites are not erased. Recent site protection work in Stockbridge involved consultation for a water main project for the Town Offices, which is on the site of Aaron Tusunnuck’s original plowing lands.

Archaeological survey projects at known historical sites also aid site protection. With support from the Town of Stockbridge Community Preservation Commission, recent projects in Stockbridge include surveys of potential burial grounds and placing a headstone for Mohican ancestors in the Town Cemetery. In addition, in Spring 2021 the Tribal Historic Preservation Office is continuing research for the Ox Roast/King Solomon Uhhaunnuhwaunnuhmut homesite excavation near Laurel Hill. This excavation is an educational archaeology project at the site of the 1783 Ox Roast presented by George Washington to thank the Mohican people for their service in the Revolutionary War. An archaeological survey at the location of the 1739 Meetinghouse, or today’s chime tower, is also taking place in 2021. Many historic meetings occurred here during the Stockbridge Mission period. Archaeological projects such as these are essential for both expanding knowledge of Mohican history, and ensuring that sites containing important archaeological information are preserved and not erased.