Category: Munsee

STOCKBRIDGE — The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, whose original homelands stretch through the Berkshires and beyond, is reclaiming several hundred acres of sacred land that Massachusetts is now giving back.

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“We are trying to reclaim our ways of being, which was never based on money,” Shannon Holsey, president, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. 

With a $2.26 million state grant, the tribe is poised to purchase 351 acres at the northern tip of Monument Mountain — a move that will restore tribal ties to this land once again after nearly 200 years of separation from it.

Tribal leaders say they are grateful to again hold the land within their culture and spirituality. It is a stewardship they say will fortify and heal the landscape amid a changing climate.

“It’s sacred to us, and we’re so grateful for the opportunity to be able to return home and have a place to call our own,” said Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans President Shannon Holsey.

Nearly 100 town and city officials, residents and members of the Stockbridge-Munsee attended Wednesday’s official announcement of the purchase in the gym at Stockbridge Town Offices.

The grant is part of a total $31.5 million in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grants to 84 different towns and cities. The awards include about $3 million to 28 municipalities for pilot programs directed at struggling communities. The rest — $28.5 million — is for various projects in 56 cities in towns.

Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, speaks at Stockbridge Town Hall on Wednesday after the announcement of the acquisition of land in the reclamation of Fenn Farm, 351 acres of pristine land at the northern end of Monument Mountain. 

BEN GARVER — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

The Stockbridge Munsee grants fall into…

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There was a crowd at Wednesday morning’s announcement of MVP grants at Stockbridge Town Hall. State Rep. John Barrett III and state Sen. Paul Mark were at the announcement with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, who afterward toured Berkshire Community College.

Shannon Holsey, president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, says the purchase of former indigenous lands will allow the tribe to reclaim a kinship with the land that will benefit future generations. 

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans is one of the first tribes to receive state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness funding, a historical feat that will go toward the reclamation of indigenous homeland.

On Wednesday, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced the $31.5 million in grants for climate resilience implementation and planning throughout the state.  

The band was awarded a $2.26 million MVP Action Grant to reclaim 351 acres of their indigenous homelands and establish tribally driven conservation and forest management strategies. It is one of two tribes to receive the funding.

“We firmly believe that when we empower our communities to do good work and take collective action that our commonwealth is better for it. We’re stronger, we’re healthier, ready to move forward, ready to meet the moment that we need to,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said at Town Hall on Wednesday morning.

“So Governor Healey and I really are committed to continue to grow this popular grant program and the partnership it fosters. This is a profoundly meaningful relationship between the state and communities embracing a challenge together, just like we’re seeing here with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. We know we can only tackle the impacts of the climate change crisis that we’re seeing together and we feel like we have much to learn from grantees that are not…

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Following today’s historic Stockbridge announcement by Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, Monument Mountain will once again belong to the Indigenous people that settled the area centuries ago.

“The North slope of the land now known as Fenn Farm on Monument Mountain will once again be stewarded by the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation,” Driscoll said to a packed Stockbridge Town Hall, part of the ancestral homeland of the Mohican tribe that’s now based in Wisconsin. “That’s not only a meaningful step forward in relation to our history, but [it] also means that Indigenous land management practices and traditional ecological knowledge are going to help us fight and adapt to an ever-growing and present-changing climate future.”

She acknowledged the work done by Stockbridge officials to affect the return of this land.

The change is promulgated by a $31.5 million grant program—the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program (MVP)—that provides local communities with funding and technical assistance to implement climate resilience projects. Along with 56 different individual municipal grantees, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans was awarded a $2.26 million grant to reclaim 351 acres of their Indigenous homelands, while implementing tribal conservation and forest management strategies to combat climate change.

“We are celebrating the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans reclaiming land in their ancestral homeland,” Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper said. “We are also celebrating the concept to have Indigenous land management as a key way to further climate resiliency in our state.”

Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans President Shannon Holsey described the day as “very joyful and emotional” for her community. “We believe that it is our responsibility to be land stewards and to advocate for future generations,” she said. “We are grateful to be home today, and we are grateful to be partners with all of you who made…

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With the threat of global languagesbeing lost at the rate of at least one per month, linguists, institutions, researchers, and affected communities are collaborating to maintain, revitalize, and celebrate Indigenous languages. 

Languages across the world are endangered due to steady declines in usage as successive generations become bilingual for a variety of political, societal, and cultural reasons, including pressure to avoid discrimination, according to The Language Conservancy (TLC), a U.S. nonprofit working to protect and revitalize languages across the globe. 

Without intervention, this loss of knowledge could triple within 40 years. By the end of the century, 1,500 languages could cease to exist, according to a 2021 study by a group of Australian researchers, “Global Predictors of Language Endangerment and the Future of Linguistic Diversity,” published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. Research shows that certain Indigenous languages are at the greatest risk of disappearing. 

Since speech is the core of one’s identity and culture, preservation of Indigenous languages can foster health and success, TLC finds. Experts also say language is essential to preserving cultural and historical knowledge, worldviews, and forms of correspondence.

Through Indigenous community partnerships, U.S. higher education institutions are a part of the movement working to stem this crisis. A project at Montclair State University (MSU), a public research university in New Jersey, focuses on reviving the Native American Munsee language, while faculty and students at Haverford College, a private liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, are working in Oaxaca, Mexico, to safeguard Zapotec languages.

MSU Advocates for Munsee Language

Scholars and students in MSU’s new Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) minor program are working with the Turtle Clan of the Ramapough Lenape Nation on projects encompassing both environmental justice and language revitalization.

Maisa Taha, PhD

“In order…

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It was the spring of 1754. Two white men killed a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee band. The victim, named Waumpaumcorse, was described as “an Indian man of this town” killed “in the woods of Stockbridge.” Stockbridge was a mere 15 years old, and this was the first recorded murder in the village. The details were unearthed thanks to the exceptional research abilities of Lion Miles.

The murderers of Waumpaumcorse were caught and put on trial. However, one of the murderers was acquitted and the other was found guilty of the lesser offense of manslaughter. The Stockbridge-Munsee community was angry at what they considered an injustice.

Apparently, this provoked a number of the Stockbridge-Munsee community to seek revenge. A contemporaneous report read, “The Negro Servant of one of the Neighbors made known a secret plot.”¹

The report identified a young member of the Stockbridge-Munsee community who told the servant the following, “Now there are a Number of them who were come to a Determination to be revenged for the murder of Waumpaumcors and that several of them had already been abroad to bring in some Strangers to their Assistance, that their purpose was to kill as many of the English in Stockbridge as they could.”

In fact, what the community did was petition the General Court in Boston. The court awarded the family of Waumpaumcorse six pounds. However, even that small amount did not arrive. There was a delay in sending the money, and that delay threatened to reignite the desire for revenge.

At the urging of town officials Joseph Dwight and Timothy Woodbridge, the General Court increased the amount to 20 pounds and sent it off immediately to the near relatives of Waumpaumcorse “to Satisfy & Quiet the Indians at Stockbridge.”

Here endeth the tale of the very first murder…

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Lance Copegog, Anishinabek Nation Eshki-niigijig Advisory Council Southeast male representative and Beausoleil citizen, addresses youth on Day 3 of the Anishinabek Nation’s Eshki-niigijig Maawanjidiwaad 2023 Youth Gathering. – Photos by Ryan Peplinskie

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Climate change, housing needs, and mental health and addictions support were among the issues raised during the Anishinabek Nation’s Eshki-niigijig Maawanjidiwaad 2023 Youth Gathering, held from Aug. 10-13 at Lakehead University’s Thunder Bay campus.

“This youth assembly was an opportunity for the youth to provide their input and direction to the Anishinabek Nation on their priorities,” says Lance Copegog, Eshki-niigijig (Youth) Advisory Council Southeast male representative and Beausoleil citizen. “We heard that addressing climate change, creating housing for our families in our communities, and supports for mental health and addictions are among the top priorities for youth.”

Copegog says the youth are also looking into doing more gatherings to provide youth with opportunities to give direction to the Anishinabek Nation.

“We are doing a lot of work to build capacity in First Nation communities to support youth leadership initiatives, one of them being the creation of community-based youth councils,” Copegog says. “That is really important to give youth the opportunity in their communities to work on these issues, to advocate, and to represent their peers.”

Katelyn Peters, Eshki-niigijig Advisory Council Southwest female representative and Munsee Delaware Nation citizen, says this was the first youth gathering since 2019.

Katelyn Peters, Eshki-niigijig Advisory Council Southwest female representative and Munsee Delaware Nation citizen.

“I feel like it has been quite difficult, especially considering they experienced COVID-19 for the past three years,” Peters says. “They haven’t been able to see their peers, their own family members, other [citizens] of the Anishinabek Nation, but I…

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Those in attendance at a Corry Area School District Building Committee meeting Wednesday heard an update of the school’s renovation project on the middle-high school.

Mike Munsee, director of buildings and grounds, said the crews are making good progress with the renovation. 

“For the most part, everything is pretty much on track,” he said.

The renovation, which was approved by the school board in July of  2022, is over $20 million and is set to be completed in June of 2024.

Contracting work for the project includes general, electrical, plumbing and HVAC. Many of the moving parts worked on up until now are nearing completion, including: replacing the HVAC system, which is 95% complete; electrical lighting replacements, 90% complete; plumbing work and a new water line installed from the city’s main waterline, 90% complete.

He said they’re making good progress on the roof as well, and have even begun some work that was slated for next summer. The nice weather in the summer and the lack of students makes the summer break an optimal work time.

Right now, crews are focused on the main office area in addition to the roof. Munsee said the mailboxes for faculty members are set to come in a little later than anticipated, pushing the project back, but they are working on mudding dry wall and getting ready to paint and move new furniture into that area.

Other work includes replacing windows and patching old vents, along with renovating the bathrooms across from the cafeteria.

Joe Frisina, school board president, asked what areas of the school will have air conditioning for the upcoming school year.

Bill West, director of secondary education, explained that many classrooms and back into the career and technical center will have air conditioning, but the larger areas will wait until next summer.

“Next summer are…

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Historic Seminole photo; how much history will be taught? (Photo/Detroit Publishing Company/Public Domain)

The new standards approved by the Florida Board of Education on race should be taught in the state’s public schools has received criticism from educators and civil rights groups, including the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “anti-woke” rhetoric is being blamed for the new standards approved on Wednesday by the state board of education.. Under DeSantis, the Florida legislature passed legislation that bars instruction in public schools that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color.

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One standard approved on Wednesday includes “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” has been criticized across the country.

On Friday, the NCAI released a statement, authored by the organization’s treasurer Shannon Hosley (president of the Stockbridge- Munsee Band of Mohican Indians), that rebuked the new standards. The statement reads:

“Native people are far too familiar with the devastating consequences caused by education systems that have at various times ignored, fabricated, and misrepresented the often painful histories of our people. And as the state of Florida threatens to dangerously alter the history of enslaved people and teach it to generations of future leaders, the National Congress of American Indians stands united with our diverse partners, both Native and non-Native, in shaping a promising future. We firmly believe that it is our responsibility to preserve our unique histories and not allow outsiders to rewrite them on our behalf. Together, we will champion our own…

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