On Sept. 27, UMass Libraries hosted a talk at Amherst College featuring Rose Miron, author of the book “Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory” and Vice President of Research and Education at Northwestern’s Newberry Library.
With over 50 people in attendance, the talk centered around Miron’s work with the Munsee-Mohican Historical Committee, as well as the importance of indigenous archival activism.
Representatives from UMass Libraries began the event with a land acknowledgement of Western Massachusetts, built and founded on the unceded land of the Norwottuck and Pocumtuc indigenous tribes. Listeners were invited to learn more about Indigenous communities and the history of their land.
Originally located throughout the Housatonic River Valley in Massachusetts and the Hudson River Valley in New York, the Mohican tribe now resides in Stockbridge, Wisconsin after being forced to relocate in a post-Christian missionary era. Today, they are federally recognized as the Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin, located over 1,000 miles from their original territory, according to Miron.
Miron describes Mohican work in archival preservation as a practice that began “long before European involvement.” Preservation efforts were largely managed by Mohican women.
“It’s very possible that they’ve always played an important role in history; it simply hasn’t always been recorded as such,” Miron said.
Miron’s book opens with the story of Bernice and Arvid Miller, two Mohican tribe members who collected government documents, original materials and hand-transcribed work in attempts to regain land and recover their history. After Arvid’s death in 1968, Bernice founded what is now the Arvid E. Miller Library Museum, which today houses the largest collection of Mohican documents and artifacts in the world.
Miron defines archival activism as the process of “collecting and mobilizing tribal archives, anchored around three key elements: access, sovereignty and new narratives.” These…
Installation view of Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always at the Zimmerli Art Museum. Photo Credit: McKay Imaging Photography
Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans and other tribal people will be attending an inaugural powwow at Darrow School. 
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Returning to their homeland is a transformative act of reconnection, healing, and spiritual renewal, Homelands PowWow board members said in a recent interview. 
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