TURNERS FALLS — Speaking in the auditorium of the Thunder, David Tall Pine White took a moment to appreciate the dialogue that followed a historical presentation on the counterattacks by local native tribes during King Philip’s War.
“There was a lot of tragedy and trauma here, shared in this room,” White, of central Mass. and the Nipmuc Tribe, said.
He was referring to the loss of lives both to the English and the natives of Factory Hollow into the Nash’s Mills area of Greenfield.
“But I applaud the town of Montague for being persistent in putting this together.”
White went on to explain that when research into the wars and the histories of other towns is done, “Most of the time they don’t even want to see us,” but for a “town to say they sincerely want us here … I brag about this town all the time. I really do.”
As a part of Montague’s Battlefield Grant Advisory Board, helped led by David Brule, about 70 people gathered at Turners Falls High School Thursday evening to listen to a presentation of archaeological findings from “Phase II” of research being conducted by a team from the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and funded through the federal American Battlefield Protection Program.
A 400-page report on the findings will be available in some public libraries in Montague, at the Town Hall and digitally in the near future. After Thursday’s discussion, a panel of four Tribal Historic Preservation Officers shared their thoughts and fielded questions from the public. The panel included author Christine DeLucia, an assistant professor of history at Mount Holyoke College.
The report unearthed the natives’ counter attack, which had not been a part of the English writings, along with the organized techniques to which the natives fought under. The researchers explained that after creating a database of attacks, it became clearer to them that it was not random, scattered plans by natives, but rather codified attacks on English settlements.
Lead researcher Kevin McBride began by telling the audience this is “probably one of the most interesting and substantive projects we’ve done.”
A majority of the research from Phase II interpreted the location of musket balls in the local landscape.
The research team plans to continue Phase II and its archaeological study farther down in the Greenfield area. If the grant is extended, this addition of Phase II could take the researchers into late 2019. From there through 2020 will likely be Phase III, in which there will be new signs and education to reflect the native side. This could happen concurrently as some celebrate the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims in Plymouth in 2020.
DeLucia cautioned the researchers not to put too much stock in the musket balls themselves, but rather in the story they tell.
“What ends up when the musket balls shape the narrative?” DeLucia said. “What about the women? What about the children? What about the elders who are the keepers of the knowledge?”
DeLucia implored everyone to think about what future signs or monuments could mean.
“I hope to convey that for some of us, for historians, it’s about the past, but it’s more about the future and where onto from here,” said the writer of the recent book “Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast.”
DeLucia also challenged the narrative around the term “revisionist history.”
“Revisionism is sometimes used as a curse today,” she offered. “I, instead, would like to talk about the need to continuously revise these stories.”
Rich Wholschuh, of the Brattleboro area and of Elnu Abenaki, told the audience it has “rapidly become obvious when reading the historical narratives that there is an artificial line drawn.”
He said the fact some people look at the Battle of Turners Falls as the “end of native resistance in New England is B.S. It was just the beginning.” He said wars traveled north of the Massachusetts state line and up to the country’s border, yet often, the narrative focuses on southern New England.
A positive out of the research for Jonathan Perry, from the Martha’s Vineyard area and of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, was the “archaeological record helps to fact check and change the narrative,” he said, referring to the strong and organized counterattacks by natives.
It has been frustrating for Perry because, “from a native person’s perspective, we’ve never been able to rely on English writings.”
Doing this type of research helps people to “look back and take positives and negatives,” helping to make “better decisions in the future,” he said.
“I do have to say, it is encouraging that we are all in this journey and willing to be at the table and look at and embrace those changes in the narrative,” Perry said to the audience.
Some of these findings opened up more questions than answers for White.
“A lot of the story is missing or made up,” White continued. “We’re all open-minded and trying to stay objective,” White said. “And really try to find out what happened here.”