‘I want you to see who we really are’: Portraits of Native Americans of southern New England on display at Great Falls Discovery Center

Photographer and member of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band, Scott Quanon Menuhkesu (Strong Hawk) Foster, is sharing glimpses into cultures of Native Americans of southern New England through his ongoing “Ways of My Ancestors – We Are Still Here” photography series on display at the Great Falls Discovery Center.

“I want you to see us,” Foster said about the photography exhibit, which opened on July 2, and which contains 29 portraits. “I want you to want to learn the truth about the real history of America as it pertains to the Native people.”

Foster, 63, has been pursuing photography since he was 15, taking Polaroid images of his family as a teen. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster said he had photographed his mother in her Indigenous regalia with a black background, which he says is where his portrait style originated.

It wasn’t until after the pandemic that Foster continued to do photography at six or seven powwows in a year, building a mobile photo studio with lights and the black backdrop for the portraits. He takes the images, processes them and provides descriptions as part of the display for viewers to learn about the people and cultures represented in the image

The series features Native people from across the southern areas of New England, including portraits of Nipmuc, Abenaki, Massachusett, Mohegan, Narragansett, Pequot, Pokanoket and Wampanoag tribe members, according to an info sheet from Foster.

“As far as everybody else knows, we’re extinct,” Foster says, mentioning how this region is perceived as ground zero for colonial efforts to displace and erase Native American peoples.

There is an added significance to the exhibit taking place in Montague, near the site of the Great Falls Massacre, where more than 300 non-combatant Native Americans, mainly women and children, were killed by English forces led by Capt. William Turner during a surprise attack on May 19, 1676.

This significance is “heartfelt” to Foster, who hopes to educate viewers about how Indigenous people were victims to colonialism, but are still here today, centuries on.

“That’s why I have a map below each, or aside of each image, to let them know that this is where we used to live, before we were systematically erased,” he explained.

Removing the burning cabin

With the loss of Native American history, and stereotypes leveled against Native people, Foster says that although he is Native himself, he still works to earn the trust of those he photographed.

“A lot of times what happens is as Native Americans, we see the people who walk in the same spaces as we do, but more often not, they don’t see us. They only see us when we’re portrayed in that stereotypes of ‘the Indians,’” Foster explained.

This stereotype portrayal is something Foster has personal experience with, who said that an image he saw in a textbook in his youth, of a Native man holding a tomahawk above a white female settler with a burning cabin in the background — and the reactions by his classmates — stuck with him.

“Imagery is powerful, and it can build you up, or it can leave scars,” he said. “It can shape the way you you perceive everything that you do.”

Understanding the power of imagery, and with a guiding ethos of showcasing Native culture and people with respect and authenticity, Foster says his portraits with a black backdrop center his subject and remind viewers how Native people still live among non-Natives, and preserve centuries-old culture and history.

“I removed that burning cabin from the backdrop,” Foster said, recalling the image he saw in his youth. “I want you to see who we really are, not the propaganda that society has portrayed us being as merciless Indian savages, which we’re not, but as human beings, as people that were stewards of the earth.”

Foster hopes people leave the exhibit with an understanding of the value of diversity in the United States, while remembering and honoring the history of Native people.

“If you don’t talk about things, then they best become concepts, or distant memories,” he said. “I encourage people to spend time in the Indigenous community, and learn who we are, and what some of our traditions are.”

“Ways of My Ancestors – We Are Still Here” is on display until July 30. A artist talk with Foster will be held on Saturday, July 19 at the Discovery Center Great Hall, 2 Avenue A, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.