MONTAGUE — After more than a decade of research, the battlefield study of the Great Falls Massacre of 1676 has been completed.
Through a collaborative effort between the town’s Battlefield Grant Advisory Committee, archaeologists with Heritage Consultants and several tribal consultants, a draft of the final report has been submitted for review and comments. The goal is to have this battlefield listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“A huge number of people have been at the table, tribal and non-tribal people, and we’ve been going over this history over and over and over and parsing it, and going over what the archeologists think they found, what cultural context was represented by the Native eyes on the field, and also on the materials,” said David Brule, coordinator of the project and president of the Nolumbeka Project, an Indigenous history and culture preservation nonprofit.
This comprehensive study has been funded over the last 11 years in three cycles by the National Park Service as part of its American Battlefield Protection Program. Work got underway in 2014, with efforts to start the study dating back to 2012.
The decade of work has been an effort to contextualize the extent of the Great Falls Massacre, which occurred on May 19, 1676, nearly 350 years ago. This massacre is considered to be the major turning point of King Philip’s War, when 300 women, children and elders were killed during a surprise pre-dawn attack led by Capt. William Turner.
While the history of the massacre was largely told by the English, Native perspectives of that day, and the subsequent battle between English and Native forces, have been a focal point for this effort to tell the whole story centuries later. Archaeological surveys have previously been completed in Montague, Gill and Greenfield, with surveys in Greenfield finding large clusters of musket balls and personal effects in 2024 near Meridian Street, Colorado Avenue, Colrain Road and Nash’s Mill Road in Greenfield.
Heritage Consultants Chief Archaeologist Kevin McBride explained in August 2024, while surveying Meridian Street and Colorado Avenue in Greenfield, the understanding now is that as the British retreated from Barton Cove, the soldiers trailed south along the Green River, leading into Greenfield and across the Deerfield River. According to McBride, fighting between the British and Native forces is now understood to have been more stationary, as evidenced by the cluster of musket balls, rather than a “running battle.”
The final draft of the report will be submitted to tribal historic preservation officers, who will provide comments. From there, the report will go to the National Park Service, and there will likely be a public meeting to review the final report, Brule explained.
Additionally, educational opportunities have been explored through three informational kiosks about the Great Falls Massacre that the Battlefield Grant Advisory Committee has been working to develop and install. Thus far, words and photos for the signs have been submitted by the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, and $5,000 in funding through the FirstLight Sustains grant program is in hand.
“It’ll be sizable, with the potential of adding QR codes for deeper plunges into the background, and as outlined on each of the sites,” Brule said. “We are still determining where we will put those signs.”
Potential collaboration
After the initial discussion of the study, Sarah Stewart and Maryanne Zujewski, representatives from the organization Two Bostons, spoke to the committee about their idea to include the Great Falls Massacre as part of its commemoration of 350 years since King Philip’s War. They would partner with the committee to assist in bolstering education through presentations, walking tours and marketing assistance, both locally and in Boston.
“We want to do King Philip’s War, because it is … so fundamental, so full of atrocity and so unknown,” Stewart said.
Stewart said this is a preliminary idea, and they are waiting for guidance from tribal preservation officers to understand the best way to remember the war as a non-Native organization. The hour-long discussion fleshed out what opportunities Two Bostons could be involved in to highlight King Philip’s War in western Massachusetts, while recognizing their goal for both the history and legacy of the war, Zujewski said.
While no decision was made on whether to collaborate, the Battlefield Grant Advisory Committee intends to revisit the discussion.
“I need to roll this around in my head and around other people of what you’re asking, and see what some of their views are before I could ever say that I’m willing,” noted Liz ColdWind Santana Kiser, councilwoman and elder with the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians.
