The Pocumtuck Homelands Festival returns to Turners Falls for its 13th year on Saturday, Aug. 1, and Sunday, Aug. 2, bringing an expanded lineup of Indigenous crafts, music and history to the banks of the Connecticut River.
Hosted by the Nolumbeka Project — a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the history of Native Americans/American Indians in New England — the free weekend event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. This year’s festival features a fresh mix of new and returning guests, alongside 40 Indigenous vendors selling traditional jewelry, artwork, clothing and instruments. Musical performances and history talks will also take place throughout both days.
“We’re really excited about it,” Nolumbeka Project President David Brule said about the festival this year. “There will be a variety of presenters and performers.”
Some of the performers and presenters include Tom Porter, spiritual leader of the Mohawk community of Kanatsiohareke in New York who was honored at last year’s festival with the planting of a white pine tree, Nipmuck flute player and maker Hawk Henries, Aquinnah Wampanoag singer-songwriter Thea Hopkins, drumming by the Penobscot Rez Dog Singers and an Eastern woodlands skills demonstration by Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines.
Historical presentations will be led by Marge Bruchac, Ph.D., the Native Land Conservancy and Evan Pritchard. Brule will take a step back from speaking to host an information table on the battlefield study of the Great Falls Massacre, which occurred nearly 350 years ago.
Overseen by the former Battlefield Grant Advisory Committee, this comprehensive study was funded over the last 11 years by the National Park Service as part of its American Battlefield Protection Program. Work on the study got underway in 2014, with initial efforts dating back to 2012.
The decade of work has been an effort to contextualize the extent of the Great Falls Massacre. 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.
In years past, Brule has given history talks about this study and the massacre. To still honor and remember what took place on the land where this festival is happening, Brule said he’ll give “little vignettes” on the 350th anniversary of the Great Falls Massacre, and talk about the ongoing fundraising effort by the Nolumbeka Project in collaboration with Elnu Abenaki and Nipmuc tribal partners to commission a sculpture made by a Northeastern Indigenous artist to tell the Native American perspective of the massacre as a counterbalance to the monument on Route 2 that lauds the English forces behind the massacre. Thus far, the fundraiser has raised $6,678, as of Friday, July 17.
Welcoming atmosphere
According to the Nolumbeka Project website, the first Pocumtuck Homelands Festival was first held in 2013, and was born out of a 2005 celebration called the People’s Harvest, hosted by Friends of Wissatinnewag, before the Friends became the Nolumbeka Project.
The festival has always been held at this Turners Falls site — the location of the 2004 Reconciliation Ceremony. During that historic event, the town and members of the Narragansett Tribe formally recognized past conflict and committed to local healing.
Hawk Henries, a resident of Maine, has been a fixture at the festival for at least eight years. For him, the annual event serves as a vital opportunity to reconnect with longtime friends.
“It’s an opportunity for me and everyone else to connect with each other,” Henries said.
A flute maker, Henries has previously performed and sold his handmade and traditionally-made flutes at the festival. He began crafting flutes 40 years ago after an interest sparked by repairing his own instrument. Using traditional methods and wood sourced from his home state of Maine, Henries builds each flute to honor both his ancestors and the land.
In previous years, Henries has received “generous and kind” feedback from festival attendees regarding his music and flute making. He noted that audiences are often just as interested in hearing the stories behind the songs as they are the music itself.
Henries believes the festival serves as an essential platform to remind the public that Native American people and culture still exists. Beyond that, he said he sees it as an opportunity for people to learn and connect — whether strengthening bonds within Indigenous communities or giving non-Native visitors a chance to learn and ask questions.
“What keeps me coming back is just how nice it is,” he said. “They all make us feel welcomed and important.”
New to the festival this year is singer-songwriter Hopkins, who calls her music “Red Roots Americana,” honoring her Wampanoag heritage and ancestors. Her most recent album, “Blossoms and Ghosts,” was released earlier this year.
“It’s an opportunity for everyone to connect at this beautiful part of Massachusetts and share our culture and our songs,” Hopkins said.
While touring the country, Hopkins learned of the event when the Nolumbeka Project invited her to perform.
As an event open to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, Hopkins hopes the festival educates the public on contemporary tribal realities. She notes that she sees the gathering as a form of healing for Native American communities.
“I hope people will simply enjoy the experience and start to have, if they’re not Native, have a broader idea of what contemporary native communities are,” she said.
For a full list of vendors, artists and authors coming to this year’s Pocumtuck Homelands Festival, details are available on the Nolumbeka Project website at https://tinyurl.com/2n497x7f .
