MONTAGUE — To learn new information on weapons used in the May 19, 1676, Battle of Great Falls/Wissantinnewag-Peskeomskut, a small crowd turned out to the “New Field Research 2019” presentation and panel discussion at Turners Falls High School on Thursday.
David Brule, the project coordinator of the National Park Service battlefield study at Wissantinnewag-Peskeomskut, said researchers looked at a 7-mile stretch of land from the Nash’s Mill area in Greenfield down toward Deerfield. This year is the sixth year, and third phase, of the grant, which has studied the event of May 19, 1676, the Battle of Great Falls/Wissantinnewag-Peskeomskut that took place during King Philip’s War.
The Battlefield Grant Advisory Board — composed of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians, the Elnu Abenaki and the Narragansett Indian Tribe, as well as historical commissioners from Montague, Greenfield, Gill, Northfield and Deerfield — have been meeting monthly over the past five years, coordinating this study of the complex massacre and counter-attack that has marked the region over the subsequent centuries.
David Naumec of the University of Connecticut’s research team, who has been working on the study for the past six years, gave a presentation about the study, methods and findings. Naumec said the first phase was research to find where historical sites may be, then fieldwork, filing associated reports, followed by interpretation and education.
There are still some areas that the researchers were not able to get to, and would be the subject for the next round of grant funding.
“In our report, we tried to go well beyond who was where, farming what, the ebb and flow of the battle,” Naumec said. “The nice thing about these battle research projects and having tribal colleagues to work with is that we can dive deeper into this war and place the battle of Great Falls in a larger context.”
Some of the new findings from the battle study included “the unique ability to make some real statements based on data on musket balls.” Using data from the musket ball sizes as well as other information, Naumec said the researchers were able to deduce what types of firearms each group was using.
“In the gap, there’s a ton of (small-caliber) shot being used. That’s one of our greatest examples of a control group,” Naumec said. “Because 90 percent of the gunfire in that area is from native troops firing at fleeing English. If that’s so, we look at that for patterns.”
He said the researchers are finding out what size gun was being used based on the artifacts, primarily musket balls, that were found in a certain area.
Following the talk, a group of local historians presented a panel discussion titled “Emerging Stories of This Land.” Panelists included Liz Coldwind Santana Kiser of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians, Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan of Elnu Abenaki, local historian Gary Sanderson (also former sports editor at the Greenfield Recorder) and Joe Graveline of the Northfield Historical Commission.
Touching on her hopes of the future of the study, Kiser said she wants Native American history to be told.
“I teach my grandchildren to know our history and they know about up here. I go back to my tribe and I talk about it,” she said. “I think it is time for us to have our history put into the schools so everyone knows what happened here. Bad things happened here, we know. I think what they’re doing here is really important because it’s opening up doors and eyes that have never been before.”
Graveline recounted how his aunt told him about their family’s indigenous lineage, but that it was a subject that wasn’t discussed publicly.
“(My aunt) said my grandmother was a full-blooded Abenaki woman, but we could never speak of this anywhere outside of the family and we could never talk about it as adults,” he explained. Still, she told him, “‘I want you to take this information, and I want you to honor that and take it with you.’”
Graveline said he’d later understand why his family didn’t discuss their heritage, after he learned about eugenics that involved sterilizing indigenous women.
Sheehan spoke about why indigenous people continue to “return to their old haunts.”
“We know where those burial sites are, or at least we did, but we lost a lot of that stuff,” he said. “What we’re doing right now is regaining that knowledge and coming back to these places.”
A consortium of historic commissions from five neighboring towns and three tribal historic preservation offices have partnered with the town of Montague and the National Park Service Battlefield Protection Program to conduct a comprehensive study of the extent and context of the 1676 battle that was a turning point in the King Philip’s War.
An additional purpose is to engage local officials, landowners and the interested public in an effort to locate and encourage the protection of the battlefield.
The project stems from a 2004 reconciliation ceremony between the Montague Selectboard and several tribal dignitaries to commence a healing process that involves an exchange of actions to promote understanding about and between cultures.
Reach Melina Bourdeau at mbourdeau@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263.