Calendar
MRHS lecture: History of New London County Indians
Wednesday, February 25 2009 7:30 pm
- Email: info@mystichistory.org
- Phone: 860.536.4779
- Website: http://www.mystichistory.org
- Admission: Free
- Location: Mystic Congregational Church Parish Hall
The MRHS presents a talk on the Indian communities of New London County by Jason R. Mancini, Senior Researcher at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
The talk will focus on the experience of Indians in southeastern Connecticut between 1713 and 1861. The individual and collective adjustments to European colonialism made by the Indians have been often misunderstood and misrepresented. Consequently, Indians often have been omitted or excluded and ultimately “vanished” from our shared national history. Today, among a largely white population, there remains a great deal of misunderstanding about Indians in this region who “came out of nowhere” to reclaim ancestral rights to land and sovereignty through the Federal Recognition process. The re-emergence of these groups offers a historic opportunity for consideration and contextualization.
This talk will focus not only on the tribe, but also the more itinerant members of these communities and the impermanent and transitional labor networks, neighborhoods, structures, and institutions that kept these individuals, families, and communities connected. By considering the role of some Africans and Europeans as community members and situating this study in a regional context that includes maritime vessels as extensions of the land, the depth and diversity of the Indian experience begins to emerge.
Mancini oversees the collection, transcription, and analysis of historical documents relating to the tribal communities and people of color in the southern New England region. He is interested in race, ethnic identity and ethnogenesis, maritime labor, settlement and mobility patterns, and community structure and social organization as they pertain to these minority groups during the 18th and 19th centuries. Jason is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut working on a thesis tentatively entitled “Beyond Reservation: Indian Survivance in Southern New England, 1713-1861.” He teaches Anthropology at UConn and is a visiting instructor teaching Ethnobotany and Ethnohistory at Connecticut College.
The program begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Mystic Congregational Church Parish Hall, followed by a question and answer period and refreshments. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Mystic River Historical Society 536-4779, or email info@mystichistory.org.
Check out other Educational
Back | 
