Recovering Histories of Native Lives and Native Doctors in Western Massachusetts

About this event

Indigenous (Native American) people have lived in western Massachusetts for millennia, situated alongside

rivers called the Woronoco (Westfield) and Kwinitekw (Connecticut), sustained by local flora and fauna, and

supported by reciprocal trade and diplomacy with their Native neighbors. During the mid-1600s, Native

leaders in Agawam (now Springfield), Woronoco (now Westfield), and Nonotuck (now Northampton) allowed

English colonists to establish small settlements. Yet, by the late 1600s, conflict and warfare fractured these

relations and forced many Native people to leave. This talk highlights Native families who stubbornly

remained during the 1700s and 1800s, using Indigenous skills and ecological knowledges to survive. In

western Massachusetts, this included siblings Rhoda Rhoades and war veteran Zebulon Fuller, Jr., Native

residents of Indian Hollow in Knightville (present day Huntington), who worked as “Indian Doctors,”

providing herbal remedies and healing to Native and non-Native people alike. Dr. Bruchac’s research in this

area is part of a new project with Historic Northampton, titled “Native Strategies: Indigenous Families in

Western Massachusetts During the American Revolution,” and funded by grants from Mass Humanities, the

Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the SCP Foundation.