- published: 27 Dec 2015
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The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are descendants of the indigenous Algonquian peoples of Nippenet, 'the freshwater pond place', which corresponds to central Massachusetts and immediately adjacent portions of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The tribe were first encountered by Europeans in 1630, when John Acquittamaug arrived with maize to sell to the starving colonists of Boston, Massachusetts.
The colonists introduced pathogens, such as smallpox, to which the Native Americans had no prior exposure. They were also exposed to alcohol for the first time, which led to huge numbers of natives succumbing to the effects of alcoholism. With the passage of increasingly harsh laws against Indian culture and religion, the loss of land, legally and illegally, to growing English colonies, many of the Nipmuc joined Metacomet's rebellion in 1675, the results of which were disastrous. Many of the Nipmuc were interned on Deer Island in Boston Harbor and perished, and others were executed or sold into slavery in the West Indies.
It was not uncommon for census takers to change the designation of a various groups of people of color back in the 1800's.A Nipmuc or Indian family would become either negro, black, or mixed blood.Local historians would recount the passing of the "last Nipmuc" from their respective town in the Town's "Centennial" History.Yet the truth is that the Nipmuc have always remained in the same landscape of their elders and remain here still.Join us as Along the Blackstone's Episode #44 takes a hard look at the written histories that attempted to erase these native people's story.The voices of the Nipmuc People at Hassanamisco, the only land continuously held in Indian ownership within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, tell with great passion their family stories and of keeping their culture alive...
The cast of Grease from Nipmuc's drama program puts on a flash mob to promote their upcoming peformance. Come check out the production December 4 (7:30pm), December 6 (7:30pm), and December 7 (2pm).
Archival footage (from Super 8mm film) of the Class of 1974, Nipmuc Regional High School, Mendon-Upton MA.
Thanking the Great Spirit for the day, for good health, praying for the People, the Seven Future Generation, all Sentient Beings, to the Sun, thanks for the harvest, for the forests and its trees and flowers, for the lakes and waterfalls, all good things. For more information, visit the websites of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc, the Chaubunnagungamaug Nipmuc, and the Natick Nipmuc. http://www.nipmuclanguage.org/ http://nipmucnation.org/ http://www.historicalnipmuctribe.com/tribal-history.html http://www.nipmucmuseum.org/ http://nipmucnation.homestead.com/history1.html Photos by Jim Cachat 2015-2016.
GRAFTON, MA — It was special in more ways than one Sunday as Cheryll L. Holley, the new Chief Wunnonmetah of the Nipmuc Nation, was officially installed during at the annual powwow at the tribe's Hassanamesit Reservation. The first such change in leadership in more than three decades was a departure not for Wunnonmetah's gender — the tribe has had two women leaders through half of the past century — but for the public nature of the ceremony itself. "These ceremonies are usually done in private, but we wanted to share it with everyone," said David Tall Pine White, emcee for the daylong event on the four-acre reservation on Brigham Hill. Sharing was in the air along with the scent of smoking sage wafted by medicine man Tom Silver Fox Morse to cleanse the spirit of all who entered the d...