March 21, 2009 Workshop

1. A brief summary of the seminar. Include any highlights for you – new information, a particularly useful exercise, a favorite moment. Be sure to identify the main historical themes and the core documents presented in the seminar.

In the first session, "Nineteenth Century Persistence", the focus was on how Southern New England Indians managed to survive being deprived of their legal corporate existence by the states. One method was through maintaining strong family and kinship ties, another was through the "reinvention" of the past. A telling illustration was the story of the "fish-dance" that Tom told of from his own family. It was supposedly a tradition going back to ancient times but was more likely a tradition that went back perhaps a century. Its main purpose was to re-connect with the past even as the dominant society tried to erase all memory of it. More recent cases of "re-creating" or "re-inventing" the past came with the resurgence of the Massachusett language under the guise of "Wampanoag" or "Nipmuc". The actual language has not been spoken for generations and the resurgence was taken from sources like Elliott's Bible (not terribly reliable for actual pronunciation and vocabulary) and other documents from the early period after the Europeans came. This attempt to re-invent a culture isn't unprecedented (the resurrection of Hebrew is an example of it happening elsewhere for similar purposes), but it has a divisive edge because a common language (Massachusett) is claimed by particular groups (Wampanoag, Nipmuc, etc.) to the exclusion of others.

The video we watched about "Black Indians" further demonstrated the theme of re-discovery/re-invention and the setting of limits. In this case people who identified with their Indian heritage (in some cases actually speaking living Indian languages) were having their "credentials" challenged by other Indians who claimed they were not really Indians and by Afro-centric blacks who saw them as repudiating their African ancestry. The concept of being both Indian and African American seems to be problematic for some in both groups.

Ultimately, for me, the issue is a matter of identity and who gets to determine it. Is it the individual concerned, a tribal or government authority, historical family/kinship ties, or some other set of criteria?

2. What questions did the seminar raise for you and how will you follow-up on those questions? Will you need to do further research – and if so, how will you approach that research and what sources are available to you?

The issue of identity has been a central one throughout this project, for me. This session has only reinforced it as the most fundamental of all the topics we cover (along with "representation" because the two are so intertwined). My research paper topic for this term will focus on matters of self-identification within tribes--often hotly contested--and identification and "representation" by outsiders.

3. How would you use this material in the classroom?

One of the participating teachers has already used the video in her classroom quite effectively. Even in AP World History, which I am teaching currently, the same concepts can be applied. How do people maintain their identity when they are deprived of legal status? How important is the opinion of outsiders (especially if they are the dominant society)? How are internal conflicts about identity worked out, legally, socially, culturally?

4. How does the material presented in the seminar deepen your understanding of the relationship between representation and reality in the history of New England natives?

A great deal, I think. I appreciate the deeply personal and familial nature of identity far more than I did before. We are not talking about people "play-acting" at being Indians (or whatever other ethnic/cultural/racial configurations that may come to play). When people are denied their identity by the state (and others within their ethnic group) their only options are to truly disappear or to continue to maintain their identity in the face of sometimes humiliating opposition. The stakes are much higher than I used to think they were and I can see how this struggle may also contribute to other struggles within these groups such as addiction, alcoholism, depression, etc. This is not a small thing. It is a real tragedy.