Event this week worth attending
Center for Research on Vermont Research-in-Progress Seminar: “The Moccasin Village Project: Reconstructing the History of French-Abenaki Communities on the Winooski Intervale,” Judy Dow, Abenaki basketmaker and educational consultant, and Nancy Gallagher, historian and author, Memorial Lounge, Waterman, 7:30 p.m.
This should be a very interesting talk. Here’s an excerpt from a longer an article on Ms. Dow and this project in the Free Press of March 21:
Dow’s father’s family is from Moccasin Village, a part of Burlington that overlooked the Intervale. (She will reveal its precise location at the UVM talk.)
Dow and Gallagher will discuss how the Abenaki adapted to life in the growing city around them. They will talk about the culture of Moccasin Village, where residents had their own customs and influences and priorities.
“It was night and day,” Dow said, comparing Moccasin Village to Burlington’s Hill section.
Abenaki adapted to changing social and political currents in the city in an effort to keep their culture alive, Dow said. “Sometimes this adaptation didn’t fit into the big picture that white Anglo-Saxons saw for Burlington.”
A number of initiatives were put in place — including limits on fishing and hunting — that served to undermine Abenaki culture, Dow said.
Later, in the 1920s and 30s, Burlington would create a eugenics survey in an effort to identify (and control) certain populations.