First Saturday of the Month
2:00 PM-5:00 PM
An Introduction to elements of the Native American Experience that have consumed archaeologist, ethnobiologist and indigenous rights activist Frederick Wiseman's 50 years of engagement with Indigenous societies throughout North and Central America. Wiseman will share insights, artifacts, stories and images of his beloved Indigenous North America outside of the Wabanaki homeland.
Syllabus
1. The Ancient Civilizations of the New World
Sept. 7 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Abenaki corn, beans and squash, as well as many of their spiritual beliefs have their ultimate origin in an amazing cultural nexus that stretched from Central Mexico to Northern Central America-- a place called Mesoamerica. Learn about Professor Wiseman's 25 years of academic research into the beginning of Native farming and the reasons for the rise of social complexity of Indigenous American Civilization. We then explore their thousands of years of artistic, architectural and religious sophistication, and the newly-revealed reasons why civilization fell. Finally, we trace the Mesoamerican strain to Vermont and what it means to Abenakis as Indigenous Persons today.
2: The Land of the Pascola
Oct. 5 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The little-known Tropical Deserts, Deciduous forests and Mountain ecosystems of Northwest México have a unique and relatively unknown cultural presence, one that is rooted in adaptation to one of the most ecologically complex areas of the world. The Papago, Yaqui, Mayo, Seri, Pima, and Tarahumara communities share a basic worldview that is a unique historical blending of ancient ways of the animals and seeded earth, but significantly modified to adapt to Euro- Mexican religion and economy. This "syncretism" or blending of disparate cultural elements to make a vibrant modern society is an important parallel to that same, but unstudied process that occurred between Abenaki and settler in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries that led to modern Abenaki society and spirit.
3. "The Other Southwest"
Nov. 2. 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Southwest is everyone's "Indian Country," the Hopi mesas, surrounded by the Navajo Reservation to the North, the Rio Grande Pueblos to the East and the Sonoran Desert peoples in the South. We have all admired Navajo rugs and silver, Hopi Katsina carvings, and Tohono O'Odam basketry, but what little-known cultural and ecological themes flow around and through this supposed familiarity? The great lessons of the Southwest for the Abenakis, are the sophisticated ways that they embrace their society through the Ancestral Environmental Experience. Every dance, every carving, every meal is designed not only to honor the Ancestral World, but to hold society together and gracefully welcome the young into its mysteries. We will do well to learn from their deep-time experience.
4. "The Pan Indian Strain"
Dec. 7. 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
New Englanders are familiar with the beautiful Native American -style clothing, dancing and music and craft arts seen every summer at regional Pow-wows. But did you know that this traditional culture has its origins far to the west; in the traditions of the 18th century Indigenous Western Farmers of midcontinent United States? Complex intertribal relationships in crowded and dangerous 19th century reservations west of the Mississippi, blended ancient traditions from the Great Plains and Upper Midwest, the and even the Southwest, into a cultural and religious movement. But early 20th century aesthetic and social movements in the United States such as "wild west shows," the scouting movement, ethnic arts collecting, "Indian lore," and the Hollywood western also shaped this history and encouraged its spread to all parts of North America. . In some places, this new culture has almost supplanted older local traditions, in other areas, it complements ancestral memory. Since the 1970's Indigenous Vermonters have largely adopted a Pan-Indian ethnic identity so as to project an individuality perceived as acceptable to the larger New England society. We examine this history and re-think it using modern Indigenous and academic thought.