Partnership of Historic Bostons

06/10/2026

Aquinnah Wampanoag educator Brad Lopes (who developed this with Massachusetts Historical Society staff) mentioned this was in the works at the first panel program of the Metacom’s Resistance series! We look forward to diving in to the sources!

Announcing a new resource on the MHS History Source: “War for the Dawnland: Reimagining King Philip’s War,” available online now: https://www.historysource.org/history-source-sets/dawnland-war

This set of primary sources for K-12 educators analyzes the conflict over land and power between Dawnland nations—including the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wabanaki communities—and New England settlers 350 years ago from an Indigenous perspective.

According to Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, the Dawnland is “an Indigenous term for understanding the region known commonly as New England, as many Tribal Nations orient themselves towards the rising sun in the East and are referred to as the People of the Dawn or First Light.”

Even if you’re not an educator, dive into the resource to learn more about the war and related collections at the MHS.

05/27/2026

“What do you see in these marks?” asks Kimberly Toney of the The John Carter Brown Library and John Hay Library at Brown University.

In traditional accounts of early New England history, Indigenous people often appear only at the margins — or not at all. But , Toney’s Instagram and Tumblr project, Their Marks, reveals something different: Indigenous presence, agency, and survivance etched into the historical record through their signatures and marks.

These are not just symbols. They are proof of life, resistance, and visibility in a system that sought erasure.

Read her blog post and meet twelve Indigenous people of the Eastern Woodlands! Be sure to register for tomorrow's Intertribal program, The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance with Kim Toney live-streamed and in-person at the Boston Public Library.

➡️ Follow https://www.tumblr.com/theirmarks for regular posts on the people of the Eastern Woodlands and the archives that hold these documents.

📜 Marks shown here are:
Top row, L-R: Awashonks, Uncas, Canonicus
Middle row, L-R: Miantonomo, Metacom, Weetamoo
Bottom row, L-R: Charles Josiah Wompatuck, Skosachoms, Tuspaquin

05/26/2026

✨ Meet the Panelist ✨

The final program in the Metacom's Resistance series is this Thursday! We are honored to to welcome Paula Peters as a panelist for "The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance."

Paula Peters is a politically, socially and culturally active citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. For more than a decade she worked as a journalist for the Cape Cod Times and is now co-owner of SmokeSygnals, a Native owned and operated creative production agency. As an independent scholar and writer of Native, and particularly Wampanoag history, she produced the traveling exhibit “Our”Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History and The Wampum Belt Project documenting the art and tradition of wampum in the contemporary Wampanoag community.

In 2020 she wrote the introduction to the 400th Anniversary Edition of William Bradford’s, Of Plimoth Plantation. Paula is also the executive producer of the 2016 documentary film Mashpee Nine and author of the companion book, a story of law enforcement abuse of power and cultural justice in the Wampanoag community in 1976. Paula lives with her husband and children in Mashpee, Massachusetts, the Wampanoag ancestral homeland.

Please join us in welcoming Paula and celebrating her work!

Registration information for this hybrid event is on our event page The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance.

05/25/2026

✨ Meet the Panelist ✨

Happening this week is the final program in the Metacom's Resistance series! This Thursday we are honored to to welcome Kimberly Toney as a panelist for "The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance."

Kimberly Toney is an enrolled member of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band and is the inaugural coordinating curator of Native American and Indigenous collections, jointly appointed to The John Carter Brown Library and John Hay Library at Brown University. Kim has worked in special collections libraries for more than 15 years, including as head of readers’ services and director of Indigenous initiatives at the American Antiquarian Society on Nipmuc homelands in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Kim is co-chair of the newly formed Nipmuc Community Land Project and regularly serves as a consultant to cultural heritage institutions across southern New England. Her own research and personal interests include language and cultural reclamation, the intersections of Black and Indigenous histories in the Northeast, connecting Indigenous knowledges and practices to scholarly endeavors, and land back.

In an upcoming post, we'll be highlighting Kim's important project, Their Marks, on Instagram and Tumblr as well as her blog post on PHB's website. Stay tuned!

Please join us in welcoming Kim and celebrating her work!

Registration information for this hybrid event is on our event page The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance.

05/22/2026

✨ Meet the Panelist ✨

We are less than one week away from the panel, "The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance" and are honored to welcome Mack Scott!

Mack H. Scott III is an enrolled member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe (Nation), historian, educator, and public scholar specializing in Native American and Indigenous histories, with a particular focus on the Dawnland/Narragansett country and the intersections of indigeneity, race, memory, and futurity.

His work bridges academic research and public history, centering Indigenous agency, survivance, and the ethical responsibilities of historical storytelling. His scholarship appears in journals such as Ethnohistory and the Journal of Contemporary History, and he is the author of the forthcoming work The Great Tree and the Summer Sun: Indigeneity and Futurity in the Narragansett Country. He currently serves as director of undergraduate studies for the Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown and as a visiting assistant professor at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University.

Please join us in welcoming Mack and celebrating his work.

Registration information for this hybrid event is on our event page: The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance

05/21/2026

✨ Meet the Moderator ✨

We are just one week away from the panel, "The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance" and are honored to welcome Cheryll Toney Holley as the moderator!

As sonksq (female leader) of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band as well as a researcher, writer and speaker, Cheryll Toney Holley advocates for economic and social justice in all aspects of her community, including land-back opportunities, education and language reclamation.

She is a co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC) and a former director of the Hassanamisco Indian Museum, located on the tribe’s Hassanamesit reservation. For ten years she served on the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. Currently she is a member of the Commonwealth’s Environmental Justice Council and of the Worcester Black History Project.

Holley has a BA in history and an honorary doctorate in public service from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the Mass Humanities Governor’s Award. A veteran and a mom of four and grandmother of eight, she currently lives in Worcester, where generations of her family lived before her.

Please join us in welcoming Cheryll Toney Holley and celebrating her work.

Registration information for this hybrid event is on our event page: The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance

05/19/2026

Believe it or not, we’ve almost reached the end of our *Metacom’s Resistance* series. 🪶

It has been an incredible journey learning together, exploring the history of King Philip’s War, and uncovering stories and truths that many of us were never taught.

For the final event in our eight-part series, we are honored to present:

The Long Legacy: The Cost and Continuance of Indigenous Resistance
📅 Thursday, May 28, 2026
🕠 5:30–7:30 PM ET
📍 Boston Public Library, Copley Square + Livestream

🔗 Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-long-legacy-the-cost-and-continuance-of-indigenous-resistance-tickets-1980788027311

Moderated by Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band sonksq Cheryll Toney Holley, this powerful panel will explore what King Philip’s War meant—and continues to mean—for Native communities, survivance, and Indigenous futures.

Featured panelists include:

🪶 Paula Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag) — writer, educator, activist, and founder of SmokeSygnals

🪶 Mack Scott III (Narragansett) — award-winning educator, historian at Brown University, and author of the forthcoming The Great Tree and the Summer Sun: Indigeneity and Futurity in the Narragansett Country

🪶 Kim Toney (Hassanamisco Nipmuc) — coordinating curator of Native American and Indigenous collections at The John Carter Brown Library and John Hay Library at Brown University and creator of on Instagram

As we reflect on King Philip’s War 350 years later, what lessons remain? What is owed to the peoples of the Eastern Woodlands who paid the price in lives, land, and sovereignty—and who are still here?

Join us for this important conversation.

Image: The signature of Philip, or Metacom, sachem of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. Quitclaim by Philip, Rehoboth MA. From the collections of the JohnCarterBrown Library.

05/19/2026

350 years ago today, at dawn, the Great Falls Massacre took place in 1676.

This past Saturday, an important step toward truth and healing was made. The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association passed copies of the deed to the land where a monument stands—one that honors the colonial forces who carried out the massacre, rather than the Native people whose lives were lost.

The deed copies were presented to the Nolumbeka Project, the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians, and the Elnu Abenaki. Now, there is an opportunity to help tell the fuller truth.

Please support the effort to create a new Indigenous-designed monument that honors Native lives, restores Indigenous voices, and helps correct 350 years of historical erasure.

🔗📰🪶: https://recorder.com/2026/05/18/nolumbeka-project-native-american-sculpture/

(Much appreciation to the The Greenfield Recorder for their continued reporting on this history.)

The Nolumbeka Project has been granted the deed to the land that contains the Turner monument, allowing the nonprofit to create a sculpture to tell the Native American perspective of the Great Falls Massacre.

05/18/2026

Congratulations to the Nolumbeka Project on a beautiful and powerful day 😎🪶

Highlights included:
- Dedication of three signs along the Connecticut River detailing the Great Falls Massacre written by Nipmuck and Elnu Abenaki peoples and archaeologists
- Reception with Wampanoag artists Deborah Spears Moorehead and Robert Peters at their shared exhibit: All Our Relations: To Honor the Wampanoag Supreme Sachem Pometacomet on the 350th Anniversary of the Great Falls Massacre
- Music by Eastern Medicine Singers and Strong Eagle ‘Many Feathers’ Daly
- Remarks by Elder and Councilwoman Liz Santana-Kiser and her son Jose “Ite” Santana, Council President of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians (CBNI)
- Ceremony transferring the deed of the land and monument to the Nolumbeka Project to be stewarded together with the Elnu Abenaki and CBNI
- Many other moments facilitated by the unflappable David Brule, President of The Nolumbeka Project and Chairman of the Nehantic Tribal Council

The turnout was incredible - many Tribal communities - Nipmuc, Nipmuck, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Abenaki to name a few - and allies all standing together.

Thank you to all involved in changing the narrative that has existed for far too long about what really happened at the Great Falls on May 19, 1676.

📰: Read more here: https://recorder.com/2026/05/17/remembering-peskeompskut-hundreds-gather-in-turners-falls-to-mark-350-years-since-great-falls-massacre/
📸: Maryann Zujewski of Historic Bostons

05/15/2026

Throughout the Metacom’s Resistance series, many people have asked: "What can non-Native people do to create real change and support Indigenous communities?"

At PHB, one answer continues to become clear: learn the history — and talk about it. Share it with your children, families, and friends. When people begin to acknowledge history as it truly happened, and understand its lasting impact on Indigenous communities, meaningful change becomes possible.

We can also choose to show up — to listen, to learn from Indigenous voices, and to stand in the very places where some of the darkest chapters of American history unfolded. These are also places of resilience, truth-telling, reckoning, and collaboration that can inspire all of us to do better.

We hope to see you tomorrow at the Great Falls.

For details, including the schedule of events, parking, and directions, visit: https://nolumbekaproject.org/350-2/