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Indigenous Northampton in the 19th Century:
Revisiting the History of Sally Maminash
Speaker:
Date:

Registration:

Fee:

Sponsor:
A Public Talk by Dr. Margaret Bruchac, University of Pennsylvania
Saturday, September 14, 2019 | 4:30 pm


Seating is limited to 60.  We anticipate a full house.
To reserve your place, registration is strongly encouraged.
$5 members, donors & students (with valid ID); $10 all others.

Sponsored by Mass Humanities.

This event has reached
full registration. 

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Chair of Sally Maminash
Historic Northampton
Estate of Ruth S. Strong

Picture
Gravestones of Warham Clapp, Sophia Clapp and
Sally Maminash in the Bridge Street Cemetery
Photo by Marge Bruchac, 2019

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Marge Bruchac examining the Bible of Sally Maminash
at Forbes Library
One of the most intriguing gravestones in Northampton’s Bridge Street Cemetery belongs to Sally Maminash (1765-1853), a Mohegan/Nonotuck woman identified as “The last of the Indians here. A niece of Occum. A Christian.”  Stories from the Hampshire Gazette recount cryptically tragic details: her mother Elizabeth murdered; her father’s gravestone stolen; and Sally trapped in a lonely corner of the room, reading her Bible. Yet, the facts show that the Maminash family did not live an isolated life on the margins of Northampton’s white society; they were highly visible in its midst. Joseph Maminash and his son (also named Joseph) both served honorably alongside their white neighbors in the American military; the father in Nathan Whiting’s 11th Company (1745) and the son in Daniel Shays’s Company (1777). Sally was well-regarded as a weaver and a member of First Church for forty years, and she was so beloved by Sophia and Warham Clapp that she was buried beside them. When we revisit these records, we also glimpse the extensive kinship networks of Native people who, despite widespread prejudice, circulated freely within their traditional homelands, marketing baskets and brooms, hiring out as day labor, and dispensing Native medicines to non-Native folks. In this talk, Dr. Margaret Bruchac critically analyzes the writings of local town historians, much in the same way that she applies reverse ethnography to the writings of anthropologists. She demonstrates how seemingly “unknown” Indigenous histories can often be recovered by dismantling the romantic stereotypes that situated Native peoples in distant times and locales, even when they were living in the houses next door.

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Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Associate Faculty in the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a consultant to the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at the American Philosophical Society, and Director of “The Wampum Trail,” a restorative research project designed to reconnect wampum belts in museum collections with their related Indigenous communities. Bruchac has long been a consultant to Historic Northampton, Historic Deerfield, Old Sturbridge Village, and other New England museums. Her new book – Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists (University of Arizona Press 2018) – was the winner of the Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award.

This public talk is sponsored by
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HISTORIC
​NORTHAMPTON
46 Bridge Street
Northampton
​Massachusetts 01060
[email protected]
​413-584-6011
Current Exhibit:
​Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783


Exhibit Hours
July and August Hours:

Wednesday - Sunday
11 am to 5 pm
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  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
      • Relationship Map Family Groups
      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
    • Donate to the Spring Appeal
    • WAYS TO GIVE >
      • Monthly Donation
      • IRA Giving
      • Stock Giving
    • Join the Email List
    • Donate to the Collection