10:00 - 11:00 a.m., 3201 Hart Hall
"Sontimoonk: Narragansett Tribal Governance, 1676-1723"
Ryan Tripp
Department of History
Abstract: In May 1859, nine men removed nine feet of soil and hoisted a mahogany sarcophagus from the west slope of Indian Burial Hill near Westerly, Rhode Island, determined to stake a claim in the antiquarian trade. After breaking the iron padlock and chains, lantern fires illuminated a body enshrouded in green silk robes. Dutch spoons, forks, pipes, and thimbles, as well as stone pestles and a bottle of brandy, surrounded the Eastern Niantic matron. A copper English farthing, a Dutch guilder, and a 1650 silver French half livre rested on her robes, cosmopolitan material culture of an Eastern Niantic sontimoonk or tribal governance that mediated intercultural trade and ethnogenesis or ethnic union.
In the decade following King Philip's War, the sachem or political leader Weunquesh and trader Job Babcock revived Nanhigganeuck or Narragansett equity to ensure Narragansett and Eastern Niantic ethnogenesis in coastal Algonquian space. Beginning in 1709, Rhode Island maritime traders employed veteran British sailors as shipwrights and depressed the labor supply for interior farms. The Atlantic importation of black chattel slaves and domestic Indian slavery provided temporary solutions to this fiscal dilemma, increasing planter demand for land. That same year, sachem successor Ninigret II, supported by a mixed party of territorial defenders, offered British trustees a 150,000-acre quitclaim for Narragansett Country in exchange for legal confirmation of Ninigret clan ascension as Narragansett sachems. His Narragansett sachem's counsel also agreed to a 16,000-acre tribal reserve near Westerly, assuming that boundaries, permanence, and place created transparent barriers for collective survival, foreclosing tribal governance for extrareserve kin.
"Repatriating Land: Cultural Sovereignty within Californian Tribes"
Vanessa Esquivido (Nor Rel Muk Wintu)
Department of Native America Studies
Abstract: California is in a state of crisis. State parks experience the brunt of budget cuts or in worst-case scenarios termination altogether. Native California tribes could step in and regain ownership of these state parks which not only will keep the parks open to the public and create jobs but would also be a means and mechanism that supports cultural survival and cultural revitalization.
The paper will also present a case study that focuses on Indian Grinding Rock State Park, better known as Chaw’Se. This park is located near Jackson, California and is home to Miwuk people. The park currently has a ceremonial roundhouse located on its grounds. This area also holds grinding stones and a reconstructed Miwuk village. The aim of this case study is to explore the redistribution of unwanted California state lands instead of allowing these parks to turn into unwanted eyesores. Native California tribes could purchase, receive, or hold in trust the parklands for cultural ecotourism. Ecotourism through cultural centers can bring in many advantages to tribes through educating, selling of Native art, camping grounds and so on.
Cultural revitalization is one positive aspect of the proposed research. The benefits could include having space to hold private ceremonies, teaching Native botany, and creating a place that can serve as a meeting area for the tribe. As a member of a landless tribe, there is a disconnect between our people and the land. The opportunity of becoming a steward of a single state park could be a transformative experience for the tribe.
"Showinpa (to scratch): Employing Alalu to Connect the Hub and the Deejay"
Melissa Leal (Esselen/Ohlone)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: The hub travels with its creators and participants. It lies down and sleeps where it feels comfortable. It crosses borders and makes detours. Hubs allow Native Americans, who are not connected to or close to their traditional land base, to feel at home. Hubs emerged as a response and result of the Relocation Act and of poverty. Native peoples were forced to leave their homelands in search of jobs and better opportunities. Although many people returned to the reservation, they left their footprints on the sidewalks of major urban cities and took a little bit of the city back with them as well. Hip Hop is one of the pieces of the city that has been able to transcend borders and create communities of Native youth and communities of youth who are of all different races. These communities, no matter where they are located physically, are regions where Hip Hop takes place.
As I began doing research and reading about the emergence of Deejays and their place in Hip Hop history and urban societies in Jamaica and then New York, I realized that Deejays create hubs. Whether, it is a park, or a club, or a community center; wherever the DJ sets up and plays music, there becomes a hub for Hip Hop, for dancers, for rappers, for artists of all types (including photographers). In essence, the DJ is in control of Hip Hop. The DJ is in control of a place, a space, a moment, and a feeling.
Ryan Tripp
Department of History
Abstract: In May 1859, nine men removed nine feet of soil and hoisted a mahogany sarcophagus from the west slope of Indian Burial Hill near Westerly, Rhode Island, determined to stake a claim in the antiquarian trade. After breaking the iron padlock and chains, lantern fires illuminated a body enshrouded in green silk robes. Dutch spoons, forks, pipes, and thimbles, as well as stone pestles and a bottle of brandy, surrounded the Eastern Niantic matron. A copper English farthing, a Dutch guilder, and a 1650 silver French half livre rested on her robes, cosmopolitan material culture of an Eastern Niantic sontimoonk or tribal governance that mediated intercultural trade and ethnogenesis or ethnic union.
In the decade following King Philip's War, the sachem or political leader Weunquesh and trader Job Babcock revived Nanhigganeuck or Narragansett equity to ensure Narragansett and Eastern Niantic ethnogenesis in coastal Algonquian space. Beginning in 1709, Rhode Island maritime traders employed veteran British sailors as shipwrights and depressed the labor supply for interior farms. The Atlantic importation of black chattel slaves and domestic Indian slavery provided temporary solutions to this fiscal dilemma, increasing planter demand for land. That same year, sachem successor Ninigret II, supported by a mixed party of territorial defenders, offered British trustees a 150,000-acre quitclaim for Narragansett Country in exchange for legal confirmation of Ninigret clan ascension as Narragansett sachems. His Narragansett sachem's counsel also agreed to a 16,000-acre tribal reserve near Westerly, assuming that boundaries, permanence, and place created transparent barriers for collective survival, foreclosing tribal governance for extrareserve kin.
"Repatriating Land: Cultural Sovereignty within Californian Tribes"
Vanessa Esquivido (Nor Rel Muk Wintu)
Department of Native America Studies
Abstract: California is in a state of crisis. State parks experience the brunt of budget cuts or in worst-case scenarios termination altogether. Native California tribes could step in and regain ownership of these state parks which not only will keep the parks open to the public and create jobs but would also be a means and mechanism that supports cultural survival and cultural revitalization.
The paper will also present a case study that focuses on Indian Grinding Rock State Park, better known as Chaw’Se. This park is located near Jackson, California and is home to Miwuk people. The park currently has a ceremonial roundhouse located on its grounds. This area also holds grinding stones and a reconstructed Miwuk village. The aim of this case study is to explore the redistribution of unwanted California state lands instead of allowing these parks to turn into unwanted eyesores. Native California tribes could purchase, receive, or hold in trust the parklands for cultural ecotourism. Ecotourism through cultural centers can bring in many advantages to tribes through educating, selling of Native art, camping grounds and so on.
Cultural revitalization is one positive aspect of the proposed research. The benefits could include having space to hold private ceremonies, teaching Native botany, and creating a place that can serve as a meeting area for the tribe. As a member of a landless tribe, there is a disconnect between our people and the land. The opportunity of becoming a steward of a single state park could be a transformative experience for the tribe.
"Showinpa (to scratch): Employing Alalu to Connect the Hub and the Deejay"
Melissa Leal (Esselen/Ohlone)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: The hub travels with its creators and participants. It lies down and sleeps where it feels comfortable. It crosses borders and makes detours. Hubs allow Native Americans, who are not connected to or close to their traditional land base, to feel at home. Hubs emerged as a response and result of the Relocation Act and of poverty. Native peoples were forced to leave their homelands in search of jobs and better opportunities. Although many people returned to the reservation, they left their footprints on the sidewalks of major urban cities and took a little bit of the city back with them as well. Hip Hop is one of the pieces of the city that has been able to transcend borders and create communities of Native youth and communities of youth who are of all different races. These communities, no matter where they are located physically, are regions where Hip Hop takes place.
As I began doing research and reading about the emergence of Deejays and their place in Hip Hop history and urban societies in Jamaica and then New York, I realized that Deejays create hubs. Whether, it is a park, or a club, or a community center; wherever the DJ sets up and plays music, there becomes a hub for Hip Hop, for dancers, for rappers, for artists of all types (including photographers). In essence, the DJ is in control of Hip Hop. The DJ is in control of a place, a space, a moment, and a feeling.