Mission Statement: To perpetuate the arts, crafts, and way of life of New England’s Indigenous Peoples; preserve the culture and history of indigenous people, particularly that of the Nipmuc Indian; and preserve and protect the unique character of the historic structure known as the Homestead and the artifacts housed within.

And Vision Statement:

Vision Statement: To serve as a focal point and gathering place for Nipmucs and their families to learn of our culture and history and to practice integrating our traditional values, technologies and wisdom into our contemporary lives.

Hassanamisco Indian Museum – Strategic Plan

To achieve its mission, attain its vision, and align with the Nipmuc Nation long-term goals, the Museum identified as its primary goal –

Preserve and perpetuate the culture and history of the Nipmuc tribe through a solid programmatic and physical foundation.

Strategy One: Renovation of the Homestead and the Museum’s organizational structure.

The Homestead will reopen with modern facilities, climate-controlled display, exhibit, and storage areas, office space, and a gathering space for tribal classes, workshops and functions. Concurrently, the Museum will build the capacity of the Museum’s board, staff and volunteers to achieve Museum’s goals

• Complete the planning, restoration of historic portion of building, and the renovation of the modern-day addition.
• Reorganize and strengthen the Museum’s organizational structure.
• Achieve fiscal sustainability through sound fiscal planning and aggressive fund-raising.

Strategy Two: Preserve and conserve the Museum’s collections.

The Museum will institute formal policies to conserve the Museum’s collection. The Nipmuc Community will develop a sense of ownership and stewardship in the Museum and its collections.

• Conserve, inventory and catalog the Museum’s collections.
• Store and exhibit collections appropriately.

Strategy Three: Develop, promote, and implement programming for the Nipmuc community and the public.

Through the teachings of Elders and tradition-keepers, the Museum will work with the Nipmuc tribe to ensure the transference of traditional knowledge to the next generation. The Museum will continue to improve existing school, scout, and camp programs for the public.

• Develop Tribal-based educational programs and workshops.
• Re-invest in the Nipmuc Homelands.
• Strengthen relationships between Museum and Nipmuc people.
• Expand and Improve website capabilities.
• Design and implement a comprehensive marketing program.

What do you think?

Aquene!

***Please note that the image above is from traditional Nipmuc and/or Mohegan woodsplint baskets, Credit for the image goes to “Key into the Language of Woodsplint Baskets” by Ann McMullen, Russell G. Handsman, and Joan A. Lester. Published in 1987 by American Indian Archaeological Institute.

Planting Moon/New Year Ceremony, Hassanamesit, 1 pm to 4 pm

May 5^th & 6^th

Nipmuc Spiritual Gathering, Hassanamesit, 4 pm to 4pm

June 16th

Strawberry Moon, Hassanamesit, 1 pm to 4 pm, Quarterly Tribal Meeting at noon

July 29^th

Hassanamisco Indian Fair, Hassanamesit, 10 am to 4 pm

Sept 16th

Nipmuc Nation Annual Meeting/Election, Hassanamesit, Noon to 4 pm

Nov 24 & 25

Nipmuc Spiritual Gathering, Hassanamesit, 4 pm to 4 pm

Dec 15^th

Nikkomo, Tribal Office, 1 pm to 4 pm, Quarterly meeting at noon

Mar 16^th

Quarterly meeting, Tribal Office, 12 pm to 4 pm

That being said, we accomplished alot in the working together column.

• In April, the Natick Nipmuc Band presented at the Nipmuc Nation tribal office “‎2010 Deer Island Memorial Sacred Run & Paddle: Nipmuc Perspectives on the Sacred Journey.”
• The Second Annual Joint Strawberry Moon between Nipmuc Nation and Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians was held at the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Office in June.
• Chaubunagungamaug Band members assisted during the 58th Hassanamisco Indian Fair in July on the Reservation.
• Members of the Natick Nipmuc Band and the Chaubunagungamaug Band as well as many other Nipmuks were in attendance at the Fair.
• The first Nipmuk meeting was held in August at Westville Lake in Sturbridge. The Nipmuk meetings are intended to promote cooperation between band members and those Nipmuks not enrolled in a band in the hope of building our futures together.
• Members of the Nipmuc Nation assisted at the Chaubunagungamaug Band’s September Pau Wau at Holland Pond.
• The September Pau Wau was well attended by Natick Nipmucs, Hassanamiscos and other Nipmuks. Honestly, one of the best pau waus I’ve ever attended.
• Natick Nipmuc Youth leader actively led Hassanamisco youth on paddles, to conferences, summer camp and other activities.
• The three Nipmuk bands joined forces on a state-government issue.
• Natick Nipmucs and Hassanamisco Nipmucs jointly attended the first Youth Paddle at Lake Quiusigamond.
• Nipmuks from everywhere attended or assisted at the Natick Nipmuc 2011 Deer Island Memorial.
• The first (in many years) Nipmuc Spiritual Gathering was held on the reservation over two days in November. Nipmuks from everywhere actively participated.
• Members of Natick Nipmuc and Nipmuc Nation jointly presented Nipmuk history in Littleton, MA.
• All Nipmuks freely attended the various socials hosted by Hassanamisco and Chaubunagungamaug including Strawberry Moon, Nikkomo, and Harvest Moon.

So this is a beginning.

And so goes our calendar New Year celebration every year. But for us, the real beginning of the year comes when the seasons shift, the air warms, and green begins to return to our yard.

New Year in Nipmuc Country begins with Spring planting time. The exact date varies from year to year. The Nipmuc Nation will celebrate the New Year at our Planting Moon celebration on Saturday, May 5th at Hassanamesit. Won’t you join us?

Nikkomo is celebrated by many NE Woodland tribes. It is the first winter moon and is a time of giving what the Creator made possible through the harvest.

Come and celebrate this season with us on December 17th at the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Office.

Aquene

Nipmucs occupied Hassanamesit since before recorded time. In the mid 1600s, missionary John Eliot established a “Praying Plantation or Town” in Hassanamesit in an effort to “Christianize” the native population. Metacom’s Rebellion (June 1675 – August 1676) brought an end to the praying town era, and in 1728, English settlers divided Hassanamesit into lots reserving some parcels for the Nipmuc families still living there.

Hassanamesit Allotments - 1728

 The current reservation is all that remains of the Moses Printer allotment. A wood frame house was built in 1801 for Moses’ great-granddaughter, Lucy Gimby. Lucy’s granddaughter, Sarah Arnold Cisco, became the Nipmuc tribal leader in the mid 1850s and the house became known as the Cisco Homestead. In 1962, it became the Hassanamisco Indian Museum although the family still occupied the addition in the back of the building. The last member of the Cisco family to occupy the Homestead was Shelleigh Wilcox who moved from the reservation in 2006.

Cisco Homestead

Dr. D. Rae Gould, the Nipmuc Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), led the effort to place the reservation on the list. “This good news will increase funding opportunities for our efforts to raise approximately $300,000 for the preservation of the Homestead.” The reservation is designated as a Traditional Cultural Property “associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our (Nation’s) history.” Funding to aid in the nomination process was provided by Preservation Massachusetts.

Hassanamesit has meaning for all Nipmucs as it is the only land in Massachusetts that has never been occupied by non-Natives. And the Homestead is the oldest structure in southern New England to be continuously occupied by Native people. Natick Nipmuc Sachem, Mary Anne Hendricks commented “The Hassanamisco Reservation is not only a sacred place to Nipmuks but has been finally recognized as a place in history for all to appreciate.”

Thanks to all who assisted and supported this journey, in particular Chief Natachaman of the Nipmuc Nation and the Hassanamisco Band of Nipmuc Indians.

Many thanks and an abundance of gratitude to our ancestors who kept this land intact for our generations and those to come.

There were a number of cars pulled up along the memorial site. I could see the people were hesitant to leave them, and only a few were walking up the small hill to where we gather for ceremony. Traveling with my eighty year old grandmother, I need to be sure I bring her as close as conveniently possible, so I pull ahead of the other cars. As I go to open her door, rushing with my head down, hood on, to avoid the cold rain whipping sideways on my face, there’s been a change of plans. We are moving inside to the facilities for ceremony. Its for the elders’ sake.

I wasn’t ready to leave just yet. And while I understood, without question, that the appropriate thing to do in this kind of weather is get everyone inside, there was still a part of me that knew I couldn’t leave that place, at least not without making an offering. My mother took my grandmother forward through security while I stayed behind.

It was time to go, I was already cold, and with the rain soaking my clothes, and the wind carrying the frigid air off the water, I couldn’t bear it anymore…not even for a day in October. What a change, I thought…as I reflected on the wonderful, mild and sunny weather we had just the day before. And how ironic, I thought…as tomorrow’s forecast called for that same beautiful sunny and mild weather again.

There was a lot to think about as I walked against the rain and wind to the facilities inside. Perhaps I even stalled a bit, despite being uncomfortable. Surely this wind and rain on the day we commemorate the removal of my ancestors from their homes to be interned here on this island, for an entire winter without the ability to leave and shield themselves from the cold, was just another way to know the spirits are with us today… and with that, I refrained from any further complaints.

Aside from the few inches of snow we anticipate inland, the forecast for this year’s memorial is predictable. I cannot say it happens every year, that we get a sunny mild day on Friday, wind, rain and cold on Saturday, with another sunny and mild day to follow…, but it frequently occurs… and I welcome it. It is a reminder of our strength as a people, because we did survive countless days on that island in weather much worse. We are still here as a testament to that. And what a blessing it is, to know from such an experience, that all of our relations, seen and unseen, are still here today to tell us pieces of that story.

Kristen Wyman is the Southern New England Outreach Coordinator for Gedakina, Inc. and an enrolled member of the Natick Nipmuc Indian Council (NNIC). She is a community organizer in the areas of environmental and social justice, with a particular interest in land rights and the politics of identity for Native Peoples of New England. She serves on the Board of Nipmuk Nashauonk, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the social, economic and cultural well-being of Nipmuc people, and is also Project Director of the Tribal Youth Science Initiative (TYSI) in Southern New England.

It should truly be named “Italian-American Day” because it was the Italian Knights of Columbus that got FDR in 1937 to make the day official. And I think that would have been swell. I’d gladly parade through the streets with the promise of pasta at the end to celebrate my fellow Americans. It’s probably too late for that though.

I can’t celebrate Columbus. Honestly, he was lost, he was greedy, he was deadly and he was afraid of Ferdinand and Isabella. Plus he didn’t actually discover America – we already lived here! He wasn’t even the first European to hang out on our coasts (remember the Vikings?). The only thing good that I can say about that entire episode is “Thank the Creator he didn’t land in Plymouth.”

“Indigenous Survival Day”. That just sorta rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? And a holiday like that would recognize the enduring strength of the Americas’ First Peoples. After all, we survived Columbus, the Puritans, Andrew Jackson, Vikings, smallpox-infected blankets, Manifest Destiny, allotments, the reservation system, and the Wild, Wild West.

We Are Still Here! Let’s celebrate that!

Click on the link below for more details.

STRAWBERRY MOON