ETHNOHISTORY & HISTORY
Embedded Files
In the fall of 1966, I left Deerfield for graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I had been accepted under the tutelage of Dr. David Lovejoy in colonial American history. In the early days of 1967, I took a year's leave to attend the University of Auckland in New Zealand as an International Rotary Foundation Fellow and where I enrolled in the Department of Anthropology. This experience, as well as my undergraduate minor, set me on a course in which I have often combined the disciplines of history and anthropology/archaeology -- at a time when the field of "ethnohistory" was just emerging. Returning to the University of Wisconsin, I wrote my MA thesis on Indian-White relations in Maryland. This set me down a path that I have followed ever since.
After completing the coursework for a PhD in American history and scouting the field for potential employment, future academic prospects appeared dismal and walking to class up Bascom Hill between two rows of National Guard soldiers with drawn bayonets grew less appealing. In short, I left. After finding a teaching position at a small college, now defunct, I took the opportunity to complete an MA and PhD in Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst by 1979. My dissertation was titled, In the Maelstrom of Change: The Indian Trade and Cultural Process in the Middle Connecticut River Valley, 1635-1665. It was subsequently published as part of a 31-volume series of outstanding dissertations title The Evolution of North American Indians (Garland Publishing Company, 1990). See files below for a copy.
While at the University of Vermont (1978-2000), much of my writing focused on archaeological topics, including being principal investigator and author or coauthor of 204 Cultural Resource Management reports (see Vermont Archaeology folder). Seventeen years of subsequently working for FEMA helping communities recover from natural disasters provided little time for writing. During this forty-year hiatus, I had little time to delve deeply into aspects of ethnohistory, with the exception of using an ethnohistorical approach to craft a testimony for the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs when the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, St. Francis/Sokoki Band petitioned the State of Vermont for tribal recognition in 2011. (See below).
Since my retirement from FEMA in 2017, I have tried to make up for lost time. Thus, most of the papers in this folder either date from an early period of my career or to the past seven years. Since the early days of studying Indian-white relations in New England, it has been evident to me that the Native communities in the Connecticut River valley were, in fact, active players in their own destiny, engaging socially, politically and economically with other Native communities throughout New England, New York and Quebec. Until 1669, when Native forces from the Connecticut Valley and from across southern New England attacked a Mohawk village in New York, where many were killed during their retreat, they held English colonial encroachment to a minimum. Much of my research and writing has attempted to bring this reality to light. As for King Philip's War (1675-1676), I have come to see this as a tragic event for both Natives and colonists. Both cultures lived with memories of destruction and fears for their own and future generations. No one escaped the horrors of war and uncertainty of their survival.
EARLY PAPERS
Housetypes1971.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1971 "Middle Connecticut Valley House Types: A Cautionary Note". Man in the Northeast 1:48-50.
JesuitRings1973.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1973 "Jesuit Rings: Evidence of French-Indian Contact in the Connecticut River Valley". Historical Archaeology VII: 54-58
SquakheagEhtnohistory1973.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1973 "Squakheag Ethnohistory: A Preliminary Study of Cultural Conflict on the Seventeenth Century Frontier". Man in the Northeast 5:27-36.
Note: This paper was written before any of the historical research was begun, so it is speculative in part. Later papers provide a more accurate history.
Contrastive Subsistence Strategies 1976.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1976 "Contrastive Subsistence Strategies and Land Use As Factory for Understanding Indian-White Relations in New England". Ethnohistory 23(1): 1-28
The_Indian_Population_of_New_England_in Seventeenth Century - 1977.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1977 Book review of The Indian Population of New England in the Seventeenth Century. S. F. Cook (1976). American Antiquity 79:932.
IN THE MAELSTROM OF CHANGE
thomas dissertation.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1979 In the Maelstrom of Change: The Indian Trade and Cultural Process in the Middle Connecticut River Valley, 1635-1665. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts - Amherst.
It was subsequently published with the same title and in the same format as part of a 31-volume series of outstanding dissertations title The Evolution of North American Indians. David Hurst Thomas, ed. (Garland Publishing Company, 1990).
Note: This document is 566 pages long and will take several minutes to download before you can read it. Be patient.
Thomas - Dissertation - Epilogue 7-5-2019.docxThomas, Peter A.
1980 "Epilogue to In the Maelstrom of Change (1979 and 1990)". MS chapter reproduced here.
In the Maelstrom covered the period between 1636 and 1665. This chapter continues the story between 1665 and 1675, or just before the outbreak of King Philip's War.
FurTradeEthnohistory1981.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1981 " The Fur Trade, Indian Land and the Need to Define Adequate 'Environmental Parameters'". Ethnohistory 28(4): 359-379.
Bridging the Cultural Gap.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1984 "Bridging the Cultural Gap: Indian/White Relations". In Early Settlement in the Connecticut Valley. By Stephen C. Innis, Richard I. Melvoin and Peter A. Thomas. Historic Deerfield Inc. and Institute for Massachusetts Studies. Westfield, Massachusetts, 5-21.
Cultural Change Southern New England.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1985 " Cultural Change on the Southern New England Frontier, 1630-1665". In Cultures in Contact: The Impact of European Contacts on Native American Cultural Institutions, A.D. 1000-1800, William W. Fitzhugh, ed. Smithsonian Institution Press, 131-161. Reprinted, 1988.
Springfield's Indian Neighbors.pdfThomas, Peter A.
1987 ·"Springfield's Indian Neighbors." In Springfield, 1636-1986, Michael F. Konig and Martin Kaufman, ed. Springfield Library and Museum Association, 3-21.
Into the Maelstrom of Change - Nhampton History.pdfThomas, Peter A,
2004 "History of the Norwottuck Community, 1636-1670". In A Place Called Paradise: Culture and Community in Northampton, Massachusetts 1654-2004, Kerry W. Buckley, ed. Historic Northampton and University of Massachusetts Press, 5-17.
ABENAKI TRIBAL RECOGNITION
Missisquoi Recognition- preface and review(final) - 02-12-2011.docxThomas, Peter A.
2011 "Missisquoi Recognition, Preface and Review". Testimony submitted to the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and Vermont State Senate committee, as an expert witness selected by the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, St. Francis/Sokoki Band as part of their petition for tribal recognition as a Native American community residing within the State of Vermont.
Missisquoi Recognition- Oral Presentation - 02-15-2012.docxSecond submittal document
WISSATINNEWAG
Locating_Wissatinnewag_in_John_Pynchons.pdfThomas, Peter A. and Margaret Bruchac
2006 "Locating 'Wissatinewag' in John Pynchon's Letter of 1663." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 34(1):1-25.
In this HJM article about "Wissatinewag" Marge and I contend that in this specific letter to Dutch authorities, Pynchon's first syllable,"Wis", might well reflect yet another of John Pynchon's idiosyncratic spellings of a place we commonly know as Housatonic. Among his variant spellings of this particular place name we find “Ausatimik", “Ausatinnog", “Ausatinoag", “Aussotinnoag", and “Hoyottanick.” We maintain our inference that this is an ideocratic spelling as he attempted to record a Native word. We offer some additional historical perspective.
Such disparity in the orthography of Indian words as transcribed by English colonists with no linguistic training has been recognized for centuries. For example, Josiah Temple, in his 1875 History of Northfield, expounds on what he terms the "strange diversity in spelling of Indian names." Temple clearly laments the situation as it pertains to Northfield when he writes: "The committee who visited the place in 1669 write it Suckquakege [Daniel Gookin]; the first petitioners for the grant of land write Squakquegue and Wissquawquegue [William Janes] ... The Connecticut council spell it Suckquackheag; John Pynchon writes Wussquakheag; Samuel Partridge writes Wussquackheag; other authorities write Wessquakheag and Soquagkeeke; the form Squakheag was used by Solomon Stoddard in 1675 (p. 32)." Collectively, we have examples of the first syllable of the same name heard and phonetically recorded by Englishmen as Wus, Wis, Wes, and Suck, or this initial sound/syllable is entirely dropped. Suffixes also appear as keag, heag, keeke and que. Our interpretation seems well founded.
The Hawthorne Venture in the Berkshires 1-18-2025.pdfA second point of concern among a few readers stems from the fact that they have viewed John Pynchon, the dominant fur trader in the Connecticut Valley based in Springfield, as being uninterested in the Housatonic area. Hence, "Wissatinewag" must be some place else.
To clarify the historical context, see the attached excerpts from Ruth McIntyre, "John Pynchon and the New England Fur Trade, 1652-1676", in Volume 61: The Pynchon Papers, Volume II (1982) http://www.colonialsociety.org/node/814 .
This brief account of Pynchon's activities makes it clear that Pynchon would have been very protective of any Native community living along the Housatonic River in the Berkshires where he had tried to establish a trading post. The Housatonic valley was also crossed by the principal trail leading from Springfield, as well as Pojasic and Agawam villages, to the Mahican and Dutch settlements in the Hudson Valley, and along which Native and Dutch trappers could bring their beaver east for trade.
THE SOKOKI OR SQUAKHEAG
The Sokoki in the Connecticut Valley - 1999.docxThomas, Peter A.
1999 "The Sokokis in the Middle Connecticut River Valley: Ethnohistoric and Archaeological Perspectives on the Mid-Seventeenth Century." A paper presented at the Abenaki Conference held at the University of Vermont in 1999. MS reproduced here.
The_Sokoki_and_Their_World_in_1663.pdfThomas, Peter A.
2023 "The Sokoki and Their World in 1663"
This talk was given by Peter A. Thomas on February 19, 2023 as part of Northfield’s 350th Anniversary celebrations. It is presented in written form as a means of reaching a wider audience.
Thomas & Colton 2022 - A Place Called Squakheag.pdfThomas, Peter A. and Richard T. Colton
2022 "A Place Called Squakheag, A People Called Sokoki, in 1663." The New Hampshire Archaeologist 62(1):4-20
Through a different set of lenses - final draft with references 12-21-2022 .docxTo be published as “An Alternative Vision of Tool: Squakheag Material Culture in 1663 - Tradition, Adoption, Adaptation and Soul.” In The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife Annual Proceedings, 2022, Tools and Toolmaking in New England.
THE POCUMTUCK
Searching for Pocumtuck final-3.docBefore the winter of 2005, the UMass-Amherst Archaeological Field School had been exploring the high, glacial lake-bottom terrace along the base of East Mountain. They were trying to find the old Pocumtuck fort mentioned in George Sheldon's history, but without success. After a brief stint with Mimi Miller's meticulous records of house lots along the village street archived at PVMA, I encountered a deed whose eastern boundary was recorded as the Pocumtuck fort. Once on site with my son, I had little doubt of the fort's location. Cameron skeptically pulled up his shirt in a winter gale so I could record a topographic sketch of the site's layout on his back. The rest of the story is laid out in the accompanying article.
The Other Side of the Frontier- FINAL DRAFT 2-20-2021.pdfThomas, Peter A.
2021 "The Other Side of the Frontier: The Political Landscape Viewed from Pocumtuck, 1650-1665". This manuscript present a broad-brush view of the complex and evolving Indigenous world of the mid-seventeenth century. It is both local and regional in its perspective. 79 pp.
I consider this a work-in-progress, but I have decided to share it for review to allow others to make suggestions, identify errors of fact, recommend additional avenues of research, or point to other source material.
Who Were the Pocumtuck - HD 2023.docxThomas, Peter A.
2023 "World of the Pocumtuck" this MS is a much expanded paper that I gave as part of Historic Deerfield's Summer Lecture Series on July 6.
The Demise of Pocumtuck and the Birth of Deerfield - 7-27-2019-edit.pdfThis currently unpublished article is an experiment in conceptualizing and recording the history of both Native and English communities as independent trajectories. These story lines roughly parallel one another with no apparent intersection. Then, virtually within a day's time, these trajectories begin to merge, and within six years that had collided. The Native village of Pocumtuck ceased to exist and the nascent town of Deerfield was initially settled.
[Note: Changes in fonts are used to guide the reader from a Native to a Colonists perspective. If you would like to provide comments about contents or style, I would be happy to receive them.]
KING PHILIP'S or METACOM'S WAR
In November 2016, Peter A. Thomas made this sketch of the Great Falls on the Connecticut River as it appeared in May of 1676. During King Philip's or Metacom's War, Native refugee families had gathered here to harvest the runs of shad, alewife and salmon migrating upriver to spawn. The village was located on the terrace bordering the flume, on the small hill, and probably on the levee along the river upstream where their canoes and dugouts were stored. When attacked by English settlers and militia, many of the Indigenous residents were killed outright or drowned in the flume as they tried to flee across the river.
Rethinking King Philips War - DLC - 1-19-2025.pdfThomas, Peter A.
2016 "Rethinking King Philip's War in the Connecticut River Valley: Pushing Beyond Old Assumptions". Presented January 24 as part of Historic Deerfield Winter Lecture Series; modified January 2025.
The Falls in 1676-Resurrecting an Early Landscape - 01-07-2016 (2).pdfThomas, Peter A.
2016 "The Falls in 1676: Resurrecting and Documenting An Early Landscape". This study documents the process that led to the pre-dam conceptualization of Great Falls or Peskeompscut Falls as it existed for centuries before the first power dam was constructed here across the Connecticut River in 1794.
Capt Turner and the Spring of Our Discontent 4-6-2017.pdfThomas, Peter A.
2017 "Captain William Turner and the Spring of Our Discontent: Peeling Back the Layers of King Philip's War In the Middle Connecticut River Valley." pp 97.
MS given to the principal investigator and staff of the Great Falls Battlefield Project to facilitate their project.
This study should not be reproduced in any form without permission from the author.
SWilliams-Falls Fight - historiographic analysis and transcription 8-27-2017.docxThomas, Peter A., transcriber
1729-1732 "Notebook of Stephen Williams" MS, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and Historic Deerfield Memorial Library.
Rev. Stephen William and his father, Rev. John Williams, were both captured in Deerfield and were taken to Canada after the 1704 raid. Both eventually returned to the valley. In preparation for writing a history of the Indian wars, Stephen interviewed Jonathan Wells of Hatfield about his memories of being the youngest member of the English force that attached the Native refugee community at the Great Falls on May 19, 1676. Williams provides us with three, progressively expanded versions of Well's account. These are the only first-hand accounts by a Connecticut valley resident to have been recorded about King Philip's War and this particular bloody encounter.
This study should not be reproduced or published in any form without permission of the author.
NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND RESTORATION OF MRS edited-time and place only.docx
Thomas, Peter A.
MS 2019
Mary Rowlandson, wife of the local minister, was captured during an Indian raid on Lancaster on February 10, 1676. She was taken prisoner and accompanied fleeing Wampanoag and Narragansetts as they retreated to the greater Northfield area where they spent the rest of the winter. This is my attempt to chart the camp locations and time intervals during Mary's captivity.
MISCELLANEOUS THEMATIC ITEMS
Chronology of the Pequot War.docxIndian Names in Connecticut Valley.xlsxNames of Native men and women living in Connecticut Valley settlements, drawn from trade ledgers and other English documents.
Indian Court Cases 1650-1674.docxJohn Pynchon Day ^0 Account Book - photos and transcription - 12-09-2019 final.pdfPage updated
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