Belonging, Not Belongings: Thinking beyond the "White Possessive" in the Identification of 19th Century Indigenous Landscapes in New England

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recognizing and Recording Post-1492 Indigenous Sites in North American Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In her recent book, "The White Possessive," Aileen Moreton-Robinson details the way in which Western Nationhood hinges upon the possession of property. Consequently, the mechanisms by which Indigenous people become "propertyless," are crucial for the state’s denial of Indigenous sovereignty. For example, in 18th century Massachusetts, the Nipmuc people were identified, traced, archived and legitimized by their ownership of land. Colonial records plot Nipmuc land holdings with care, measuring and quantifying state approved land "grants," reservations, and holdings in severalty. Nipmuc land sale transactions were highly monitored and subject to state approval. As Nipmuc land holdings dwindle in the late 18th and 19th centuries, so do archival records of Nipmuc presence on the landscape, creating a lasting historical erasure and a discourse of Native "disappearance" despite the continued presence of Nipmuc people in New England. In this paper, I will share some methods I’ve adapted for tracing Nipmuc residence without the assumption of ownership and immediate proximity, revealing tangible locations and traceable routes of dynamic Indigenous communities that existed within, amongst, and in-spite-of Western landscapes of private property in 19th century New England.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recognizing and Recording Post-1492 Indigenous Sites in North American Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25086