Dr. Marge Bruchac: Talk with the Indian Doctress
Saturday, September 14, 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm
Interpreting 19th Century Native American Medicine. Free and open to the public! Presented by Foods Farms and Factories in association with the November Project.
In partnership with the Nolumbeka Project, Food Farms and Factories programing partners presents Dr. Marge Bruchac: Talk with the Indian Doctress on Saturday, September 14 at the Shea Theater Arts Center, 71 Avenue A in Turners Falls. Refreshments will be served at 1pm followed at 1:30pm by a free academic talk and Q & A.
In 19th century New England, a number of Indigenous people worked as “Indian Doctors,” treating their Native and non-Native neighbors alike. Residents of Indian Hollow, Massachusetts, turned to Indian Doctress Rhoda Rhoades (Mohican), who traveled by horseback to treat patients in Springfield and Northampton. Deerfield residents consulted with Indian Doctor Louis Watso (Abenaki), who also advised town physician Steven West Williams on Native plant medicines. These healers practiced what we would recognize today as herbalism, chiropractic, physiotherapy, and even spiritual healing. But over time, as New Englanders moved increasingly towards modern medicine, these gifted Indigenous healers were forgotten and their knowledges were exploited by patent medicine makers. In this talk, Bruchac will discuss her research on Native medicinal plants, practitioners, and the approaches she uses to make these histories visible.
BIO: Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki) – in her multi-modal career as a performer, ethnographer, historian, and museum consultant – has long been committed to critical analyses of colonial histories and recoveries of Indigenous histories. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Bruchac is Professor Emerita of Anthropology, and founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative. Bruchac also directs “The Wampum Trail,” a restorative research project designed to reconnect wampum belts in museum collections with their related Indigenous communities. She has long served as a consultant to New England museums, including Historic Northampton, Historic Deerfield, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and Old Sturbridge Village. Her 2018 book – Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists (University of Arizona Press 2018) – was the winner of the Council for Museum Anthropology Book Award.
Dr. Marge Bruchac: Talk with the Indian Doctress, Interpreting 19th Century Native American Medicine is part of Food Farms and Factories, an ongoing series of 2024 events that explores rural life in Franklin County, MA. Food Farms and Factories is supported by the Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center, RiverCulture, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, DCR and funded by Mass Humanities through the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. More informatio
