Eastern Pequots' land yields colonial-era clues

By: Gale Courey Toensing

LANTERN HILL, Conn. - Archaeologists working on Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation land this summer uncovered four pits of cultural material - a trove of 18th century artifacts that will help tell the story of how the tribe's ancestors lived during the colonial era before the United States self-generated as a nation-state on what had been indigenous peoples' land for millennia.

The Eastern Pequot Archaeological Field School, which conducted the dig, is a collaborative project between the tribe and the University of Massachusetts Boston. The project began five years ago and was created by tribal member Kathy Sebastian Dring, the tribe's historic preservation adviser, in partnership with Stephen Silliman, associate professor of anthropology and director of the historical archaeology master's program in the university's anthropology department.

''We got the project started in consultation with the tribal council. We discussed it probably for about six months to a year before it actually got off the ground because it was the first project of this sort that we had ever done. We've really established a pretty strong educational program and developed good relationships. It's been very rewarding,'' Sebastian Dring told Indian Country Today.

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