The Mohicans in Northwest Connecticut

Join the Bidwell House Museum for the second program in our online winter lecture series focused on the Indigenous Peoples of Western New England.

On March 9 at 7pm, we are happy to present Dr. Lucianne Lavin, Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies. Her talk will focus on the Mohican presence in northwest Connecticut.

Early European documents demonstrate that Mohican tribal homelands extended east and south into what is now Connecticut, with known villages reported in what would become the towns of Salisbury, Sharon, and Canaan. The documentary evidence reveals stable, peaceful social and political relationships between Mohicans and Housatonic Valley tribal communities to their south, particularly the Schaghticoke (AKA Scaticook) and this archaeology pushes the Mohican presence back even farther, into deep history.

Lucianne Lavin is Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies, a museum and research and educational center in Washington, CT. She is an anthropologist & archaeologist who has over 50 years of research and field experience in Northeastern archaeology and anthropology, including teaching, museum exhibits and curatorial work, cultural resource management, editorial work, and public relations. Dr. Lavin is a founding member of the state’s Native American Heritage Advisory Council and former editor of the journal of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut for 30 years.

This program will be held via Zoom and details for how to access the event will be sent via email a few days in advance.

This program is supported through a grant from Housatonic Heritage.