GREAT BARRINGTON — About 300 people enjoyed a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day that circulated around downtown Great Barrington for hours yesterday.
The event, one of several in the Berkshires since late September, was put on by local grassroots organization Alliance for a Better Future, BRIDGE, and the Stockbridge-Munsee community of the Mohican Nation. Many other local partners planned the four events for Indigenous Peoples’ Day with native leaders, “to highlight community, education, ceremony, and integration,” organizers said.
The aim of the events, said organizer Lev Natan, “is to acknowledge and heal the wounds of our past, honor the Native and Indigenous ethic of respect and care for the natural world, and integrate Indigenous values into our response to climate change.”
See video below of Dennis Powell, president of the Berkshire Branch of the NAACP, addressing attendees at the gazebo behind Great Barrington Town Hall:
There were speeches, Native music, a procession leading to a ceremonial blessing of the Housatonic River, and a prayer circle at Memorial Field on Bridge Street.
Natan said the commemoration is inspired, in part, by Randy Weinstein and Gwendolyn VanSant of the Great Barrington W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee. Two years ago, they asked the town of Great Barrington to join towns, cities, and states around the country who are recognizing the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, replacing Columbus Day. The selectboard agreed to do it. Last Thursday, the Berkshire Hills Regional School District did the same.
See video below of Navajo Medicine Man Jake Singer and Shawn Stevens of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community of the Mohican Nation making an offering to the Housatonic River:
