Over the last year, the Institute for New England Native American Studies, Suffolk University Law School’s Indigenous Peoples Rights Clinic, Native communities, and non-Native allies met in a series of listening sessions. At these events, we discussed the relationship between … Continue reading →

The last 9 months of Discussions For and With Massachusetts Native Peoples has provided richer dialogue, a multiplicity of perspectives, and greater participation than was ever expected. With our last session held on March 11th at the North American Indian … Continue reading →

Our third listening session and roundtable was held in UMASS/Amherst on November 5, 2015.  The focus of the session was education and was hosted by the Certificate Program in Native American and Indigenous Studies. In addition to the presentations from … Continue reading →

While our first two sessions were directly driven by the interests of our host communities at Worcester and Mashpee, our third session, hosted at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, focused on Indian Education in the Commonwealth. As such, our … Continue reading →

I can no longer say that I am shocked that my estimates in terms of attendance at the sessions were wrong, but I am pleased that the second event had even more people in the room than the first event … Continue reading →

What follows is a bulleted summary of the first listening session and roundtable held in Worcester and hosted by the Nipmuc Tribe on August 29, 2015. In addition to the presentations from the Nipmuc Tribe and the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe, … Continue reading →

When I wrote the grant to fund Native Americans and the Social Contract: A Reassessment for Our Times, I optimistically estimated we would have 40-50 people participate in each event. Boy was I ever wrong! We had 61 people in … Continue reading →