The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians were driven west by expanding European settler colonialism in the early 19th Century after calling the Northeast home for millennia. Now, the Wisconsin-based community is preparing to return to reignite its relationship with the homelands it’s missed for centuries.
“We traveled out east there to the homelands, and we found healing," Wanonah Kosbab told WAMC. "So, we wanted to extend it to the rest of our people. And so, we started working together on how we could get our people back to the homeland so that they can start their healing journey as well and dance on the homelands and touch down where our ancestors were.”
Kosbab is a board member for the Homelands PowWow, a recognition of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians’ long history in the region that will take place on the grounds of the Darrow School in New Lebanon on Saturday and Sunday.
“The powwow is a gathering," she explained. "It's a celebration of people, of life, in this case, of land, and past stewards of that land, and current stewards of that land coming together, to share in community, to share meals, laughter, joy. It's all about coming back together. And in this particular case, it's important, because when we left them homelands, there was a lot of negative energy that was left behind. And so that negative energy just kind of sits there and stews, and it's a stale energy. And so when we reconnect in a good way, we replace that negative energy with all of this good energy that we're bringing by coming back together in community, in love this time.”
Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans member Ginger Stevens, who also sits on the powwow’s board, made her inaugural trip to the homelands – a region spanning Berkshire County, the Hudson Valley, and parts of Vermont and Connecticut – three years ago.
“The first time I came out here and the first time I walked on the land, it just felt like the land itself was welcoming me," she told WAMC. "You just felt like this hug from Mother Earth, and it was like being at a place you had never been before, but you felt like you were finally home, like I had never been home at any time in my life until I came here. So, it was very emotional. There was a lot of tears, a lot of just heavy feelings that I had to work through for a little bit to figure out exactly what was going on. But once I started realizing that this was home and that I feel like my ancestors were welcoming me back to this land- It just touches your heart in a way that you don't expect.”
That experience laid the seeds for the historic powwow set for this weekend.
“This trip I've brought all my kids, I want them to feel it," said Stevens. "I've got my grandkids, my kids and my grandkids, they're all here for the very first time, and we're just all so excited to be able to do this. Our ancestors weren't allowed to dance when they were out here or practice their culture. It was illegal back then. So, it's also very, very important to us to be able to dance here where they were not allowed.”
She says the event will be a dazzling display of song, dance, crafts, and culture.
“You're going to see some of the most beautiful dancing you've ever seen," said Stevens. "There are so many different types of dancing, but you're going to see some buckskin, women in buckskins. You're going to see men in traditional regalia, and that'll be real close to what it was back in the old days, but we've got so many new dance styles that have evolved over the years. So, there's women's Jingle Dress, and that's a story in itself. fancy shawl, the men's fancy feather, brass dancers. We have an MC, and he's going to walk you through that and explain what each one is and how these dances came about. So, you're going to see all these bright, colorful regalias. You're going to see the smiles on these people's faces, the faces of the Stockbridge Munsee people as they dance in their homelands.”
Shawn Stevens, another member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and the powwow’s board of directors, says the event is about strengthening relationships, not recrimination.
“We're not coming back to place blame or make anybody feel ashamed of what people one hundred years ago did, a couple hundred years ago," he told WAMC. "Those people are no longer there, but the people who are there now, they really want us to come back, and they want to get to know us, and we'd love to have that as well.”
Kosbab says the opportunity to confront the pain of the past is powerful, and rich with meaning for the Stockbridge-Munsee.
“It's much like a curse that was laid on our people, and to bring it full circle to a good place, and leaving it in a good place," she sighed. "That's an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that we can actually have that opportunity, because this opportunity wasn't- Just 20, 30 years ago, it wasn't an opportunity for us. It wasn't one that we would have. And so now we have that opportunity to go back and do these things. And so, it's just overwhelming. It's so overwhelming. There's joy, there's the end stages of grief. Bringing that full circle the way that we are- It's just, yeah, overwhelming is the only word I can think of.”
The Homelands PowWow at the Darrow School in New Lebanon kicks off at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
