The Mohegan-Brothertown minister Samson Occom (1723–1792) was a prominent political and religious leader of the Indigenous peoples of present-day New York and New England, among whom he is still revered today. An international celebrity in his day, Occom rose to fame as the first Native person to be ordained a minister in the New England colonies. [Read more…] about Samson Occom: Radical Hospitality in the Native Northeast
Indigenous History
Centering Authentic Indigenous Voices
The latest A New York Minute in History Podcast, celebrates Native American Heritage Month with a conversation regarding how historians can center authentic indigenous voices and work with Native American communities across the state in planning for the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Centering Authentic Indigenous Voices
An Archive of Indigenous Slavery (Podcast)
While there is no way to measure the exact impact of slavery upon the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, we do know the practice involved many millions of Indigenous people who were captured, bound, and sold as enslaved people.
Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery is a digital archive that seeks to document and name enslaved Indigenous individuals. [Read more…] about An Archive of Indigenous Slavery (Podcast)
The Pilgrims of Plimoth & The First Thanksgiving
In 1621, the Pilgrims of Plimoth (or Plymouth) Colony and their Wampanoag neighbors came together to celebrate their first harvest. Today we remember this event as the first Thanksgiving.
But what do we really know about this holiday and the people who celebrated it? [Read more…] about The Pilgrims of Plimoth & The First Thanksgiving
Deep History: Place Names of Lake Champlain
Writer and adventurer Erik Schlimmer dedicated two years of research and was assisted by a platoon of historians to produce Deep History: Place Names of Lake Champlain (Beechwood Books, 2023).
Described as “the only book dedicated to this unique aspect of Lake Champlain antiquity,” 440-page Deep History investigates the lake’s 392 toponyms – 124 in New York and 268 in Vermont. For those unfamiliar with the term, toponyms are the names of natural features such as bays, islands, points, and reefs. [Read more…] about Deep History: Place Names of Lake Champlain
Social and Religious Movements in Central New York
Central New York communities that flourished with canal-related development and rail connections throughout the 19th century also became hotbeds for religious and social movements of the early 1800s as the area’s population rapidly grew.
Religious freedom granted by the United States Bill of Rights combined with rapid societal and technological changes experienced by Americans living through western expansion fueled an American spiritual movement that was exemplified in the newly opened frontier of New York. [Read more…] about Social and Religious Movements in Central New York
Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast
Hunger shaped the early Northeast. As Native peoples fought back against the invasion of British and French colonizers, everyone experienced, used, succumbed to, and survived hunger.
Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki peoples had spent generations honing their subsistence strategies to their environments. Colonizers, by contrast, struggled to adapt to North America and found themselves deeply dependent upon Native American foods.
In response, colonists constructed myths of starving Native people to justify colonialism and spent centuries attacking Native food sovereignty. [Read more…] about Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast
To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763
To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763 (Black Dome Press, 2023) is the first volume in a new “Rangers of the French and Indian, Cherokee, and Pontiac’s War” series by Black Dome Press, that is expected to document for the first time the histories of all ranger units, from each of the colonies, that served in the French & Indian War and after.
Volume I begins with the most famous ranger unit of all ― Robert Rogers’ Rangers, which served in the major campaigns in New York and Canada, and then in the Caribbean, and continued to fight in the Cherokee and Pontiac’s Wars. [Read more…] about To Distress the French and Their Allies: Rogers’ Rangers, 1755-1763
Louis Riel: A Canadian Rebel’s Exile in Northern New York
Louis Riel (1844-1885) a founder of the province of Manitoba in Canada and a political leader of the Métis people (mixed Indigenous and European ancestry) at a time when they actively resisted the Northwest Territories integration into the Dominion of Canada in the late 1860s and 1870s. [Read more…] about Louis Riel: A Canadian Rebel’s Exile in Northern New York
New Grant Program to Support Maritime Heritage
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced almost $400,000 in federal grant awards from the National Maritime Heritage Program for maritime heritage education and preservation projects in New York State.
The National Park Service (NPS) awarded $2 million in maritime heritage grants to fund 12 preservation projects in nine states, including two awards totaling $392,500 to State Parks. [Read more…] about New Grant Program to Support Maritime Heritage