Connecticut History

The Venture Smith homestead is an important eighteenth-century rural black archaeological site with a remarkable level of integrity, associated with a person significant to American history. Born about 1729, Broteer Furro was an African prince abducted and sold into slavery when only six years old. Thirty years a slave, he purchased his and his family’s freedom and became a prosperous mariner-merchant-farmer and benefactor to fellow blacks. At his death in 1805, he owned over 100 acres of farmland, three houses, outbuildings, a wharf, and numerous watercraft. Respected by white neighbors/associates to whom he was known as Venture Smith, he became a local folk hero. Historical documents speak of his integrity, courage and strength. Smith’s life story is critically important to the study of slavery in New England, to African-American history, and to American cultural heritage. He is the focus of ongoing research across several continents. The BBC produced a film on his life: A Slave’s Story (2007). For reasons to be discussed, though not formally a State Archaeological Preserve, the Venture Smith site warrants consideration as a National Historic Landmark.

This paper provides an archaeological perspective on the Boy Scouts of America, placing special emphasis on Scout camps occupying Mohegan lands in southeastern Connecticut (USA) and focusing on the alteration of Indigenous and Indigenous-colonial sites. Archaeological traces demonstrate how Scouts modified a range of stone features, both ancient and recent, and how they reorganized and redefined the land by naming and bounding their camps. Considering these patterns alongside Scout material culture, including the archaeological remains of Scout habitations, we discuss Boy Scout simulations of Indigenous and Indigenous-colonial histories. Drawing upon Indigenous knowledge and critique, we explore how Boy Scout camps "territorialize" whiteness. This involves the appropriation of Indigeneity as a means of escaping the trappings of...

There is little doubt that Indigenous, collaborative, and community-based archaeologies offer productive means of reshaping the ways in which archaeologists conduct research in North America. Scholarly reporting, however, typically places less emphasis on the ways in which Indigenous and collaborative versions of archaeology influence our interpretations of the past and penetrate archaeology at the level of theory. In this article, we begin to fill this void, critically considering archaeological research and teaching at Mohegan in terms of the deeper impacts that Indigenous knowledge, interests, and sensitivities make via collaborative projects. We frame the collaboration as greater than the sum of its heterogeneous components, including its diverse human participants. From this perspective, the project produces new and valuable orientations toward current theoretical debates in archaeology. We address these themes as they relate to ongoing research and teaching at several eighteenth and nineteenth-century sites on the Mohegan Reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Il ne fait aucun doute que l'archéologie des nations amérindiennes, l'archéologie collaborative et l'archéologie communau-taire offrent une variété de démarches pour refaçonner la façon dont les archéologues nord-américains effectuent leur recher-che. Toutefois, les publications mettent en général moins l'accent sur la façon dont les archéologies communautaire et amérindienne influencent l'interprétation du passé au niveau théorique. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à combler cette lacune en examinant de façon critique la recherche et l'enseignement effectués chez les Mohegan, surtout en ce qui a trait aux impacts profonds qu'apporte une approche collaborative sur la pratique archéologique en mettant en valeur les connais-sances, les préoccupations et les sensibilités des nations amérindiennes. Nous envisageons la collaboration comme étant plus grande que la somme de ses composantes hétérogènes, y compris les participants humains. De ce point de vue, ce projet propose de nouvelles directions pour les débats théoriques en archéologie. Nous illustrons ces thèmes à travers la recherche et l'enseignement effectués sur plusieurs sites des XVIII e et XIV e siècles situés sur la Réserve Mohegan à Uncasville, Connecticut.

This report documents and analyzes the utilitarian and ceremonial stone structures found on the Cam family homestead in Shelton, CT. The Cams were a free African-American family with ties to the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Tribe. They had a historic period ceremonial stone landscape (CSL) on their homestead. The ceremonial site includes a serpent effigy, niche, enclosure, cairns and other features.