Since the time of first interactions between English settlers and the Native peoples of the Dawnland, the settler colonial project has focused on the continued dispossession of Indigenous homelands. Early land deed or transfer documents drawn up between settlers and Narragansett, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Pequot and other tribal representatives, before and after King Philip's War (1675-76), represent just one of the audacious forms of dispossession enacted by settlers across the Native Northeast. This talk will explore the imposition, impacts, and legacies of these 17th century documents, and the lives and experiences of the Native people who signed them.

About the speaker: Kimberly Toney is an enrolled member of the Hassanamisco Band of Nipmuc, and is the Inaugural Coordinating Curator of Native American and Indigenous Collections, jointly appointed to the John Carter Brown and John Hay Libraries at Brown University. Kim has worked in special collections libraries for more than 15 years, including as Head of Readers’ Services and Director of Indigenous Initiatives at the American Antiquarian Society on Nipmuc homelands in Worcester, Massachusetts. Kim is Co-Chair of the newly formed Nipmuc Community Land Project, and regularly serves as a consultant to cultural heritage institutions across southern New England. Her own research and personal interests include language and cultural reclamation, the intersections of Black and Indigenous histories in the Northeast, connecting Indigenous knowledges and practices to scholarly endeavors, and land back.

This program is part of the Newton History Series, co-sponsored by Historic Newton and the Newton Free Library.

Registration is encouraged, and you'll get a reminder if you sign up. Walk-ins are also welcome.