GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Fifteen tribal nations, including the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans, will join a celebration of Native American culture in Berkshire County on the weekend of Oct. 6-9.

 

The public is invited to join these events

The 2nd Annual Honoring Native America features R. Carlos Nakai, the world's premier performer of the Native American flute; Shawn Stevens, celebrated Mohican storyteller; Cheryl Fairbanks, Esq, renowned Indigenous Peacemaker, and opening words from Lev Natan, Executive Director of Alliance for a Viable Future.

 

According to a press release, R. Carlos Nakai, Shawn Stevens, and Cheryl Fairbanks are masters of their respective craft, and have been specially invited to share their offering with the Berkshire community. This unique event moves beyond the realm of performance into the interactive dimension of participatory ceremony and collective prayer. 

 

The Berkshires community is also invited to participate in a ceremonial walk through Main Street, starting at Giggle Park, behind Town Hall (334 Main Street) at noon, to honor the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people who are the indigenous peoples of this land. President Jackson's 1832 Indian Removal Act, forced the Mohicans from the Berkshires less than two-hundred years ago.  Enduring many hardships, today their community thrives in Wisconsin.

 

A Mohican Delegation will be traveling from Wisconsin to participate, for the second year in-a-row; including Shawn Stevens and his sister Wanonah Kosbab, who has been residing in the Berkshires as part of the Mohican Homecoming Project.

 

Many representatives from tribal nations will be returning from last year, including Jake Singer, medicine man and sundance chief from the D?e Navajo Nation, Kristine Hill (Tuscororo), Aaron Athey (Mohegan), Roman Guariguarix (Tiano), Steve Smith (Ramapough Lenape), Robyn Coe (Chicasaw).

 

The weekend's events are organized by Alliance for a Viable Future (AVF), a Northeast regional nonprofit dedicated to building alliances and developing leadership for bioregional climate solutions and intercultural peacemaking. AVF became the official organizer of Indigenous People's Day in Great Barrington in 2020, with each year gaining increasing visibility and community participation.

 

"This is groundbreaking community healing work.  We are part of a movement all around the country, and the world, to acknowledge five hundred years of genocide and colonization.  We are making a conscious choice to move in the direction of collective healing and regeneration," said event organizer Lev Natan, executive director of Alliance for a Viable Future. "Indigenous traditions understand our deep connection with nature and the Earth.  Now is the time to stand together to ensure a viable future for our children."

 

The weekend's activities were inspired, in part, by Randy Weinstein and Gwendolyn VanSant of the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, who, in 2019, asked the Town of Great Barrington to join a growing movement of towns, cities and states around the country who recognize the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

 

Visit allianceforaviablefuture.org for further details and to register.