Presented by Gail White Usher, Wednesday, February 27, 2019 6:30 p.m. Westfield State University, Scanlon Banquet Hall. Free and open to the public.

What life was like for the original inhabitants of Westfield, the Woronoak tribe, and their Eastern Woodlands’ tribes neighbors such as the Pocumtuck 350 years ago? And how did it change with the arrival of European populations? In the period 1620 to 1750, European settlement of North America expanded rapidly and encounters with the Native populations increased in frequency and intensity. Both societies incorporated aspects of the others’ material world. The changes were most dramatic in the Eastern Woodlands’ tribes. They retained their cultures but their material world was significantly altered. This lecture explores Eastern Woodlands Native Americans during this time of interaction. It will look first at their lives just prior to contact and then examine decades of change that follow.

Presenter Gail White Usher serves as Education Coordinator at Roseland Cottage and Arnold House, run by Historic New England, the oldest and largest regional heritage organization in the nation.