Parallel Landscapes: Algonquian and English Spatial Understandings of New England, 1500-1700
Nathan Braccio, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Connecticut
November 6, 2019 – 4 to 5PM (UCHI Conference Room: Babbidge Library, 4th Floor South)
Nathan’s talk will explore the ways in which Algonquian knowledge of the landscape represented a powerful and persistent alternative to English surveying and mapmaking in New England. When English colonists and explorers recognized the unsuitability of their techniques for understanding New England’s unfamiliar landscape, they tried to appropriate Indigenous knowledge and maps. Algonquian sachems (community leaders), used this as an opportunity to manipulate and benefit from their new English neighbors. For both colonizers and Indigenous people, maps became a potent tool in the struggle to define New England’s landscape.