Fridays

1:00 - 2:30 pm

Online

1/21, 1/28, 2/4, 2/11, 2/18 & 2/25

Six Sessions 

This course is offered online via the easy-to-use Zoom program.

In this course, we will learn about how and when people first came to this section of Turtle Island (North America.) We will follow the development of indigenous culture by way of story-telling, archaeological discoveries, and other means.

We will look behind Colonial myths and try to see the period of colonization through the eyes of the Native people. We will survey current conditions, and reflect on how we can benefit from indigenous wisdom, to help us in these days of climate change and social unrest.

This course is the first offering in a yearlong initiative by OLLI at BCC exploring the indigenous peoples of the northeast, which will include speakers, book groups, art exhibits, history walks, performances and more, the majority of which will be held in September 2022.

Recommended Reading:

Readings will be provided during the course, and references will be given to many online resources as well as books. Some of the books that have good background information are:

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer. [Milkweed Editions, 2015]

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England , William Cronon.  [Hill and Wang, 2005]

The Common Pot, Lisa Brooks. [University of Minnesota Press, 2010]

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.  [Beacon Press, 2015]

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus , Charles C. Mann. [Vintage, 2006]

Michael Forbes Wilcox holds an MA in Economics from Trinity College.  He is the Alford Town Moderator and a former member of the Massachusetts Special Commission Relative to Autism. He has previously taught a variety of OLLI at BCC courses, including A Walk Through Berkshire History; Indigenous Voices; Indigenous Culture in the Berkshires and Beyond; and Autism in the Age of Neurodiversity. He is currently studying the Abenaki language and is a volunteer in the Stockbridge-Munsee tribal archeological digs in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

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