‘We’re still here’: Nolumbeka Project’s series of short videos highlights the history of Indigenous peoples

HOLYOKE — Growing up, Liz Coldwind Santana Kiser felt a sense of pride for who she was and her tribe as she listened to stories of her family’s history, passed down generation after generation.

But when the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuc elder and council woman went to public school, that perspective was jilted when teachers would use words like “savages” and “killers” when describing Native Americans.

“When you’re sitting in a classroom and you’re the only person of color there, everybody looks at you … and you just slump down in your chair, because you’re embarrassed because the other kids think that’s who you are, but that’s not who we are,” she said.

Looking back, Santana Kiser, now 71 years old, says she doesn’t blame her teachers for not knowing the history of Indigenous peoples, but thinks it’s time that history is known.

In helping to make that desire a reality, Santana Kiser has passed on some of her experience through a 10-part series of short videos called, “Indigenous Voices from the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts.”

“I think now, in 2022, it’s time that we do teach this,” she said. “The things that happened to us … It isn’t a good story, but it is one and it’s one that needs to be told.”

The film series was produced by the Greenfield nonprofit Nolumbeka Project Inc., whose mission is to preserve the history of Native Americans in New England, and Jennifer Lee in collaboration with Turning Tide Films.

The videos provide windows into the past and present of Native life, and are accompanied by resource guides for teachers or lifelong learners that include maps, definitions and suggested questions for students.

In the film that features Santana Kiser, the Nipmuc elder talks about her family, culture, and her battles with racism. She emphasized the importance of everyone learning Indigenous history and highlighted how she works to dissolve misconceptions.

“At my school presentations, I talk a lot about misconceptions, because many students have only been taught what an Indigenous person looks like from Westerns or from a Disney movie. They haven’t been taught that we all come in different shapes and sizes, or the fact that we still have our traditions and our culture,” she said. “We are still here, we’re still alive, we still exist. And we still carry on our traditions and our culture.”

A few of the videos were recently screened at the Leslie Phillips Theater at Holyoke Community College. The program was hosted by David Brule, a member of Nehantic Tribal Council and chairperson of the Nolumbeka Project, and was supported in part by grants from the Local Cultural Councils of 50 towns in western Massachusetts, which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Among the participating towns locally are Amherst, Greenfield, Plainfield, Shutesbury, South Hadley, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington.

Following the screening, a panel discussion was held with Santana Kiser and Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr., a Nipmuc cultural steward and an artist in residence at Ohketeau Cultural Center in Ashfield.

Gaines, also featured in one of the short films, spoke of how he teaches the ancient art of tanning hides to youth. During the event, he welcomed guests in the theater with a greeting in the Nipmuc language, which was returned with a mix of silence and faint questioning hellos.

“It’s interesting that nobody can reply back to that. We all have to speak English to each other in today’s day and age, despite that the land we’re standing on right now, that’s the language we spoke. It’s important for me to speak that language because it was illegal to even speak our language until 1978,” said Gaines. “And then after that, most people don’t even realize that it was illegal until 2004 to even step into the Boston city limits without being accompanied by Englishmen, or you’d be beheaded or in jail. I speak this language to honor the ancestors who had to go through what they had to go through.”

In honoring their ancestors and being stewards of the land, both Gaines and Santana Kiser spoke of their responsibility to prevent further harm to the land and its peoples. Santana Kiser advocated to not only take a moment to consider the history of violence, displacement, migration, enslavement, settlement and pollution, but also to come together to heal the land from that history.

One way she said people can help that healing process is to support the 2022 Indigenous Legislative Agenda. The five priority bills in this year’s session aim to remove racist mascots, honor Indigenous People’s Day, celebrate and teach Native American culture and history, protect Native American heritage, and support the education and futures of Native youth.

“If we urge our representatives to pass these bills, we will have taken steps to begin the healing process,” she said.

To watch the video series, visit https://nolumbekaproject.org/indigenous-voices/.