Research Symposium: World of the Wangunk

The seeds for the first-ever research symposium about the Wangunk people of central Connecticut were planted a decade ago when founding convener of the Wangunk Studies Working Group J. Kēhaulani Kauanui taught a service-learning course at Wesleyan. The class, “Decolonizing Indigenous Middletown: Native Histories of the Wangunk Indian People,” in partnership with the Middlesex County Historical Society, resulted in a public seminar at Russell Library where Kauanui's students presented their research on the lesser-known group of indigenous people who inhabited the land near and where Wesleyan sits.  

“It was really clear to me at the time that there was such a paucity, there was such a thin record of scholarly work on Wangunk,” said Kauanui, currently the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Professor of Indigenous Studies and anthropology at the Effron Center for the Study of America, Princeton University. 

Fast forward a decade, Kauanui approached Gary Red Oak O’Neil MALS ’82 CAS ’93, a Wangunk tribal elder, art instructor, and special education teacher, to explore the possibility of creating a network of experts on the Wangunk. She called together more than a dozen academic scholars and independent community historians to form the Wangunk Studies Working Group. Their first symposium, “Emerging from Erasure: Indigenous and Settler Colonial Histories of the Wangunk People,” was held on Oct. 24 and 25 at Wesleyan, as part of the programming for an art exhibit of O’Neil’s ceramic works, Excavations, at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. 

The opening events included a screening of a short film, Piece by Piece, by Eiley Doyle ’25, which centered O’Neil, followed by an artist talk about his exhibition. At the start of the research symposium the next day, O’Neil explained the significance of the effort. 

“This exhibit and this weekend and the Wangunk documentary, these are all things that have happened that opened the door to Wangunk history,” he said. “And unfortunately, as I did research, all the people I interviewed, all they felt like is they were people without a country. And they had served in the military, they'd done all these things and just never been part of the fabric. And Wesleyan is making a positive step in changing all of that.” 

Windows into the Wangunk  

The first panel, chaired by Professor of History Jeffers Lennox, featured presentations exploring archaeological evidence of early Wangunk life, the tribe’s influence on colonial politics, and colonization of the Connecticut River.  

One of the panelists, Lucianne Lavin, director of research and collections, emeritus, at the Institute for American Indian Studies, shared archaeological evidence of indigenous people’s presence in Connecticut dating back 12,500 years. Lavin detailed evidence that “Wangunk society was sustained by a robust, broad-spectrum economy” with trade networks dating back thousands of years. This prosperity was cut short by a combination of European settlement, trade, private land ownership, and disease. 

Plagues like smallpox would kill up to an estimated 90 percent of the indigenous population in New England by 1650, said Lavin. Yet “strong leadership allowed the Wangunk to retain some political authority and reserve homelands through diplomacy,” she added.  

Thomas Wickman, associate professor of history and American studies at Trinity College, presented on the English efforts and failures to colonize along the Connecticut River. In describing the settler colonial process as sometimes uneven and incomplete, he said, “English struggles to take the Connecticut River, their failed plan to take Mattabessic in the early 1640s, and Wangunk persistence here all speak to the ways that settler colonialism was and is real, even when it didn't entirely achieve its aims.” 

The second panel, chaired by Associate Professor of African American Studies and Education Studies Khalil Johnson, delved into areas of culture, law, and healers of the Wangunk during the colonial period. Panelist Sarah Sportman, Connecticut State Archaeologist and assistant extension professor at the University of Connecticut, shared insights into Wangunk life uncovered at a 17th century English colonial farm known as the Hollister Site, now present-day South Glastonbury.  

The archaeological evidence reveals that the Wangunk lived and worked alongside English occupants, said Sportman. Artifacts show native pottery, metalworking, flintknapping, foodways, and skilled craftwork. “The material record of a Hollister farm suggests that Wangunk people at Nayaug adapted to life in 17th century Connecticut on their own terms, maintaining many aspects of traditional lifeways as they navigated conflict, colonialism, and rapid economic and social change,” she said.  

In another presentation, Katherine Hermes, professor emeritus of history at Central Connecticut State University, explored the intersection between indigenous and colonial law through the life and death of one indigenous woman, Sarah Hopewell. Her death by drowning in Wethersfield in 1704 left behind evidence of a woman living between two worlds. An independent woman with an English name and no known tribal affiliation, her connections to Native communities made her an important figure to her people.  

“For all the apparent erasure of the indigenous in Sarah Hopewell, little clues in the colonial record suggest her indigeneity was ever present,” said Hermes. 

Ongoing Research 

The symposium concluded with a third panel exploring familial relationships and the lives and legacies of two notable Wangunk individuals—Sarah Onepenny and Jonathan Palmer, ancestor of Gary Red Oak O’Neil—followed by discussion.  

Assistant Professor of the Practice in African American Studies, Jesse Nasta, chaired the final panel. His research at Wesleyan and role as executive director of the Middlesex County Historical Society brought him to the Wangunk Studies Working Group. “At the Historical Society, I'm working with Gary O'Neil, the Wangunk elder, to create a collection of Wangunk archives, which previously hadn't existed,” said Nasta. That will include O’Neil’s family papers and a family Bible, among other items.   

A digital archive will also collect Wangunk resources—primary source documents, bibliographies, publishes articles—all together under one umbrella, said Nasta. A K-12 curriculum on the Wangunk is also in the works. 

Throughout the day, Kauanui encouraged attendees to not only share their knowledge but to submit further ideas for projects to continue the work, making it a truly collaborative group effort.  

Hosted by Wesleyan’s Center for the Humanities and director Anthony Hatch, the symposium was co-sponsored by the Middlesex County Historical Society with support from: the Wintman Family Endowed Lecture Series; the deans of the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences; American Studies; Anthropology; History; and the Indigenous Studies Research Network. Presenters also included Paul Grant-Costa, Alice King, Vicki Welch, Jim Sarbaugh, and Alexandra Maravel.