Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ted Timreck will screen a retrospective of his documentary film “Great Falls”, the first episode of the Hidden Landscapes series. The town of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, was attempting to expand the runway of its airport.  The plan called for the removal of a low hill that contains what Native American tribal representatives identify as a ritual site – a ceremonial stone landscape. The surprising discovery and the on-going effort to understand and protect what may be an extraordinary historical asset is a dramatic story of environmental and cultural preservation. Mr. Timreck holds a research position in the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center at the National Museum of Natural History. Sponsored by and held at the Sargent Memorial Library in Boxborough.

We live and walk on sacred ground.  Littleton, with and part of Acton and Boxborough, was originally the Praying Indian Village of Nashobah, a place of spirit and vision.  Join Strong Bear Medicine of the Nashobah Praying Indians and local historian Daniel V. Boudillion as they discuss the Nashobah people, their spirit, their journey of survival, the village at Fort Pond, and the sacred landscape of ceremonial stone structures – prayers in stone – that are all around us.  Please welcome Strong Bear Medicine as he walks his native land with us and shares his culture.  Co-sponsored by the Littleton Historical Society. 

Strong Bear Medicine is the brother of Chief Caring Hands of the Natick-Ponkapoag Praying Indians.  He is a well-known speaker, Native dancer, performer, and craftsman. 

Daniel V. Boudillion is a lifelong Littleton resident.  He is a historical writer with a focus on Nashobah-Littleton 1654-1720 and is a ceremonial stone landscape researcher

The Magunkaquog community was one of seven original “Praying Towns” established by missionary John Eliot in Massachusetts Bay. Recognized in 1669, Magunkaquog was a gathering place for Nipmuc people until Harvard’s purchase of the land in 1715. Seventeenth and early eighteenth-century documents identify several Native people who were associated with Magunkaquog, including Isaac Nehemiah, who committed suicide the day after Harvard’s takeover. These individuals and their families become difficult to trace after 1715 when the community was “dissolved” and associations with Magunkaquog are harder to find in the documentary record. Senior Archaeologist Holly Herbster will discuss how Magunkaquog’s history was carried forward, and how collaborative research with Nipmuc descendants is giving this history a future.
Acton Memorial Library. In person and streamed

Holly Herbster is a senior archaeologist/principal investigator with The Public Archaeology Lab, PAL, a cultural resource management firm in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where, among other responsibilities, she is responsible for the supervision of all phases of archaeological fieldwork in New England and the Northeast. Her research focus includes documentary and ethno-historic studies and she has collaborated extensively with Native American groups in Massachusetts.

Thomas Elmore, of the GeoNAV Group, and Eva Gibavic, of Ceremonial Landscapes Research, share their experience using 3D LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, and mapping utilizing ArcGIS’s capabilities to bring extremely accurate digital documentation to research of archaeological and ceremonial sites.
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This brisk hike along the Nashoba Brook trail will include stops at the stone chamber and Native American ceremonial sites. Bettina Abe of Acton’s Natural Resources Division will be the lead. Trail conditions can be rocky, uneven, and often wet, and these conditions require close attention to footing. Participation is thus limited to ages 17 and up.
Registrants will receive a detailed email on where to meet and dress recommendations several days before the walk.
Limited to 20, ages 17 and up.

Archaeological fieldwork prior to construction of the new Keene Middle School discovered traces of four structures dating to the end of the Ice Age. Undisturbed for 12,000 years, the site revealed information about the economy, gender roles, and household organization of the region’s first inhabitants, and evidence of social networks that extended for hundreds of miles across northern New England.
Acton Memorial Library.
In-person and streamed

Goodby is a professor of anthropology at Franklin Pierce University and has over thirty years of experience excavating Native American archaeological sites in New England.

There has been a growing awareness and interest in the “mysterious” stone structures of New England. Thought to be inconsequential byproducts of colonial farming, many sites are now understood as originating in pre-colonial ceremonial practices of Native Americans. This talk will focus on the contributions to the new understanding, made by people and locations in Acton and nearby towns.
Acton Memorial Library.
In-person and streamed

Through his Rock Piles blog, rockpiles.blogspot.com, Peter Waksman has informed and influenced the study of Indigenous rock structures in the Northeast for more than 15 years.

This annual effort again takes place on the Trail Through Time, a multicultural heritage trail in the North Acton conservation lands. The focus will be on trail and site maintenance. There will be an optional brunch beforehand at Legend’s Cafe in West Acton at 11:30 AM. 
Closer to November 13, the meeting place and other details will be sent to registrants by email.
Limited to 25, ages 13 and up.