Special Guest: Nohham R. Cachat-Schilling will share a presentation on
NATIVE AMERICAN STONE PRAYERS IN SHAPPEKWA (CHAPPAQUA):
PRESERVING ENDANGERED SACRED HERITAGE IN A CRITICAL HABITAT - A Native American perspective on the importance and significance of the Chappaqua Central School District Buttonhook Site - located in the Valley Ridge area of Chappaqua.
Nohham Cachat-Schilling (Mohawk-Nashawe two-spirit), M.S., is Medicine Elder for Bridge in the Sky Medicine Circle and Chair of Massachusetts Ethical Archaeology Society. Nohham's research centers on Indigenous ethnobotany and sacred archaeology of the Northeast. They and their family operate Maguonket Organic Traditions Farm, a minimum-impact permaculture of Indigenous American foods and medicine plants. Bridge in the Sky Medicine Circle contact Miles Tardie, Secretary [email protected]; contact M.E.A.S. at [email protected], or view at www.ethicarch.org.
Recent publications: Decolonizing Our Story: Indigenous Peoples of the Great Rivers Intervale, Onomastic and Identity Review (Academia.edu 2021), Eli Luweyok Kikayunkahke: So Said the Departed Elders, Northeastern Algonquian Land Use Traditions (Northeast Anthropology 2018), Assessing Stone Relics in Western Massachusetts Part II: Patterns of Distribution (Archaeology Society of Connecticut 2018). Nohham is also a contributing author to an upcoming collection on sacred stone landscapes under the Native American History Series of University of Arizona Press.
We were introduced to Nohham R. Cachat-Schilling by Dr. Curtiss Hoffman of Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, author of the book "Stone Prayers: Native American Constructions of the Eastern Seaboard." Nohham has been instrumental in helping educate local Chappaqua residents to better understand the rich Native American history that exists in this area since before the arrival of colonial settlers and the importance of this land that we live on today.
Come learn with us about the ceremonial stone landscapes that still exist in this critical habitat and how we can protect what remains of the Native American sacred heritage before it is destroyed by development.
Preserve Buttonhook is a community effort underway to preserve this environmentally important and historic land in Chappaqua, New York. Learn more at http://www.preservebuttonhook.org
