By HANNAH DuBOIS
Eagle Times Corespondent
The Fort at No. 4, a historic landmark and open-air museum in Charlestown, NH, was the location for a recent presentation of the National Park Service-funded Kchi Pontegok Petroglyph Project held Aug. 10.
The project is a collaboration between local historians, local archaeologists, and members of the Elnu Abenaki tribe who wish to further preserve, research, and understand the Kchi Pontegok (Great Falls) site and its associated petroglyphs.
There was a specific reason why the presentation was held at the Fort on a Thursday.
“The Fort at No. 4 figures largely in regional stories of the interactions between indigenous peoples of the Kwenitekw/Connecticut River and the newer arrivals in the form of Euro-American colonizing settlers, and how these cultures have informed or affected each other,” explains Rich Holschuh, co-manager of the Kchi Pontegok Project and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Elnu Abenaki.
Built in 1744, the purpose of the Fort at No. 4 was to protect Township Number 4, a British colony in the 18th century from French and Indian raids.
The Connecticut River was a major transportation route for the indigenous people of the area and also provided them with food and other important resources for survival.
Because of its location along the banks of the Connecticut River, the Fort and its inhabitants were in constant contact with the indigenous peoples of the area. In fact, the land that they had settled upon had been home to indigenous peoples long before the arrival of the settlers themselves.
Less than 10 miles down river from the Fort is a significant and sacred site for the Native Abenaki people. It is known today as Bellows Falls, Vt. Kchi Pontegok, a Western Abenaki term for the Great Falls, was a popular fishing destination and sacred burial site for the Abenaki.
The site holds a wealth of information about the history of the area, including petroglyphs that date back up to 3000 years ago, according to archaeologist’s estimates.
The purpose of the Kchi Pontegok Petroglyph Project “is to help develop National Register site nominations for sites not yet or not well represented in the National Register,” explained project member Gail Golec. “Our work involves compiling an inventory of known archaeological, historic sites as well as important geologic and geographic features and sacred indigenous places in the Connecticut River valley and cataloguing them using Arc/GIS mapping.”
The project is funded by a National Park Service grant through their Underrepresented Communities Program. Although the classification, documentation, and preservation of the petroglyphs is a primary focus of the project, there are many other advantages to this type of work for the public, the local community and for the Abenaki people who are still part of it.
Diana Jones is a longtime resident of Bellows Falls, of Abenaki descent, and proud member of the project, said the project is expanding knowledge of the area’s earliest resident.
“They are finding information that has never been spoken of and it has opened [their] eyes to a much larger multi-faceted project,” Jones said.
Referring back to the Fort at No. 4, Holschuh said “those formative times with the concurrent forces can seem remote and disconnected from our lives today, but it is important to recognize that societal attitudes that were set in motion then persist and dominate today.”
He added that the Kchi Pontegok Petroglyph project is important because “the better we understand the places where we are, and each other, the better we can recognize how we got to this point and what we might do going forward.”
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.