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Colonial
Period
-1620’s
- Earliest documented contact with Europeans/English. The aboriginal territory
of the Nipmuc is recognized as including present-day central Massachusetts,
northeastern Connecticut and the northwestern corner of Rhode Island
-1640’s – John Eliot begins preaching Christianity
to Massachusetts Bay Colony Indians
-1650’s-1670’s – Eliot establishes 14
“Praying Villages” among Indians, including Hassanamesit (in
present-day Grafton) in 1651 and others in Nipmuc territory
-1675 – Outbreak of King Philip’s War (Metacom’s
Rebellion)
-1675 – Winter internment on Deer Island (now part
of Boston Harbor Islands) led to hundreds of Nipmuc deaths resulting from
starvation and exposure
-1728 – Hassanamesit Plantation (present-day Grafton)
is established through the division and sale of 7500 acres into allotments
for both English settlers and existing Indian families.
-1746 – Guardians are assigned to “oversee”
Nipmuc Reservations at Hassanamesit and Dudley. Through the guardianship
system, which lasted into the 1800’s, much Nipmuc land is sold and
money belonging to the Indians is “lost” by the guardians.
NINETEENTH
CENTURY
- 1800-1820 –
The Homestead is constructed on the Hassanamisco Reservation. In subsequent
years this structure is expanded and known as the “Cisco Homestead.”
This is one of the oldest, continuously occupied structures on an Indian
Reservation in New England.
- 1861 – The Earle Report enumerates Indians in Massachusetts
and reports on the condition and location of the tribes and their members,
including the Hassanamisco and Dudley-Webster. This document serves as one
of the first censuses of Indian people in Massachusetts. Many Nipmucs have
established enclaves in Worcester, which continue to exist in 2004.
- 1869 – The Enfranchisement Act extends citizenship
to Massachusetts Indians. In June, “Indians and people of color, heretofore
known and called Indians” become citizens of the Commonwealth.
- 1869-71 – The last of the Dudley Reservation is
sold, but Nipmucs continue to gather at the small remaining parcel of the
Hassanamisco Reservation in Grafton.
Twentieth Century
- 1900’s –
Documented meetings and Hassanamisco pow-wows are held at the Hassanamesit
Nipmuc
Reservation continuously until the present. Annual “Election Day”
is July 4th.
- 1919 – Zara Cisco Brough is born to Sarah Cisco
Sullivan.
- 1920’s – 1940’s – The Nipmuc's
are active in the Algonquin Indian council; James Lemuel Cisco (father of
Sarah Cisco Sullivan) is recognized as the Chief of the Hassanamisco Tribe.
- 1930 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary
Marker is erected at the Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation, confirming that “these
four and one-half acres have never belonged to the white man, having been
set aside in 1728 as an Indian Reservation.
- 1931 – James Lemuel Cisco passes away. His daughter
Sarah Cisco Sullivan has already assumed responsibility for many of his
duties and continues to reside at the Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation.
- 1940’s – Sign-in registers for the Hassanamesit
Nipmuc
Reservation document continued tribal relations and activities at the reservation.
- 1950’s – Meetings of tribal members held
at the Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation are recorded. Inter-tribal meetings and
gatherings continue to be documented, including trips to the annual Narragansett
August Meeting in Charleston, Rhode Island.
- 1950’s – Medicine man George Wilson (grandfather
of present-day chair Fran Richardson Garnett) dies in 1958; Joseph Vickers
(father of Chief Walter Vickers) assumes the role of Medicine Man until
his death in 1990.
- 1959 – Zara Cisco Brough permanently returns to
Massachusetts to care for her aging mother and assumes her role as the next
leader of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe. She resides at the Hassanamesit
Nipmuc
Reservation for the next 30 years.
- 1960’s – The Hassanamisco Foundation is established
in 1962. Its mission is to exist as “a cultural Foundation to perpetuate
the Memorial to the American Indian” and to protect and maintain the
Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation. The meetings of the modern Hassanamisco Nipmuc
Tribal Council are recorded.
- 1964 – Sarah Cisco Sullivan passes away.
- 1968 – Jessie Cisco Mays, sister of Sarah Cisco
Sullivan, passes away.
- 1974 – The Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs
is established. Zara Cisco Brough is active in establishing the Commission
and serves as the first Nipmuc representative.
- 1976 – Executive Order 126 of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts officially recognizes the Nipmuc, Gay Head (now Aquinnah),
and Mashpee tribes and their governing councils.
- 1977 – The Nipmuc Tribal Council and tribal members
petition the State to gain access to 500 acres at the former Grafton State
Hospital for the purposes of creating a “Nipmuc Newtown” that
will provide an Indian community for tribal members. The State, however,
chooses to sell the land to Tufts University for $1.
- 1980 – The Nipmuc Tribal Council, Hassanamesit
Nipmuc
Reservation, under the leadership of Zara CiscoBrough, submits its letter
of intent to petition for Federal Acknowledgement; the petition is assigned
number 69 by the BIA.
- 1982 – Walter Vickers (Chief Natachaman) is elected
Chief and spokesperson of the Nipmuc Indian Council. The decision is recorded
in the meeting minutes of Jan. 27, 1982 and was publicized in the July 5,
1982 issue of the Worcester Telegram.
- 1982 – The Chaubunagungamaug (Dudley-Webster) Council
organizes itself under the leadership of Edwin Morse, Sr. (Wise Owl), who
is made a sub-chief by Walter Vickers at the Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation (also
recorded in July 5 newspaper article). A local man donates several acres
to the Dudley-Webster group in Thompson, Connecticut, which they establish
as their “reservation.”
- 1980’s – Sporadic research and efforts toward
Federal Acknowledgment continue as time and funds volunteered by tribal
members permit. Continuous tension exists between the Dudley-Webster and
Hassanamisco groups as Wise Owl and his family struggle for political power.
The Dudley-Webster group holds its first powwow in 1981.
- 1984 – A documented petition is filed with the
BIA on July 20.
- 1985, 1988 – The BIA issues letters of “Obviously
Deficiency” (OD letters) to the tribe to notify it of deficiencies
in the documentation submitted thus far.
- 1988 – Zara CiscoBrough, after a long battle with
Parkinson’s Disease, passes away on January 7. The sachem is buried
in the Grafton Indian Cemetery.
- 1988-1992 – The Nipmuc Tribal Acknowledgment Project
(NTAP) is organized through regular meetings held in Worcester, Mass., by
concerned tribal members who feel that the recognition effort is not moving
fast enough. Several of those involved in these efforts continue to serve
on the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council today.
- 1991 – Anna Mays, daughter of Jessie Cisco Mays,
passes away.
- 1994 – Members of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribal
Council, Dudley-Webster group and NTAP board members join forces in the
formation of the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council (five from each group for
a 15-member council). A number of these councilors continue to serve on
the current Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council.
- 1996 – In May, Wise Owl and his family leave the
Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council and inform the BIA that they intend to petition
for Federal Acknowledgment as a separate entity. The Nipmuc Nation petition,
as successor of the original Hassanamisco petition, is assigned number 69a,
while Wise Owl’s petition is assigned 69b.
- 1996-1999 – Recognition efforts of the Nipmuc Nation
increase through tribal members and professional consultants who work to
finalize the petition. There is unanimous and continuing support for Nipmuc
Nation Federal recognition by Massachusetts elected officials in Washington,
at the State House and in Central Massachusetts.
Twenty First Century
- 2000 to Present – Recognition efforts of the Nipmuc Nation
increase through tribal members and professional consultants who work to
finalize the petition. There is unanimous and continuing support for Nipmuc
Nation Federal recognition by Massachusetts elected officials in Washington,
at the State House and in Central Massachusetts.
- 2001 – After numerous delays, the BIA issues a
positive Proposed Finding (PF), which is signed on January 19 under the
Clinton administration but wrongly held from publication. This decision
is reversed later that year under the Bush administration to a negative
PF. The BIA has still not adequately explained this course of events or
the reversal of the decision.
- 2002 – On September 28, the Nipmuc Nation submits
an 800-page response to the PF, with extensive new documentation gathered
from research conducted since 1996 but not previously allowed to be submitted
once the tribe’s “active status” began in 1995.
- 2003 – The Hassanamesit Nipmuc Reservation continues to
be recognized by both local and State officials and remains the focal point
of tribal activities and the annual Hassanamisco Indian Fair (formerly the
Powwow). Restoration of the Hassanamisco Homestead and Museum begins.
- 2004 – On June 18, the Nipmuc Nation was denied Federal
Recognition. After reviewing its options, Nipmuc Nation decides to
appeal the ruling. On September 24, Nipmuc Nation files its appeal
with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Internal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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