FROM SALEM COMMON TO CONFLICT: THE FIRST MUSTER AND THE PEQUOT WAR PANEL AND DINNER (WINTER 2025)

Roger Conant and his fellow settlers at Naumkeag in the 1620s have been recorded as enjoying a harmonious relation ship with the indigenous people of the area. Sadly, the state of harmony did not last. 

 In 1636, a decade after the founding of what we know as the cities of Salem and Beverly came the two-year Pequot War. 

Image courtesy of www.salemstate.edu 

Veterans Hall at the Ellison Campus Center at Salem State University was the setting last November for what was described as ‘an evening of reflection, history, and community’ inspired by the complex issues arising from such tragedies of America’s past. The two-hour program followed a dinner based on a menu inspired by ‘Indigenous foodways’, described as the holistic and interrelated cultural food systems of Indigenous peoples, encompassing traditions, beliefs, and practices connected to their local environments. 

 Salem was designated the birthplace of the National Guard in 2010 by Massachusetts State Governor Deval Patrick, as Salem had an active militia since at least 1629. What is known as the country's First Muster — the military assembling, inspection and drill of troops — took place on the Salem Common in 1637. Taking place on Wednesday 19 November to honor Indigenous People’s Month, the evening event was presented by organisers as part of the efforts with City of Salem, the Massachusett Tribe in Salem, and the House of the Seven Gables to confront, as they see it, ‘the legacy of violence and colonialism rooted in the First Muster, and reimagining how we engage with its commemoration today’. 

 The evening opened with a land acknowledgement and remarks from Thomas Green, Tribal Member of the cultural heritage group The Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoa, who served as moderator. Speakers on the panel included Benjamin Shallop, author of The Founding of Salem: City of Peace, and educators Connor P.Smith and Nakai Clearwater Northup, a member of both the Mashantucket Pequot and Narragansett tribes.
 

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