A Local History Seminar focusing on Native Americans in the Poconos will be offered this fall. A series of four sessions will begin on Tuesday, September 8, and continue through Tuesday, October 6. They are free and open to all with an interest in learning more about the people who first walked this land and the impact on their cultures of contact with Europeans. Each seminar will begin at 7:00 pm and finish at approximately 8:30 pm. The seminars will be held at Peggy Bancroft Hall in South Sterling. Seating is limited and registration is required. Please register for the seminar by August 28.
- September 8 — “Introduction to Native Americans in the Poconos” presented by Bernadine Lennon
- September 15 — “The Stone Age in the Poconos,” presented by Russell Cramer. Mr. Cramer will discuss the evolution of stone tools used by Native American people in the Poconos over a 12,000-year period, from the post ice age Paleo Period through the Archaic and Woodland Periods, up to first contact with Europeans. Using a combination of authentic artifacts and visual displays, he will show how the lives of the Native people adapted to meet environmental change and how they adapted their stone tools and weapons in order to survive and thrive. Mr. Cramer grew up in Shawnee-on-Delaware and is a graduate of Gettysburg College, where he wrote his senior thesis on the history of the Shawnee. He worked with archaeologist Don Kline on the Shawnee-Minisink archeological as well as other local sites which have led to a better understanding of how early peoples adapted to a changing environment in order to survive.
- September 22 — “Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania” presented by Susan Bachor, adjunct faculty at East Stroudsburg University
- September 29 — “Indians along the Delaware” presented by a representative of the National Park Service
- October 6 — “The Iroquois Confederacy’s Tribes and America’s First Ally: The Oneida Indians” presented by historian Frank Salvati. Mr. Salvati will discuss the tribes forming the Iroquois Nation and how the Oneida, risking everything, broke from the rest of the Pro-British Iroquois League to support the American cause during the American Revolution. Mr. Salvati has a commanding knowledge of colonial Indian affairs in northeastern Pennsylvania. With his vast knowledge of historical details, he has been educating and entertaining historical groups and school students with fascinating topics of colonial history since 1995.
For more information and to register, contact:
Bernadine Lennon, seminar coordinator
570-857-0882 or balennon@att.net
The seminar is sponsored through a generous donation by our Business Partner, Jam Room Brewing.
