"A Wigwam with Two Fires": Place and Historical Narrative in Indian-Settler Relations in the Kennebec River Valley

This research project asks, in what ways can place-based ethnography contribute to our understanding of complex historical and social relations in settler-colonial society? It begins with Norridgewock village in the Kennebec River Valley of Maine as a focal point, understanding this village to be simultaneously a physical place, a collection of stories, and a set of relationships. It then follows the networks of social relationships, memory narratives, and historical knowledges outward in order to reveal the roles that place, history, and memory play in the negotiation of relationships in settler-colonial spaces.