Root is a student orientation program that focuses on social identity, the environment and sustainability. In Fall 2021, Root leader Hikaru Hayakawa ‘24 hosted a session that included a tour of Stockbridge-Munsee (aka “Indiantown”), an eighteenth-century colonial experimental missionary community to the Mohican Nation. The tour, which highlighted the past, present and future of the Mohican Nation, included a visit to an eighteenth-century archeological site in Indiantown being excavated under the guidance of the Stockbridge Munsee Historic Preservation Office. The rediscovery of a Mohican homesite showed that Mohicans had maintained lasting communities in the region, further demonstrating their territorial sovereignty. Through the tour students acquired a better understanding of history in the Berkshires and of the Mohican Nation’s active connection to these lands today.
The Root program is part of the EphVenture orientation, and is co-organized by the Davis Center and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives.