ABSTRACT
In this chapter we apply a critical heritage studies approach to an analysis of existing heritage landscapes in Nipmuc homelands (modern-day southern New England) that include sites of interest, monuments, and roadside markers. We ask how the historical narratives reinforced through these monuments are entangled with relations of social and political power and inequality and how they have shaped public understanding of Nipmuc people in their own homelands. We then suggest refocusing the storied landscape on Nipmuc heritage within Nipmuc homelands. While some Nipmuc heritage sites are significant because they have substantial histories of Nipmuc occupation or ownership, other places and routes have rich histories illustrating the dynamic ways Nipmuc people have continued to inhabit their homelands despite colonial encroachment over the last 400 years. The narrative we offer focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the formation of an overwhelmingly white American historical narrative attempted to systematically erase the continued presence of Nipmuc communities and deny them a place in the urban and industrial landscapes of their own homelands. By mapping out these landscapes, we hope to create a community-centered resource for Nipmuc heritage sites in the present and a model for identifying more diverse heritage landscapes in the future.
