Ridgefield Historical Society honors Native American Heritage Month with program on November 12

Honoring Native American Heritage Month, the Ridgefield Historical Society, in collaboration with the Ridgefield Library, will present a program on what was happening here as European settlers arrived.

The event will take place Saturday, Nov. 12, at 2 p.m. at the library. Lecturer Drew Shuptar Rayvis will focus on those early days — Life in the Eastern Woodlands and Life in the Connecticut Woods from the 1670s to the 1730s.

Rayvis will demonstrate and represent the population of those years. His attire and objects will reflect the interconnected relationships between the Dutch, English, and Algonkian peoples and represent the adaptation of Native American life to European settlement and trade goods, including the importance and use of wampum by both natives and settlers. 

This program follows the European settlers inland from the coast and watches as they meet their Native American neighbors during the “wild days” of the Connecticut frontier.  Rayvis will clarify how their “trade artifacts”  — axes, a flintlock musket, metal knives, blankets, jewelry (glass beads and earrings), clay pipes, and metal scraps — compared to traditional items made from stone, bone, wood, and shell. 

Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Pekatawas Makataweu “Black Corn”) holds a cum laude B.A. in anthropology and sociology from Western Connecticut State University and a certificate degree in archaeology from Norwalk Community College. A true American of the mid-Atlantic region, his family includes indigenous Pocomoke heritage, Pennsylvania Dutch, Welsh, Swiss, English, Scots-Irish, Boyko Ukrainian, and Ashkenazi Jewish. In July 2021 he was elected Northern Cultural Ambassador of the Pocomoke Indian Nation by resolution of its tribal council, chief and vice chief. 

He honors all of his ancestors as a practicing living historian and regularly participates in colonial era reenactments, interpretations, and public educational events. He has studied the reading of Wampum and works in the research and preservation of the Eastern Woodland languages, particularly Renape and Mahican. He is also fluent in the many European languages in use in the Colonial Period.

This program is suggested for those ages 14 and older. To register, please visit https://ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org/