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Presenters ask Northfield Historical Commission to help preserve artifacts and continue study of Battle of the Great Falls
Summary
Presenters Joe Graveline and guest David Brule reviewed a 2012–2025 project on the Battle of the Great Falls/King Philip’s War, reporting archaeological finds and tribal story collection and asking the commission to endorse continued investigation, artifact housing, and repatriation efforts.
Joe Graveline and guest presenter David Brule on Feb. 9 presented the final report of a 2012–2025 project on the Battle of the Great Falls (part of King Philip’s War) and asked the Northfield Historical Commission to support continued archaeological work and local curation of artifacts. The presenters said the multi‑town effort received roughly $280,000 in grants from 2012 through 2025 and formed an advisory board that included historic commissions from the six involved towns and invited historic preservation officers from five tribes.
Graveline and Brule described fieldwork led by an archaeologist and a military historian—named in the report as Kevin McBride and David Nomak—and said metal detectors used on the battlefield and along retreat routes recovered about 1,000 musket balls dating to around 1676. The presenters also described casualty figures they attributed to the site and sources: they stated that English forces killed about 300 noncombatants and that a subsequent counterattack killed at least 150 colonials; those figures were presented by the presenters and were not independently verified during the meeting.
The presenters said the National Park Service provided project funding and that tribes received support to record their accounts; an additional $5,000 donation was secured to print tribal storylines and include them in a planned book. Graveline emphasized that some tribal communities still avoid Turner's Falls and that oral histories gathered through the project should be preserved and made accessible rather than lost through development.
As next steps, Graveline proposed that the commission prepare a wish list for action: locate a secure environment in Northfield to house artifacts rather than disperse them elsewhere; seek the return of Northfield‑found artifacts currently held by other repositories; obtain landowner permissions to continue excavations at the Northfield settlement site and at Beers Plain; and identify funding sources, potentially through the Department of the Interior. Commission members recorded the request and indicated it would be discussed at a future meeting.
The report and the presenters’ recommendations were recorded in the minutes; no formal vote on commission engagement was taken at this session.
