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Task Force agrees to highlight Pennacook presence on Native Presence panel after debate
Summary
After extended discussion over wording and sources, the Task Force agreed to restructure the Native Presence panel to open with explicit language that the Pennacook lived, hunted, fished, and farmed on the land and to keep the text within a roughly 200-word limit while citing sources and using QR codes for more detail.
Members of the Duston Island Task Force debated how to represent the region’s Indigenous history on a proposed Native Presence interpretive panel. Gary Waters said the current draft "did not sufficiently highlight the Pennacook people who lived on the land," and proposed an opening sentence emphasizing long-term occupation. Chair Lorrie Carey proposed restructuring the paragraph to open with: "The Pennacooks lived here on this land, hunting, fishing, and farming for millennia." The committee agreed to shorten the paragraph about battles, add explicit farming/hunting/fishing language to the next paragraph, and keep the panel text within approximately 200 words.
Paul Pouliot cautioned about terminology and documentary variation, explaining that "Abenaki and Pennacook are largely interchangeable terms referring to the same people, shaped by colonial documentation and Jesuit records," and offered to write a sidebar explaining etymology. The committee also agreed that all sources must be cited and that QR codes could link to additional materials from the Boscawen Historical Society and indigenousnh.com research collaborative.
