Jim Moran
Shirley Blancke returns historically important writings and drawings by Little Turtle to Chaubunabungamaug Nipmuck Council Chair Kind Warrior.
At a powwow on Sept. 7, Kind Warrior (Ken White), Council Chair of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Band, graciously received some historic cultural documents created at the end of the 20th century by a medicine man of that band, Little Turtle (George Munyan), who was a mentor for Kind Warrior. The documents consisted of a manuscript of Nipmuck stories, a curriculum of Nipmuck culture and drawings by Little Turtle that relate to that culture. Kind Warrior said they were “priceless.”
This came about through the efforts of the Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran, a retired Episcopal priest, and archeologist Shirley Blancke of Trinity Church in Concord, two members of the Right Relations Working Group, part of the diocesan Racial Justice Commission, tasked with fostering right relations with Native American descendants of the original occupants of the land covered by this diocese.
Blancke worked with Little Turtle over a period of 20 years in connection with exhibits made at the Concord Museum, one for the 350th anniversary of Concord’s founding. The exhibits compared 17th-century English objects with Nipmuck items that Little Turtle had made by Nipmuck craftspeople in their traditional style. Another was an exhibit on the Concord Shell Heap archaeological site with bones dated to 2000 B.C. Little Turtle illustrated the animals that the bones represented, species that for the most part still live in the area.
Prior to his death in 2004, Little Turtle, knowing that his health was failing, entrusted his work to Blancke for safe-keeping. She was pleased to have found Kind Warrior as the right recipient for the documents, thanks to the working group's relationship with him. He particularly appreciated Little Turtle’s illustration of "Turtle Island, the Creation of the World," saying it would help children connect to that story.
--Article courtesy of The Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran and Shirley Blancke