Commemorations of the Pine Plains bicentennial continue this weekend with a reminder that while the town itself is turning 200, the history of the region’s indigenous people stretches back far longer.
An August 5 event at the Community Room will focus on the history of Shekomeko — Pine Plains’ hilltop region, now known as Bethel, that was the ancestral homeland of indigenous Mahicans who lived on the land for many generations before the arrival of the first white settlers.
Traditionally ruled by a hereditary chief, or sachem, the Mahicans were part of the Schaghticoke First Nations indigenous tribe living throughout parts of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. They relied on hunting as well as foraged nuts, roots and berries, and were also early farmers, cultivating crops like squash and sunflowers.
In the 1740s, Christian missionaries – German-speaking Protestants from Moravia, in what is today the Czech Republic – settled in Shekomeko, building a wooden church that was the region’s first house of worship.
Such a move might have threatened to upend the Mahican settlement – and indeed, members of the indigenous tribe were baptized, including Sachem Shabash, who was christened as Abraham.
Unlike most missionaries, however, the Moravians lived relatively peacefully among the Shekomeko Mahicans and even advocated on their behalf. When the Little Nine Partners land patent was found to run through Mahican land, the Moravians helped draw up a list of people who could attest to the fact that the land in question belonged to the tribe.
The gesture did little to endear the Moravians to other white settlers who wanted to claim the land for themselves. By 1744, the Protestant group was ordered to “depart the province,” and later resettled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Mahicans were also forced off the land, moving to nearby settlements in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Kent, Connecticut, as well as Millerton.
Nearly 300 years later, as part of the August 5 event, the Town of Pine Plains will issue a proclamation honoring Shekomeko as the traditional territory of the Mahican Indigenous Peoples and recognizing both Sachem Shabash and Christian Henry Rauch, the head of the Moravian mission. In return, the Schaghticoke First Nations will present a commemorative plaque to the town and the Little Nine Partners Historical Society.
The plaque is expected to eventually be installed at the new Town Hall proposed for construction. Until then, it will remain at the library, together with other historical documents.
Little Nine Partners President Dyan Wapnick will be on hand for the event, as will Sachem Hawk Storm of the Schaghticoke First Nations and tribal genealogist Valerie LaRobardier.
“This is a multilayered story revealing kinships over a wide area and time period,” says LaRobardier, who will present a history of Shekomeko at the gathering and notes that the plaque will “fill a couple of holes” by providing the first known likenesses of both Shabash and Rauch, rendered by an artist relying on written histories and other portraits for inspiration.
The Bicentennial Event to Honor Shekomeko will be held Saturday, Aug. 5, from 2-4 p.m. at the Pine Plains Free Library Community Room. Light refreshments will be served following the presentation.