Revolutionary Lives: Between Sides: Revolution, Family & Indigenous Networks
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Between Sides: Revolution, Family & Indigenous Networks on the Saratoga Frontier
Joseph Bruchac and Jesse Bowman Bruchac
The American Revolution in the Saratoga region was far more complicated than Patriots versus Loyalists. Joseph Bruchac and Jesse Bowman Bruchac explore that world through their own Dunham, Cole, and Van Antwerp ancestors of Saratoga and Schaghticoke.
While those direct ancestors served the Patriot cause, Captain Holtham Dunham and members of the Cole family were investigated by General John Stark in 1781 for alleged communication with the enemy. That same year, Holtham’s brother Hezekiah Dunham, later known as Major Dunham, helped capture the notorious Loyalist Thomas Lovelace, whose band had recently raided the Saratoga estate of General Philip Schuyler and the homes of others throughout the region.
Following such family stories through Saratoga, Schaghticoke, Lake George, and Canada, the Bruchacs explore Patriots, Loyalists, spies, and the Mohawk, Abenaki, and other Indigenous people whose alliances and networks crossed the complex political and family lines of the Revolution.
Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning Abenaki author, poet, storyteller, and citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. Raised by his maternal grandparents on Splinterville Hill in Greenfield Center, New York, he has written or edited more than 180 books and has spent more than five decades writing about Indigenous history, traditional stories, and the people and landscapes of the Northeast. He is the founder of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and Press and has received numerous honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. His books include Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself, Code Talker, Keepers of the Earth, and Hidden Roots.
Jesse Bowman Bruchac is an Abenaki language educator, historian, researcher, musician, and citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. He serves as Director of the Middlebury School of Abenaki, webmaster of Abenaki Online, and Co-Director of the Ndakinna Education Center in Greenfield Center, New York, where his Dunham and Van Antwerp ancestors have deep roots. For more than three decades he has worked in Eastern Algonquian
Revolutionary Lives, a free series of events, is produced by the Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga with these programs, an exhibition, and online StoryMap, and made possible with generous grant funding from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts, supported by the Governor's Office and the NYS Legislature.
Joseph Bruchac and Jesse Bowman Bruchac
The American Revolution in the Saratoga region was far more complicated than Patriots versus Loyalists. Joseph Bruchac and Jesse Bowman Bruchac explore that world through their own Dunham, Cole, and Van Antwerp ancestors of Saratoga and Schaghticoke.
While those direct ancestors served the Patriot cause, Captain Holtham Dunham and members of the Cole family were investigated by General John Stark in 1781 for alleged communication with the enemy. That same year, Holtham’s brother Hezekiah Dunham, later known as Major Dunham, helped capture the notorious Loyalist Thomas Lovelace, whose band had recently raided the Saratoga estate of General Philip Schuyler and the homes of others throughout the region.
Following such family stories through Saratoga, Schaghticoke, Lake George, and Canada, the Bruchacs explore Patriots, Loyalists, spies, and the Mohawk, Abenaki, and other Indigenous people whose alliances and networks crossed the complex political and family lines of the Revolution.
Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning Abenaki author, poet, storyteller, and citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. Raised by his maternal grandparents on Splinterville Hill in Greenfield Center, New York, he has written or edited more than 180 books and has spent more than five decades writing about Indigenous history, traditional stories, and the people and landscapes of the Northeast. He is the founder of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and Press and has received numerous honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. His books include Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself, Code Talker, Keepers of the Earth, and Hidden Roots.
Jesse Bowman Bruchac is an Abenaki language educator, historian, researcher, musician, and citizen of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. He serves as Director of the Middlebury School of Abenaki, webmaster of Abenaki Online, and Co-Director of the Ndakinna Education Center in Greenfield Center, New York, where his Dunham and Van Antwerp ancestors have deep roots. For more than three decades he has worked in Eastern Algonquian
Revolutionary Lives, a free series of events, is produced by the Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Saratoga with these programs, an exhibition, and online StoryMap, and made possible with generous grant funding from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts, supported by the Governor's Office and the NYS Legislature.
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Where is it happening?
251 Glen St, Glens Falls, NY, United States, New York 12801
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherCrandall Public Library
