Members of the Antrim’s Fostering Community Conversations on Race discussion group took a field trip to the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner on Sunday for the museum’s annual Harvest Moon Festival.

The field trip was part of the group’s months-long exploration of the experience of Native Americans. 

“We had a wonderful tour. We got to enjoy some traditional native food, such as Three Sisters Soup, and it was really a great experience,” co-founder Linda Bundy said. 

The annual Harvest Moon Festival  at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum is a celebration of the completion of the labor of the growing season and the joy of the harvest. Bundy, co-founder Dottie Bauer and other members of the group took a personal tour of the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum by volunteer  Bob Whitehead, followed by storytelling with Madeleine Wright. The keynote speaker was Chris Schadler, a wildlife biologist who presented “Becoming Wolf:  Eastern Coyote in New England.”

Antrim’s Community Conversations group was formed after a 2020 event at Tuttle Library, “Staying Curious, Moving Forward, and Being Part of the Solution.” At that event,  Allen Davis, an educator and social justice advocate, facilitated a discussion between three area residents who shared some of their experiences as people of color in the Monadnock region. 

“That event made some of us wonder, what can we do, in little Antrim, New Hampshire, to help?” said Bundy. “How can we learn? What can we do to enlighten others?”

Since creating the group, according to Bundy, members have focused on “reading the books we never read in school,” which has led to being part of community events and volunteering at Antrim Elementary School. The group has also purchased DVDs for the town library, walked the Black Heritage Trail of NH in Portsmouth and attended plaque dedications for the trail in Milford, Hancock and Warner.

From January to May, the group hosted a film series at Tuttle Library titled “Moving Towards Healing: Exploring Social Concerns Through Film.” One film, the documentary “Dakota 38,” inspired the group to learn more about the experiences of Indigenous people. 

“We watched a film about the massacre of 38 Dakota people who were executed by the U.S. government in 1862. They were starving to death on their land, because they couldn’t hunt enough game to stay alive. They revolted, and our government massacred them as punishment,” Bundy said. “President (Abraham) Lincoln intervened and cut the number down to 38 people.” 

Watching “Dakota 38” led to the group reading and discussing “Killers of the Flower Moon, the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” by David Grann, in May,  June and July, as well as watching the film based on the book. 

“For us, seeing the films and taking the time to totally dedicate our focus to these issues for a few hours was very powerful,” Bundy said. “Sometimes it was just our group watching the films. When other people came,  having them there really added to the conversation.”

The group has had extensive discussions about the experience of Native Americans, particularly around the history of the Indian boarding school movement, which is addressed in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” 

“We noted that the extent of the racism and oppression to Native peoples is really extensive, and that is has received less attention, in part because there are so many tribes who were removed from their ancestral lands and who are somewhat invisible in today's society,” Bauer said. “Reading this book opened our eyes a little bit; this is a part of our history that few people know much about.

“We hope, having this group in Antrim,  we can just make some kind  of an impact,” Bundy said. “No matter how subtle.”