STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. - Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Community are conducting an archaeological dig on the banks of the Housatonic River, their ancestral home. 

“Our time in Stockbridge is a huge part of our history,” said tribal historic preservation manager, Bonney Hartley. “It’s part of our ancient history, but also in the 18th century, it was a colonial town, called 'Indiantown'. It was founded specifically for our people, so direct ancestors of mine and everyone in our tribe today all come back to our time in Stockbridge.”

They’re looking for evidence of a 1783 ox roast, organized by George Washington to thank members of the tribe for their service in the Revolutionary War.

“We’re hoping to find evidence of possibly the ox roast feast itself,” said Hartley. “So for example, evidence of the cooking materials for the ox, which was described as like a 1,100-pound ox that was brought here, or where the spit or where the other kinds of cooking implements were.”

Monday was the first day of digging at the site, and they haven’t found anything yet. However, thanks to previous surveys, archaeologist Nathan Allison is pretty sure they’re going to make a discovery.

“We’ve identified a number of anomalies to ground-truth, or excavate, and see what we see under there,” said Allison. “So a number of those things were metallic objects like large iron objects, or burned features, which might be indicative of an ox roast, or something else.”

After years of land seizures and forced removals in the 18th and 19th centuries, the tribe relocated to Wisconsin, where they remain today. For the current members, projects like these are essential to maintaining their connection to their ancestral lands.

“I think sometimes it kind of gets generalized or washed over that, in general we lived in Stockbridge,” said Hartley. “But there are really specific stories and events that happened that, I think by paying more attention to and hopefully uncovering, that we’re bringing them back. We’re not letting them be erased.”