BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Annettee Spaulding and Kchi Pontegok Project team members will present results of their two-year effort to better understand and recognize the Bellows Falls petroglyph site. Long listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Project sheds new light on the site by letting the land speak for itself.
The petroglyph site is located at the Great Falls along the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls Village at the Vilas Bridge. The site has particular importance to the Abenaki community as part of a sacred landscape. The petroglyphs are a form of awhikhigan, an instrument that can be used for communication amongst the living, for recording and remembering, for persuasion, for marking a journey, for telling a story, or for sealing a promise. They are a life form, marking and grounding the community in the scheme of things, a pivot point along the flow of the Connecticut River.
Presentations will be held at Westminster Institute and Library, Westminster, Vt., on May 15, from 6-7 p.m.; Charlestown Public Library, Charlestown, N.H., on May 16, from 4-5 p.m.; the Rockingham Free Public Library, Bellows Falls, Vt., on May 23, from 6:30-7:30 p.m.; and Springfield Art and Historical Society, Springfield, Vt., on May 25, from 2-3 p.m.
The Kchi Pontegok Project is made possible by funding from the National Park Service Underrepresented Communities Grant Program, and supported in part by Vermont Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the National Park Service or Vermont Humanities.