Mayor Robert Carrier joined leaders of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People, Committee for Racial Equity and Inclusion members, other elected officials and members of the public for a flag-raising ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 5 in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day in the City of Dover on Monday, Oct. 10.
The event began with a reading of the land acknowledgment statement by City Councilor AtLarge Lindsey Williams. The land acknowledgment states: “This (event/meeting) takes place at Cochecho (CO-chi-co) on N’dakinna (n-DA-ki-na), now called Dover, New Hampshire, which is the unceded traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki (a-BEN-a-ki), Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples, past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land, waterways, living beings, and the Aln8bak (Al-nuh-bak), the people who have stewarded N’dakinna (n-DA-ki-na) for many millennia.”
Mayor Carrier then read a proclamation recognizing the indigenous people of what is now Dover.
Before raising the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People flag, Denise Pouliot, the Sag8moskwa (head female speaker), and Paul Pouliot, the Sag8mo (head male speaker/grand chief) of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People, performed a traditional song.
The flag will fly in front of City Hall through Tuesday, Oct. 11.
The event was part of a series of events planned during Indigenous Peoples Month and as part of the Indigenous Dover initiative, made possible by a generous grant by the New Hampshire Humanities Council. Indigenous Dover aims to foster a better understanding and appreciation of the history of the indigenous peoples who inhabited Dover thousands of years before the first European settlers. See bit.ly/nativedover for more information.
Original source can be found here.
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