Date of Award

8-31-2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Historical Archaeology

First Advisor

Stephen W. Silliman

Second Advisor

Stephen A. Mrozowski

Third Advisor

Daniela Balanzátegui

Abstract

Health and sickness were major concerns for the Eastern Pequot community in the first half of the 19th century. At this time, the Eastern Pequot’s collective finances were controlled by a court-appointed overseer who rented reservation land to non-Pequot individuals and used the generated funds to purchase goods and services for those on the reservation. In an 1841 petition to remove an overseer for failing in his duties, issues of health were brought up twice among their grievances: that they received little support “in Sickness or in health” and that “our Land if family rented […] would add much to our Comfort especially in Cases of Sickness.” With this petition as a touchstone, this thesis examines the negative impacts of colonialism on health and wellbeing, while also highlighting ways in which Eastern Pequot individuals or households actively sought to secure their own health in light of those challenges.

For one, examining medical spending over time within the annual overseer’s expense reports allows for a discussion of the impacts of colonialism on health, as the imposition of these overseers reflects settler attempts at control over reservation land and lives. The documents also provide a glimpse into a few means of securing one’s health while working within this system – including the employ of Euro-American doctors, medicines and other consumables, and the act of caretaking. Of these, caretaking seems to be one of the most salient forms of healthcare for the Eastern Pequot community at this time. The documentary analysis is complemented by archaeological glass vessel data from four house sites on the Eastern Pequot Reservation, providing another window into household-level actions in ways that the documents cannot. This includes evidence of additional medicines, spatial elements of care and healing, and the ways in which other, non-medicinal bottles may have been utilized. Taken together, this thesis demonstrates how Eastern Pequot individuals attempted to secure their own health despite hardships stemming from ongoing settler colonialism, as a part of a long line of survival and resilience through to the present day.

Comments

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