PEQUOT WAR PRESENTATION

The Old Mystic History Center (formerly the Indian & Colonial Research Center) will host a free presentation on the Pequot War of 1637 at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 25 at the Old Mystic Methodist Church, 44 Main St. (Route 27), Old Mystic.

Featured speakers will be Dr. Kevin McBride, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut, Dale Plummer, historian for the City of Norwich, and writer Nicholas Checker.

This was an event in our history that defined vividly how American colonists would contend with American natives for the next several hundred years. Dr. McBride is deemed by many the foremost expert on the Pequot War. He will include little-known details from the May 26 brutal attack and burning of a Pequot fort in Mystic where several hundred men, women and children perished.

He will focus especially on the English withdrawal, based on his most recent findings over the last 15 years of archaeological excavations. Joining McBride in the presentation will be Dale Plummer, who will offer perspectives of his own and will also speak as a descendant of Major John Mason, who led the attack; and Nicholas Checker, who will perform a brief reading from a solo-actor adaptation of his play on the Pequot War, “Elegy for an Icon,” that premiered years ago at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and for which a grant was recently awarded to the adaptation project by the state Department of Economic & Community Development, CT Office of the Arts.

The June 25 presentation, hosted by the Old Mystic History Center, is free to attend, with refreshments also provided. Donations of any sort will be welcomed that evening to help assist with future such events.