US Foreign Policy and Historic Deerfield

Today started with an interesting introduction on US foreign policy by professor Chris Appy. It was extremely interesting and brought in a very accessible way. He captured our attention by the story of Vietnam Veteran Ngo Long and guided us through political decisions that helped shape the face of the world as we know it today. Whether these decisions were right or wrong were left open for debate. He received a well merited applause at the end of his talk.

At ten o'clock, our drivers took us to Historic Deerfield. In the fifties this place was built to represent a 18th century town in New England. Authentic houses were taken from around the country and re-built here.

The town is known to have been a Native American settlement. In this respect we were invited to a lecture by archaeologist Elizabeth Chilton and anthropologist and Native American Marge Bruchac.

After a brief summary of 10.000 years of history in about 45 minutes we had a picnic in the sun.

Then, both ladies accompanied us along an Indian trail and showed us how the settlement was founded, what legends the Indians used to describe the area (... a giant beaver came up the river, moved about the land, was killed by a human-like creature and lies now defeated ... its head, broken neck and body form the hills around the valley). We learned about indigenous medicinal plants, sacred burial places (and how they were only recognised and respected since the 90's). Finally, we listened to the way Marge is devoted to the reuniting of Indian family members whose forefathers used to live in this valley. It was a moving story we will not lightly forget.