November is Native American Heritage Month and Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) invites you to attend a special presentation, by Lucianne Lavin, PhD, Director of Research and Collections for the Institute for American Indian Studies, on Wednesday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Kellogg Environmental Center, 500 Hawthorne Avenue, Derby, Connecticut.   

Dr. Lavin’s presentation, “Connecticut's Indigenous Communities and their Natural World,” will explore Connecticut’s indigenous communities and educate participants in the rich histories that extend back to the time they shared Mother Earth with mastodons and other extinct animals. DEEP invites all ages to attend and learn about Connecticut’s native communities and regional history.

Through thousands of years and as a necessity for their physical survival, Native Americans became experts in their natural environments. New England was not a “wilderness,” as described by the early English settlers, but a built landscape. Our first environmental stewards, Native American communities, had long been managing their physical environments to enhance plant and animal populations. Dr. Lavin will help participants explore these connections through Indigenous folklore and sacred stories promoting stewardship.

Dr. Lavin is an anthropologist and archaeologist who has over 40 years of research and field experience in Northeastern archaeology and anthropology.  Her career includes teaching, museum exhibits and curatorial work, cultural resource management, editorial work and public relations.

Dr. Lavin is a founding member of the state’s Native American Heritage Advisory Council and editor of the Journal of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut.  She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University and her B.A. from Indiana University. Dr. Lavin has written over 150 professional publications and technical reports on the archaeology and ethno-history of the Northeast. Her award-winning book, Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History and Oral Traditions Teach Us about their Communities and Cultures, was published by Yale University Press (spring 2013).
 
The Kellogg Environmental Center is located at 500 Hawthorne Avenue, Derby, CT, The program is offered free of charge, donations are accepted. Please phone the Center at (203)734-2513 or email donna.kingston@ct.gov to register or for further information or directions.