Three hundred and fifty years ago on May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner‘s colonial forces attacked a camp of Native elders, women and children – noncombatants who had taken refuge after fleeing fighting in the south – and slaughtered hundreds. A Native coalition counterattacked the following day in an underreported decisive Indigenous victory. The granite monument to Turner (above) sums up an old and perhaps familiar story: a small but mighty colonial force overcame the odds and apparently passive “Indians” were taken by surprise, and nameless Native people were “destroyed.” How accurate is this picture of history? Not very, according to a unique panel discussion. Click here for an 87-minute presentation posted on May 6, 2026 by the Partnership of Historic Bostons.

Introduced by Maryann Zujewski of the Partnership Board, the panel included David Brule of the Nolumbeka Project, Liz ColdWind Santana Kiser, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck Indians, and archaeologist David Naumec (below, left). The panelists shared Indigenous and archaeological/anthropological perspectives, and discussed this unique study – an on-going collaborative investigation by battlefield experts, local historical commissioners, and tribal historic preservation officers from the Nipmuck community, as well as from the Aquinnah Wampanoag, the Elnu Abenaki, and the Narragansett tribal historic preservation office.

Since the 1670s most historians have told the story of Turners Falls/Peskeompskut as a remarkable, valiant colonial victory. With the findings from this investigation, as our panel shows, we now know the story is far more nuanced.

This panel discussion revealed what really happened, based on findings from battlefield terrain technologies and archaeology (click on above images to enlarge). All three panelists were at the heart of a remarkable 13-year, National Park Service-funded project investigating the true story of the Turners Falls massacre.