Petroglyphs at Bellows Falls

The Kchi Pôntegok Petroglyph Project: Recontextualizing the Bellows Falls Petroglyph Site within an Indigenous Landscape.

Gail Golec, Project Archaeologist, Monadnock Archaeological Consulting, Inc.

Interpretation of Indigenous history has historically been grounded in white Euro-American culture and as a result, important elements of the Indigenous worldview are often overlooked or disregarded. The Kchi Pôntegok Petroglyph Project, funded through the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Communities Grant program, is attempting to address this lack of Indigenous cultural nuance by recontextualizing the Kchi Pôntegok/Bellows Falls site (VT-WD-008) within the wider landscape of the Middle Connecticut River watershed and its resources, connections and stories, as well as the regions’ Indigenous and historic archaeological sites.

Gail Golec was born and raised in New Hampshire and has been a professional archaeologist for over 20 years. I’ve undertaken a number of research projects focusing on local women’s, Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ history and regularly present that research in library and historical society talks as well as in classes through the CALL program at Keene State College. I also have a history podcast about cemeteries called “The Secret Life of Death”. Currently I’m a co-manager of the Kchi Pôntegok Petroglyph Project in Rockingham, VT.