Hugger- mugger
Turners Falls is a beautiful place with an ugly past.
The former mill town, a village of Montague on the Connecticut River, is named for Captain William Turner. In 1676, Turner led a group of 160 men into an Indian encampment on the river, where women, children, and elders from the Narragansett, Pocumtuck, Nipmuc, and other tribes lay sleeping. Turner and his men massacred them.
The village has wrestled with that legacy, and in 2004, Montague officials joined with representatives of several Indian tribes in a Reconciliation Day ceremony to recognize the tragedy.
"We commit to a future that will . . . promote understanding about and between the cultures, increase mutual vigilance for historic preservation, and deepen our appreciation for the rich heritage of the indigenous people of our region and all who have found respite, sanctuary, and welcome here," their agreement read.
There are few Indians living in Turners Falls today. Currently remaking itself as an arts mecca, the village, two hours west of Boston, is a happening place, with a small but healthy private airport.
Over the last couple of years, airport officials hoping to expand a runway have been stymied by representatives of the Narragansett nation and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), who say that the hill that would be leveled for the runway is an important cultural site and that piles of stones there mark spots where spiritual ceremonies were performed. An archeologist who assessed the site disagrees with the tribes, and the Narragansett nation has appealed to the National Register of Historic Places to settle the matter.
Already, some trees have been cleared from the hill. Doug Harris, a historic preservation officer for the Narragansett tribe, says the stone piles were disturbed in the process. Some airport commissioners are angry that the new runway has been stalled for more than two years.
So in comes Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission executive director Robert E. Welch Jr. to meet with commissioners and some pilots about another issue at the airport earlier this month.
David Detmold, who knows all the players and runs the local paper, was in the room. And he was taking notes.
"We're ready to go with construction" on the runway, Welch told the airport commissioners, according to Detmold. "The only thing holding it up is those tree-hugging Indians."
"They're rock-hugging Indians," Detmold quoted commissioner Mark Fairbrother as saying. "They already hugged the trees right onto the lumber trucks."
When Detmold's account of the meeting ran in The Montague Reporter, the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes were outraged. "We have been reduced to huggers of trees and huggers of rocks, as opposed to an Indian people who have an ancient and strong tradition of having a relationship to our mother the earth," Harris said.
State Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen is now investigating the incident. "I hope Mr. Welch did not make that statement, but if it turns out he did, I would consider this to be a very serious matter," Cohen said.
Welch says he called runway opponents merely "tree-huggers" and not "tree-hugging Indians," according to Cohen, who has talked to him.
Fairbrother said that the rock-hugging riposte was accurate, but that he isn't the one who delivered it. He won't say who did. Detmold, who took meticulous notes, is absolutely certain he got it right.
But no amount of hair-splitting can change this: Welch represents state government at 37 municipal airports, and state government is supposed to represent everybody.
His comment, dunderheaded at best and bigoted at worst, isn't just insulting to the tribes - it's an affront to any citizen who hopes the state will hear them out. So much for respite, sanctuary, and welcome.
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at abraham@globe.com. 