Stockbridge-Munsee Leader to Speak at MCLA

03:12PM / Tuesday, February 17, 2026Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass — Bonney Hartley, Tribal Historic Preservation Manager for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, will present "Tribal Historic Preservation in the Stockbridge-Munsee Ancestral Homeland" as part of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Green Living Seminar Series on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 5:30 p.m.

Hartley's presentation will discuss the Community's ongoing work to protect Mohican and Munsee cultural sites and repatriate sacred items and ancestral remains. She will highlight landmark achievements including the 2021 return of Papscanee Island, a 156-acre nature preserve along the Hudson River that served as the center of Mohican life for thousands of years, and the 2024 acquisition of 372 acres at Monument Mountain in the Berkshires, returning ancestral homelands to tribal stewardship.

For ten years, Hartley has served the historic preservation interests of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community from an extension office in the tribe's homelands in Massachusetts. An enrolled member of the Community, she leads the work to protect Mohican and Munsee (Lenape) cultural sites and repatriate cultural items, often serving to transform museums' understanding of tribal cultural patrimony.

Hartley holds a Master of Social Science degree in International Relations from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She serves on the board of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and the National NAGPRA Community of Practice Steering Committee. She is a founding member of the Mohican Writers Circle and 2025 Forge Project Fellow.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community's ancestral homelands span the Hudson and Housatonic River valleys. Today, the federally recognized tribe is based on a reservation in Wisconsin, where approximately half of its 1,500 members live.

All presentations take place Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. in MCLA's Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation, Room 121 and will be recorded as podcasts available at mcla.edu/greenliving.

The event is free and open to the public.

MCLA's Green Living Seminar Series brings environmental experts to campus throughout the academic year to engage students and community members in conversations about sustainability, climate change, and ecological responsibility.

For more information, contact Dr. Elena Traister at elena.traister@mcla.edu or (413) 662-5303.

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North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."

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