Author Julie Dobrow to Speak at Arrowhead

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Author, biographer and Tufts University professor Julie Dobrow's new book, "Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage,: tells the story of the lives and marriage of Elaine Goodale and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman. 
 
On June 3 at 5:30 pm, the Berkshire County Historical Society hosts Dubrow for a presentation about her book and the fascinating way in which she first discovered this story. 
 
Tickets are $5 for BCHS members, $10 for non-members and can be purchased by using the BOOK NOW button at berkshirehistory.org. This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council and Housatonic Heritage.
 
According to a press release: 
 
As is the case for many star-crossed lovers, it was amazing that Elaine Goodale and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohíye S'a), ever met in the first place. She was a white woman from Mount Washington, Massachusetts, who earned early fame as a childhood poet and was frequently mentioned as a “childhood poetic prodigy of the Berkshires.” Elaine travelled west in 1884 to teach Native American children. Charles was a Santee Dakota who had gone to Dartmouth College and the Boston University School of Medicine. Somehow, they both ended up at the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota in December of 1890 and fell in love at first sight. Three weeks later, they announced their engagement. Then the Wounded Knee Massacre changed everything.
 
Julie Dobrow is a writer, professor and researcher whose work focuses both on biography and history, and also on children and media. She teaches at Tufts University. Much of her writing and teaching focuses on telling untold and under-told stories and shining new light on them.
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EPA, GE Conducting Vernal Pool Study on Housatonic River

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A pilot study will determine the best way to remediate PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from vernal pools in the Housatonic River. 

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric held an open house for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.  Despite the rain, several people attended the event at the Berkshire Athenaeum. 

EPA project manager Josh Fontaine explained that it is an evaluation of which remediation method to use for the remaining vernal pools in Reach 5A. 

"We're going to be testing two different methods. One is an excavation method, which we already know has been very successful with another vernal pool cleaned up much earlier in the project," he said. 

"And then the other is the application of two different carbon amendments. It would be the application of powdered activated carbon and the application of granulated activated carbon." 

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned using these methods: five with excavation and five with active carbon; seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years. 

Fontaine said there is no frontrunner for methodology. 

"We know the excavation method is effective, but we would like to see if the less invasive method of using the amendment will be as effective for potential use," he said. 

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