Day 1 (Monday)

Welcome, Introductions, and Pre Contact (Liberty State Park)

Welcome
Project Coordinator
Dr. Lacey Hunter
Welcome and overview
Introductions
Participants

Introductions of the participants
Program Overview
Project Directors
Drs. Jack Tchen and Oscar Schofield. Tchen
Framing the geo-political history of the deep water harbor as the early American site to build wealth through global trade
Coffee with LSP Community
President of Friends of Liberty State Park (FOLSP) and members of the FOLSP
Mr. Sam Pesin
Sam will talk about the history and the challenges facing Liberty State Park. Environmental activists in the late 20th Century transformed the railroad yards into Liberty State Park, and today a pitched battle is being fought over its future
Pre-Contact
Rutgers Professor Elaine La Fay
Review the estuarine richness of the Hudson River and New Jersey/New York Bay Estuary, discussing the productivity of the marshlands that created ideal habitats for fish, shellfish, and waterfowl and for the indigenous people who came here to harvest.
Pre-Contact (Continued)
Public History Project Researcher and cartographer Kerry Hardy
How the Native Americans came all the way from the Upper Delaware River, along the historic Minisink Path, to reach this spot, where they would spend late summer and early fall gathering oysters, both to eat fresh but even more importantly to dry and take back with them for winter sustenance. We will explain how this massive (7 sq. mi.) oyster bank that extended from today’s New Jersey Turnpike all the way out to Ellis and Liberty Islands, from Jersey City to Bayonne was essential to the development of New York and Jersey City. Discuss the importance of the Rivers and the Bay as a place where Native American settlements were prior to European Contact.

Day 2 (Tuesday)

Hudson River Estuary and NJ/NY Harbor Coastline from R/V RUTGERS (Liberty State Park)

3-hour guided boat tour
Professor Schofield, Department Chair of Rutgers Marine Sciences and Kerry Hardy
The afternoon will be spent with scientists and historians who study the area along the East River and NJ/NY Harbor and Hudson River Estuary and who have expertise and knowledge on how large-scale infrastructure must meet the needs of our local citizens and ecosystems. The boat will be outfitted with a range of technologies that will provide real-time data of the Hudson River to onboard computers. The sensors will include hydrographic variables and a side scan sonar that will provide detailed pictures of the river, providing a physical context of the system itself to the historical narratives during the boat ride.
Discussion groups

3 hours of workshopping to give participants in small groups the opportunity to scaffold their own curriculum materials by developing shared question sets or identifying sources that complement state/national curricular standards. This will also help break up the day and give our scholars narrow time and content parameters for lectures. We will share some exercises for participant prompts.
Indigenous Community Dinner with Local Foods
Members of the Ramapough Munsee Lenape, Powhatan Renape, and Nanticoke Lenape Nations (Three state recognized tribes of New Jersey)
Liberty State Park is a gorgeous venue to enjoy at night, it is right on the coastline, and has a breathtaking view of the Statue of Liberty and New York City. During dinner we will talk about the integrated food system, and the impact of the water on pre-contact indigenous nations.

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Contact and War Period, and Extraction (Jersey City)

Contact Period
Rutgers Native American Studies Professor Jameson Sweet.
Native American campsites, on cleared lands sloping down to the shore of the Hudson, were among the first lands acquired by Dutch farmers in New Amsterdam. In 1630, Dutch noble person Michiel Pauw established the first patronage on the lower Hudson here. By 1634, Jan Evertsen Bout was tilling and planting here with the help of enslaved Africans; in 1636, he was awarded a patent for these fields in Communipaw—even though the Munsee inhabitants had not yet sold any of the land here. His farmhouse sat in the spot now occupied by the Liberty Science Center. Communipaw quickly became important trading locations.
War Period (1637-1655)
Public History Project Researcher Kerry Hardy
European economy and firearms caused a radical transformation in both the politics and the lifeways of the Munsee people who lived here. Dutch use of genocide at the mouth of the Hudson in the 1640’s, which was itself merely an imitation of the New England Puritans’ similar use of violence to acquire land from the Pequots in 1637. Detailed explanation of events and agendas surrounding the “Pavonia Massacre,” and the actual likely site of the massacre will be visited.
Extraction
Public History Project Researcher Kerry Hardy
By the mid-19th Century, over-harvesting and pollution had killed most of the oysters here, and by 1915 health ordinances forbid any consumption of oysters. The loss of the oyster resource sent shock waves through the rest of the ecosystem, affecting the dozens of species that relied on oysters as food; especially the waterfowl that once covered the bays, creeks, and marshes here. New Jersey’s mining history began nearby as well; the Schuyler Copper Mine on the western edge of the Meadowlands brought raw ore, dug by enslaved Africans, to the Hudson’s west bank to be shipped to England–where, in a cruel irony, it was manufactured into the machinery used in the slave-driven sugar plantations of the West Indies. Finally, the observations of Swedish ecologist Pehr Kalm, who visited this area in 1750, and documented an ecosystem that was already losing species and headed for disaster. His records detail the extent of raw materials that colonial forces were taking from this “new” land and using to sustain an already-depleted Europe.
Dispossession

By studying the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery and Global trade, in the 1600s, we will be able examine Lenape dispossession from 1670 through 1768 and colonial encroachment and attacks that continually moved the Lenape out of NY and NJ, and westward through PA, OH, WI, KS, MO, OK, and Canada.
War and Expansion

The impact and aftermath of the Revolutionary War, with a focused look at how the nearby iron mines in the Jersey Highlands proved the weaponry to win the war, and how the rugged hills and valleys of the Highlands provided the American forces with unassailable base of operations through each winter of the war. We will also focus on Alexander Hamilton’s creation of Paterson, NJ as a “model industrial city,” and the creation of the Morris Canal that allowed raw coal and iron to be brought by barges all the way to Jersey City and New York.
Enslavement Discussion
Apple Tree House with Jerome Chance and Peggy King Jorde
Critical presentation summarizing this area’s history of, and lasting connections to, the enslavement of Africans. From earliest colonial times until the start of the 19th Century one of every five people in Communipaw, Jersey City, and the surrounding Bergen County area was enslaved; clearing the land, draining the swamps, growing the food, and building the roads required by New York City’s ravenous growth. As the cultivation of cotton moved to the economic forefront in America, Southern landowners and their enslaved workers may have grown the cotton, but the railroads brought it to cities like Newark and Paterson for spinning and tailoring. When escaped Africans made their way north on the Underground Railroad, Communipaw and Jersey City were the last stop before crossing the “River Jordan” to safety. In 1990, King Jorde was thrust into the limelight as a pivotal figure in the fight to protect a 17th century African Burial Ground that was rediscovered during the construction of a federal office building.
Apple Tree House, Museum of Jersey City
Jerome Choice, Board Member of the Apple Tree House
We will also be joined by who will take us on a tour of the  Museum
Meaning of the Seed Movie Excerpts

Professor Anita Bakshi. Our Land, Our Stories, a collaborative project with Rutgers University, Department of Landscape Architecture, and the Ramapough Lunaape Nation
Multimedia project for environmental justice advocacy and curriculum development for Native American history and contemporary Indigenous land relations. The project elucidates how relationships to land are disrupted by environmental pollution. It explains how negative portrayals of Native American communities have contributed to the targeting of their lands as dumpsites, while leaving them marginalized in the remediation process. It illustrates how Indigenous communities are responding with programs for cultural restoration and food sovereignty.

Day 4 (Thursday)

Industry and Trade and Immigration

Industry and Trade
Project Director Professor Jack Tchen
Postwar expansion also saw this area become an important seat of industry. The mineral wealth of northern New Jersey (iron) and eastern Pennsylvania (anthracite coal) were brought to the Hudson River and New York City; first by barges along the Morris Canal, and then by railroad cars on the Central Railroad of New Jersey
Immigration
Researcher Kerry Hardy
The “end” of slavery, coupled with the American industrial revolution, created strong demand for a low-cost labor force. Millions of European immigrants concluded, rightly, that they could find a better life in America, and New York City became the main port of entry for them. We will compare their views and aspirations with the financial calculus of the wealthy industrialists who urged them to come here, and the ironic symbolism of the Statue of Liberty just offshore.
Afternoon discussion groups
Lacey Hunter and Janice McDonnell, Program Education Advisor
2 hours of workshopping to have the opportunity to continue to scaffold their own curriculum materials by developing shared question sets or identifying sources that complement state/national curricular standards. This will also be a chance to surface questions that can be addressed by the Project Directors.
Environmental Impacts, Climate Change and the Future of Our East Coast
University of Delaware’s Professor Matt Oliver, Rutgers Oscar Schofield, and Rutgers’ Haskins Lab Associate Professor Daphne Monroe
examine the current condition of the Estuary and wildlife and the Eco-Future for this important estuary. The focus here is two-fold, one to put into context the state of estuary and industrialization. Schofield will provide an overview of the Hudson River, the contrasting forcing of downstream river flow and the incoming ocean, that helped lead this to be such a pristine system. The focus will then be on the impact of industrialization. The efforts to reinvigorate the estuary and lessons learned will be discussed.

Matthew Oliver will provide a look forward and provide insights into how the denizens of the river are recovering and how ecosystem management practices are employed. It provides a template for restoring systems into the future.

Then Daphne Munroe will discuss the role natural ecosystem engineers (e.g. oysters) and efforts to repopulate the northeast with oysters and the role they may play into the future is helping respond to climate driven changes to local sea levels. The arc of these narratives begins with the destructive consequences colonization-urbanization had on the system, but circle back on given wise practices we can restore the river complex providing a model system for global urbanized river systems have been experiencing over the century later than the Hudson River

Free Night for Informal Networking and Homework
This will be a free night with suggested locations for participant dinners out in groups.

Homework Assignment will be for groups of 3-4 participants to prepare some feedback on the workshops. They will be asked to explain how the workshop has helped them to re-engage with early American History and how it has added to their understanding of the environment, land, and water, within that history.

Day 5 (Friday) Jersey City Public Library

Indigenous Regenerative Food and Land Management Systems

Dr. Lyla June Johnston will bring us full circle, with her talk addressing Indigenous Regenerative Food and Land Management Systems. She will explore ancient Northeastern Native food systems and their lessons for the future. As a Diné (Navajo) scholar, Johnston melds together paleoecology, archival evidence, art, and spiritual values to share how Indigenous Peoples in the Northeast and across Turtle Island have stewarded the land like a vast garden. She compiles evidence that shows how humanity has, and can once again, act as a keystone species in the ecosystem, upholding and cultivating the natural abundance of the earth.

Sharing of the Curriculum Materials and Lesson Plans: The group will gather one last time to share the curriculum materials and lesson plans. With the participant permission, these may be shared on our project website following the two weeks of workshops.