Daryl Peasley of the Abenaki Trails Project looked around at the crowd and smiled.
Peasley, along with Heather Mitchell, director of the Hopkinton Historical Society, combined to sponsor a paddle trip on the Contoocook River to highlight the history of Native American activities along the river.
No registration was required, so the two were unsure how many people would show up to learn about the Abenaki tribes by paddling down the river once called the Pagontegok.
Before long, 25 kayaks, canoes and paddleboards were launching into the Contoocook River near the gazebo in the village.
“It’s a little overwhelming, that we’re getting this type of support. I’m kind of wondering, would we have gotten the same support a couple of years ago,” Peasley said. “Since the nationwide picture of racial injustice was coming about, that might have something to do with it, because now all of a sudden everyone’s doing land acknowledgment.”
For Mitchell, it was a chance to partner with the Abenaki Trails Project, an effort to “visibly honor and share a more inclusive history of the Abenaki people, to highlight historical Abenaki sites and to accentuate the positive influences” that Native Americans had in several local towns, including Hopkinton, Boscawen, Henniker, Bradford and Warner.
“We’ve just planned all kinds of exhibits and outdoor activities like this,” Mitchell said. “We want to explore Native American connections and one perfect way to do that is by being on the river because rivers were considered the highways for the Abenaki, that was how they got from one place to another.”
With a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities, the two were able to team up for the paddle trip as well as the presentation afterward at the Historical Society.
For Peasley, the uptick in exposure has been welcome.
“It’s been a lot of publicity,” he said.