Dr. Nicole Eustace, Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, will deliver a presentation based on her Pulitzer Prize-winning book that looks at the ramifications of a violent encounter between two white fur traders and an Indigenous hunter in 1722.

About the book: On the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee and AngloAmerican colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania.

Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice―rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations―and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty.

In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals―from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania―as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.

This OAH Distinguished Lecture is hosted by public libraries in the following towns: Amesbury, Andover, Ashland, Billerica, Boxford, Clinton, Danvers, Ipswich, Lynnfield, Newton, Peabody, Somerville, Tewksbury, Wakefield, Wayland, and Woburn.

Click here to register.