By Aidan Johnson
The Setalcott Nation hosted its annual corn festival and powwow on part of their ancestral home at Setauket Elementary School last weekend, July 8-9.
Throughout the day, members of multiple Native nations performed traditional dances and music.
“This powwow represents the tribes all over who are here getting together and thanking the Great Spirit, or God, as most people refer to him, for helping us through the bad and good and for keeping us safe,” said Helen “Hart of Morning Star” Sells, president of the Setalcott National Council.
The festival also celebrated corn, one of the Setalcott’s staple crops grown throughout the region. There was also a focus on the Setalcott Nation’s future and the need to acknowledge the past harmful actions done to the tribe.
The Setalcott also continue to fight for federal recognition, according to Sells, and to have their land restored.
