Dear representatives and decision makers,

We are residents of Massachusetts. We are writing to express our support for the return of the Lampson Brook Farm to the Nipmuc People, the original inhabitants of much of the state of Massachusetts.

The Lampson Brook Farm is a 400+ acre piece of farmland located in Belchertown. It is currently owned by the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) and leased to the New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI). New owners are currently being sought according to the terms laid out in Bill S.2972- “An Act Providing for the Permanent Protection and Stewardship of the Historic Lampson Brook Farm in Belchertown”.

Members of the state-recognized Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band would like to become the next stewards of this land. Today's Nipmuc leaders are engaged in efforts to regain access to their ancestral homelands in pursuit of increased community health. Growing healthy food has been a large motivation, since diabetes and heart disease were found to be concerns in a Nipmuc community health study. The Nipmuc currently manage several sustainable agriculture projects across the state. The addition of the Lampson Brook Farm would help make the tribe's vision of increased food security and community health a reality. 

The Nipmuc, who have sustainably managed the eastern woodlands for thousands of years, wish to preserve the Lampson Brook farmland and forestland in perpetuity. Despite town wide consensus on this desired outcome, there are a few Belchertown residents who are opposed to Nipmuc stewardship of this land. We believe that these people are misinformed about the intentions of the tribe, and about Indigenous people in general. They allege that the Nipmuc want to develop the land, even claiming that the tribe might want to open a casino there. It is a racist stereotype that all Native people want to build casinos. 

We understand that Indigenous land stewardship is very different from our current system of land ownership and permanent settlement. According to Nipmuc Chief Cheryll Toney Holley, “Nipmucs were not the only Indigenous community in what is now called Belchertown. A major trail once ran through the land used by multiple peoples. No permanent village existed in this space, but the land was used to grow food - for centuries.” This map, recently the subject of an NPR article, shows Belchertown as part of the territory of both the Nipmuc and Pocumtuc Tribes. Due to colonial violence, the Pocumtuc are no longer an existing tribe. Survivors of the Pocumtuc joined the Nipmuc or Abenaki.

We urge you to take specific actions to work towards returning Lampson Brook Farm to the Nipmuc. Bill S.2972, passed in the 2019-2020 session, includes a timeline that has passed without a new owner being chosen. The Bill could be rewritten to pass ownership of several parcels of the land to the Nipmuc, in the same way that it is currently written to give a parcel to NESFI. We urge legislators to work with each other, with DCAMM and with the Healey administration to get the land returned.

For those signing and supporting this petition, please consider contacting your State Representative and State Senator to let them know why this issue is important to you. Find them here. 

The Nipmuc have suffered the dispossession of their lands and various other forms of oppression for centuries. Returning this land would be a step towards healing from this past and towards reparation for the injustices perpetrated by the Commonwealth against Indigenous people. We hope you will take this opportunity to show leadership and solidarity with the local Indigenous community by doing everything you can to help advance this outcome.