This paper uses ideas developed by Ian McNiven in his analysis of ethnographic and archeological data for indigenous relationships with the sea in northeastern Australia, in combination with regional New England ethnographic and archeological scholarship to offer an alternative way to think about indigenous culture in Massachusetts as wet and dry aspects of indigenous homelands within a hydrogeographic perspective using fresh and saltwater drainages. This way to think is based on local people's accumulated knowledge that conceptualizes water and landscapes as animated seascapes and spiritscapes of a homeland, incorporating cognitive aspects of navigation and watercraft construction and use.The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, within the southern portion of the peninsula of New England in the northeastern United States, is a bounded political space initially conceived in the 17th century following Anglo-European colonial conventions of property delineation, use, and ownership. This state overlaid a set of boundaries on deep time cultural spaces and important places of the Native American people (e.g. Bruchac, 2005) and their ancestors who had lived many generations here, since at least the retreat of the glaciers ca. 13,000 years ago.
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