Under a biting morning chill at Belding Memorial Park in Ashfield, the scent of white pine smoke signaled the start of a tradition once silenced by law. As the first embers took hold of a 15-foot log, Andre StrongBearHeart Gaines Jr. and his team began the rhythmic work of a mishoon burn — an Indigenous practice of transforming a single tree into a dugout canoe through the use of fire, water and hand tools.
This particular vessel was crafted from a white pine log sourced from the Mount Grace Land Trust in Warwick. Gaines, the creative director and founder of the Nipmuc-led organization No Loose Braids, said he walked the park with forester Mike Mauri, who later shipped the tree out.
“We’ve been working together in collaboration to create better forestry management plans,” Gaines said. “This tree came because there needed to be a cut on the property. Before the cut happened, me and the forester walked the land, and [I] said ‘Why are we cutting these trees, why are we not cutting those trees, let’s work together with a different mindset.’ … This was one of the trees that came down during that cut, and we put it to use.”
Those in attendance were in all sorts of dress; some had winter coats with beanies, while others wore sweatshirts with both hands tucked in their pockets. Those taking part in the mishoon burn weren’t wearing heavy clothing — at least not for long. Gaines started the morning in a sweatshirt, but around 10 a.m., the sweatshirt was off and he was enjoying breakfast.
The sweatshirt and the breakfast made a lot of sense for Gaines. While the mishoon burn was open to the public beginning at 9 a.m., Gaines and his team had been there since sunrise.
“We told people [9 a.m.], but we like to have a little time by ourselves first,” Gaines said. “That time we need with each other, [before] we welcome the public.”
And the public was welcomed, with just over 30 people gathered by the time the burn began. Among them was the chief of the Ashfield Fire Department, Kyle Walker, who stood around the mishoon burn along with Alexis Fedorjaczenko, the town clerk for Ashfield. Fedorjaczenko said that the process of holding the mishoon burn in Ashfield dated back to late 2024.
“It was the fall of 2024 when we applied to the [New England Foundation for the Arts] (NEFA) for their ‘Making it Public’ grant,” Fedorjaczenko said, “which gives funding to towns to do a public art project, as well as training. … [Chris Nelson] was the one who actually had the idea on doing a mishoon collaboration, so he started reaching out to a few folks who might be interested in the spring of 2025.”
Nelson, who described himself as a “co-organizer” of Ashfield’s Lighted Boat Parade taking place on Sept. 12, said he thought the mishoon burn would be a “nice sister project, or parallel project with the lighted boat parade. “You have the boats, but the mishoon is probably the first watercraft ever floated out in these waters,” he said.
Regardless of who the attendee was, Gaines — in between working on the burn — went around to everyone, thanked them for coming and answered questions about the process.
“To get to know us a little bit more is something special. To come and hear our music, see us eating our food, see the way we’re living,” Gaines said. “To see the numbers come out in support like that, even [at] the first thing in the morning, that’s beautiful.”
When a child asked what a mishoon was, Gaines paused to toss more wood into the center of the vessel before explaining that it is the Indigenous word for canoe. No question from the crowd was dismissed; if someone wanted more information, the team worked to answer them to the best of their abilities.
The three-day event, which ran from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 3, is just one step in a longer process. A mishoon burn typically takes seven to 10 days to complete. However, Gaines noted this was a smaller craft, as the last one he constructed measured 24 feet. This 15-foot mishoon was not finished by Sunday. Gaines said it will be completed at another location, which will be announced by No Loose Braids so the public can see the finished product.
The town of Ashfield served as the host and organizer, with several departments making the event possible.
“Big thanks to the Park Commission who voted to allow this event to happen at [Belding Memorial Park]; we’re really grateful for their support,” Fedorjaczenko said. “Huge thanks to [Chief Walker], who has worked with me and [Gaines] on this probably more than anybody else — in choosing a site that would be visible to the public but not in the way, and thinking about … how we could accomplish this without causing any health hazards.”
Attendance fluctuated throughout the first hour, but as some visitors left, more arrived to witness a process, that until 1978, was still illegal to practice in the United States.
“As a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Nipmuc Nation … it’s really important that we keep our cultural revitalization efforts at the forefront of all the work that we do,” Gaines said. “There’s a lot of important work within our communities. … Our actual work that we had to do here … if we’re not acknowledging being land stewards, or harvesting our foods, or hunting our animals, building our mishoonash, or building our traditional homes, then what does that mean to who we are as a culture here?”
“Cultural revitalization means much more than just having a workshop like this,” Gaines continued. “It actually means that all these young Nipmucs here are remembering who they are here, and what that’s going to do is, it’s going to ripple past into the next seven generations.”
