Who We Are

Who We Are:

The Nolumbeka Project, Inc. is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of Native Americans/American Indians of New England through educational programs, art, history, music, heritage seed preservation and cultural events. Funded in part by Credit Data Services, Inc., at Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, we are actively building, maintaining and expanding an historical archive research library for use by the Tribes and Educators of the Northeast and beyond.

Our Board of Directors is comprised of volunteers who have been active for more than 40 years in a number of other preservation, historical research, environmental and social justice organizations. 

Many of our Board members are of mixed Native American  /American Indian heritage.  



Joe Graveline, President

Of Cherokee and Abenaki decent, Joe Graveline has been working

Joe at Peoples Harvest  2005

on Native American / Indian issues for over twenty years. President and Co-founder of the Nolumbeka Project and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Wissatinnewag, Inc, Joe has worked closely with the tribes as a researcher and field monitor of New England Ceremonial Landscapes.

As a historical researcher and lecturer on the early history of New England, Joe specializes in presenting the unrepresented Indian side of that history.  He was one of the organizers of the Reconciliation Agreement between the Town of Turners falls and the Narragansett tribe on May 19, 2004; and of the Peoples Harvest Native American cultural celebration that took place on the Banks of the Connecticut River in Gill MA. in 2005 and 2006.  

In 2005 Joe co-produced the documentary, Return to Wissatinnewag, and continues to be active on environmental and social issues on a local, regional and national level.  

Howard Clark, Clerk 

Howard Clark, of Cherokee descent, has a BA in Anthropology and Art and is the Senior Researcher/Anthropologist for the Nolumbeka Project. He has actively worked on Native American/Indian issues since 1969.

A co-founder and board member of the Nolumbeka Project, he was also the  co-founder of the Friends of Wissatinnewag, Inc. a  group that successfully purchased a unique Native American/Indian burial site,  saving it from commercial development. Howard works closely with the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office as a researcher and monitor of local Native American/Indian sacred sites and is a practitioner of contemporary Native American/Indian crafts.  

He is a signer of the Reconciliation Agreement between the Town of Turners Falls and the Narragansett tribe on May 19, 2004.
 
Howard has been recognized for his contributions by the Mass Slavery Apology and is a 2006 recipient of the eTown and Argosy Foundation E-chievement Award for "people who are working to make a lasting difference in their communities and beyond."