Unfortunately, The Wet Your Whistle Lecture What the Wangunk drank: A history of beverages among the Indigenous people of Wethersfield originally scheduled for Friday, March 22 has to be postponed due to illness. The lecture has been rescheduled until Friday, April 26 at 7:00 pm. Wethersfield Historical Society apologizes for any inconvenience and wishes Dr. Hermes a speedy recovery.

Wethersfield Historical Society's Wet Your Whistle Lecture Series draws to a close with Katherine Hermes presenting What the Wangunk drank: A history of beverages among the Indigenous people of Wethersfield. This lecture will focus on the various liquids Native people drank, from water to teas, to alcohol. The importance of the natural environment in providing sustenance and medicine will be discussed. The European introduction of alcohol into Native communities, conflicts with the colonists over alcohol, and temperance movements that emerged in the 18th century among Indigenous people will also be explored.

Katherine Hermes is the publisher and executive director of Connecticut Explored, Inc. She received her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, and her Ph.D. in Colonial American history from Yale University. She is professor emerita at Central Connecticut State University in the History Department, where she served as department chair and taught courses on Anglo-American legal history and Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands, as well as other courses in Early America. She is the co-author of several articles and book chapters on Native American history in New England and the author of book chapters on Native legal history.

The lecture will be held in the ballroom of The Keeney Memorial Cultural Center (200 Main Street, Wethersfield). Admission is $10 at the door for the general public and free to current members of Wethersfield Historical Society.