SALEM — Salem's own Pioneer Village has landed a role in the award-winning PBS series "American Experience."
Costumed early settlers, Native Americans and production crews converged yesterday to film at the small replica of a 1600s village along the harbor in Forest River Park.
The footage taken yesterday and to be shot today will be part of a series about the history of Native Americans, called "We Shall Remain," according to executive producer Sharon Grimberg.
"The bulk of our work is filming the so-called first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people," Grimberg said amid the chaos of filming yesterday. "We're kind of fleshing out that meeting of these two people."
The commotion at Pioneer Village, which is usually closed, drew the attention of many passers-by heading for the beach yesterday, lawn chairs in hand. People peered at the village, which was flanked by a catering truck, makeup tents, cameramen and Native Americans dressed in loincloths, who milled outside and ate fruit and doughnuts before their scenes.
One Native American man, dressed in full period clothing and moccasins with a plume of feathers in his hair, talked on his sleek LG cell phone as he waited.
"It's a beautiful location up here," Grimberg said. "I think it's going to look wonderful."
The filming in Salem will be the final footage gathered for the series, which is to air in April. Dozens of crew members perspired in the steamy heat yesterday as they traversed the site and staged various scenes. Smoke machines gave the appearance of fires for cooking, and outdoor tables were laden with baskets of strawberries, walnuts and more.
Men with muskets trekked through the overgrown grass, and two women wearing heavy woolen dresses and tight white collars and aprons shucked corn and de-feathered geese.
"We are shooting a few other little bits and pieces for the film," Grimberg said, "for bits of Pilgrim and Native American life."
Focus on Native Americans
"We Shall Remain" will focus on five pivotal moments in Native American history, starting with their relationship to the settlers in the 1600s, efforts to stave off Western expansion in the 1800s, the Cherokee people's displacement, known as the Trail of Tears, the warrior Geronimo and the uprising in the 1970s to protest conditions on Native American reservations.
The Salem portion of the documentary will be included in the first episode, chronicling the "first" Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving 50 years later when relations between the Native Americans and the English settlers had gravely deteriorated.
"At first, the Pilgrim group very much relied on the Wampanoags," Grimberg said. "Then we journey to Thanksgiving 50 years later when the Wampanoags have been decimated by this terrible war."
Grimberg said the location scout found Pioneer Village and knew it was perfect for their needs. Pioneer Village was constructed in 1930 by the city and calls itself the first living-history museum in America. The 11-acre enclosure features replicas of several early Colonial dwellings.
"These period houses were just lovely," Grimberg said, "and they kind of let the place go a little wild for us and didn't mow it, so there are wildflowers growing up and it looks like it would have in the 1620s."
"American Experience," which is produced by WGBH in Boston, is a history series that has been airing for 21 years, including award-winning pieces on John and Abigail Adams, the murder of Emmett Till, and the Jonestown cult — to name just a few.
"We Shall Remain" has been in the works for at least five years since the early planning stages, according to Jen Holmes, account executive for American Experience.
"A lot of Native American history is not integrated as part of American history," Holmes said. "What we hope to do is instill in people's minds that this is part of our history."
Learning old languages
Grimberg said "We Shall Remain" is one of the most important projects in her career. The series used cultural and language consultants to ensure accuracy and to teach Native Americans the original languages to use in re-enactments.
"Having all these local people involved has been so key," Grimberg said. "It's just been a wonderful project getting to know the local Native American community."
Christian Hopkins, a Narragansett Indian from Rhode Island, and Dylan Lach, a Chappaquiddick Wampanoag who lives on Cape Cod, stood on the set yesterday, in costume, by a wooden fence in the village. Lach has a Mohawk haircut, and Hopkins wore his hair in a long black braid. The two young men are not actors by trade but were recruited to participate in the series, as were many Native Americans.
"I've just been involved in this project," Lach said. "I've really liked it."
For more information on the upcoming "American Experience" series "We Shall Remain," visit www.pbs.org.
