http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_210221223.html

Hannah Duston bobblehead sparks controversy

Staff and wire reports

HAVERHILL — The city's favorite Colonial dame is in the middle of another
controversy.

Weeks after the New Hampshire Historical Society began selling a Hannah
Duston bobblehead, one employee has quit and another has refused to sell
it. They said they find the Duston doll, as well as another bobblehead of
Chief Passaconaway, offensive to Native Americans.

In 1697, Hannah Duston was taken from her Haverhill home by Abenaki Indians
to an island in the Merrimack River in Concord, N.H. She is said to have
escaped by scalping members of the tribe.

The other is of Chief Passaconaway, a friend to English settlers and a key
figure in New Hampshire's Colonial history, who formed the Penacook
Confederacy of more than a dozen tribes.

Rebecca Courser, who once managed the society's museum store and knows the
two employees, said administrative assistant Lynn Clark resigned this
month. Nancy Jo Chabot, who had worked in the society's museum store and as
a security guard, now is working only as a security guard because she has
refused to inspect or sell the dolls.

Both declined to comment, but Courser said Chabot told society officials in
writing that she could not in "good conscience" sell the dolls.

A debate has raged over whether Hannah Duston was a heroine or villain for
killing several Native Americans after Indians raided her home and killed
her baby. Duston, whose name is intimately tied to Haverhill's history, was
taken to New Hampshire before she escaped and returned home.

Haverhill historian Thomas Spitalere works at the city's Buttonwoods
Museum, which began selling the dolls last week. He said the dolls promote
local history and he has no problem with them.

"I can understand one worker resigning and the other refusing to sell (the
bobbleheads) if that's their belief, because it's a sensitive issue,"
Spitalere said. "But Hannah's a historical figure. You can't deny history.

"It happened during the French and Indian War when there were atrocities on
both sides," Spitalere said of Hannah's killing spree.

The bobblehead also is for sale at the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace
and the Friends Shop at Haverhill Public Library.

A woman answering the phone at the library's gift shop said she sold two
Hannah bobbleheads the first day they went on sale two weeks ago.

"They're a bit ridiculous, but I suppose that's a matter of personal
taste," said the woman, who declined to give her name. "No one has
complained about them (being for sale at the library) as far as I know."

The bobbleheads have been criticized as historically inaccurate and
insensitive to American Indians. Duston is shown holding a hatchet.
Passaconaway wears a bright blue cap. Critics said the society compounded
the problem by celebrating a killer of Indians with a chief who presided
over a peaceful time.

"To have the New Hampshire Historical Society come out with a caricature of
an Indian after all these years of us working on this issue ... is just
staggering," said David Stewart-Smith, historian for the state's
Intertribal Council.

Bill Veillette, the society's executive director, wouldn't comment on
personnel matters but defended his decision to choose Duston and
Passaconaway for depiction as bobbleheads.

"If (the society) gets scared of every little criticism that comes at us,
we'll crawl under the rock and do nothing," he said. "We'll become the most
boring place in the world. We'll reinforce the notion that history is like
religion and politics: You don't talk about it in polite company because
you don't know who you will offend."

While the bobbleheads are intended to expose people to history, their real
purpose is to make money for the society's other operations, he said.

"If you want the product to sell, frankly, you have to use the most iconic
image that people are used to," he said.

He said Duston and Passaconaway were good choices because he wanted to
focus on the 17th century, and it's more economical to release two dolls at
once. The designs were based on other sources — a Duston statue in
Haverhill and a 19th century etching showing the Indian chief in a pointed
cap.

Courser said when she managed the store, the society vetted each new
product through a committee before selling it. Veillette said he has no
interest in that process or in consulting with American Indian groups on
such decisions.

"We wouldn't and we shouldn't," he said. "For an exhibition we should,
absolutely ... but we run our store probably like everyone else. ... You
don't run it by the entire staff. You don't go out and consult with a bunch
of people."

The bobblehead is not the first time Hannah has been commercialized. She's
been immortalized through a variety of products over the years, ranging
from a Jim Beam whiskey bottle to ceramic coffee mugs and commemorative
coins.

She is considered the first woman in America to be honored with a statue,
which is in downtown Haverhill. She was the subject of local controversy
when her image was used in posters that advertised the first Haverhill
Rocks music festival in 2006. But instead of Hannah holding a hatchet, as
she does in her statue in GAR Park, the promoters placed an electric guitar
in her hands. That controversial image helped launch a number of successful
products locally, including T-shirts and hats, as well as the 2006 concert
posters — which are in high demand.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.