The place name Peskeompskut indicates the “split rock at the falls,” a fishing encampment and peaceful gathering place on the Connecticut River at the northern edge of Pocumtuck and southern edge of Sokoki homelands. Today the site, which spans both sides of the river, is known as Turners Falls and Gill, Massachusetts.

For millennia, Native people from multiple communities gathered together at the falls of the Kwinitekw (Connecticut River) every spring. At Peskeompskut, as at other falls along the river, they fished for the anadromous shad and salmon that jumped the falls while swimming upriver to their spawning grounds. Archaeological digs at this site have revealed several feet of thick deposits from the many years of leaving fish bones and entrails behind while filleting and smoking the annual catch.

 Communal fishing spots like Peskeompskut were considered safe zones that people could retreat to in emergencies, or when food supplies elsewhere were scarce. However, this changed tragically when the fishing camp was attacked by English soldiers on May 19, 1676, in the midst of King Philip’s War. More than 300 people, mostly women, children, and elderly seeking refuge from fighting elsewhere, were killed at the site.