Established in 1998 The Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center will mark its 25th Anniversary this year with a grand gala celebration on Aug. 11 at the museum.
The celebration will coincide with the museum’s unveiling of its new 13 Moons Exhibit, said Josh Carter, a tribal member and the museum’s executive director.
The 13 Moons is the traditional Mashantucket Pequot calendar that “provides resources and direction throughout the 13 lunar cycles and guides us in what we should be doing throughout those cycles.”
The exhibit, he added, will include educational and artistic representations of each of the 13 teachings in the Pequot lunar calendar.
For instance, Josh said, during the Strawberry Moon lunar cycle the tribe each June hosts a Strawberry Thanksgiving. August represents the Green Corn Harvest Moon and is the tribe’s largest celebration of the year - Schemitzun - a three-day event to mark the transition from summer into fall “and give us the opportunity to be thankful for the harvest.”
The more than 300,000 square foot Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center was created to help bring to life the tribe’s story and history. It has become a major resource on the history and culture of not only the Mashantucket tribe, but of all the Native American tribes of the northeast.
It consists of permanent exhibits, a gallery of temporary exhibits, classrooms, a 320-seat auditorium, a restaurant, and a museum shop. It houses collections, archives, and archaeology and conservation laboratories where ongoing work continues on the study of Native cultures in the region.
There are multi-sensory dioramas and exhibits throughout the museum, along with videos, interactive programs, archival materials, ethnographic and archaeological collections, commissioned art, and traditional crafts by Native artisans.
Each year the research center and museum hosts thousands of school children who visit the museum as part of their school’s curriculum on Native cultures.
The building itself was designed to meld organically with the surrounding woodlands on the reservation while being mindful of maintaining the area’s ecological integrity.
“It embraces the tree line and is nestled into the landscape; two of the five levels of the facility are below ground,” the tribe says on the museum’s website. ”The 185-foot stone-and-glass tower provides visitors with sweeping views of the (Great Cedar) swamp and region. The large, circular, glass-and-steel Gathering Space serves as an arrival and event area.”
Josh says the Aug. 11 gala will center around the last 25 years of celebrating Native culture. The theme of the museum’s 25th anniversary, he added, is Meesumôk Neetôp, which translates as “giving friend.” The Meesumôk Neetôp initiative, he added, is intended as a tribal outreach to promote community-building through a variety of services and social support.
“We do this by acquiring funding and donations to support various projects designed to enhance the sustainability of our public programs as well as the mission of the Mashantucket Pequot. Our Meesumôk Neetôp initiative envisions the realization of interdependence by bringing communities together in the spirit of supporting and learning from one another.
Community support and donations are powerful commitments that support our efforts to share the Pequot Story and its significance to American history. We’re proud of this initiative and our ability to use those ancient teachings to meet the needs of our communities today.”
The anniversary gala is open to the public and will include a cocktail hour on the museum terrace, traditional music and singing, wampum demonstrations and tours of the facility. For tickets and more information visit Pequotmuseum.org and click on the drop down menu titled 25th Anniversary Gala.
Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
110 Pequot Trail, Mashantucket
Phone: 860-396-6910
Email: museumfeedback@pequotmuseum.org
Online: Pequotmuseum.org
On Social: @Pequot