WASHINGTON (AP) – There was something familiar about the carved wooden mortar, with its roughly hewn base and narrow legs.

As Mohegan Tribal Chairman Mark Brown flipped through photos of artifacts available for display at the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of the American Indian, he immediately recognized the carving style of the two-and-a-half-foot tall piece, created from a tree trunk.

Sure enough, on the back of the picture was his great-grandfather Burrill Fielding’s name. Fielding, who was war chief of the Uncasville tribe from 1937-1952, carved the mortar up to 50 years ago. It is in the museum’s collection, although not yet on display.

The museum, said Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small, is “a living tribute to the first inhabitants of this nation.”

And this week hundreds of tribal members from across the northeast will travel to Washington to explore this new Native tribute. They’ll include busloads from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes in Connecticut, who, along with the New York Oneida tribe, each donated $10 million to the project.

All three will have plaques in the museum to honor their contributions. The 120-foot wide rotunda that reaches 120 feet high to a skylight just inside the entrance, is designated for the Mashantuckets, the first tribe to make a large donation, said museum spokesman Thomas Sweeney.

The third floor will be designated in honor of the Mohegans; the fourth floor, the Oneidas. All three tribes are named in a list of major tribal donors near the museum entrance.

But the plaque is just a bonus, said Mohegan chief of staff Charles Bunnell.

“What do we get for our $10 million? You get a gift for all Mohegan children and all Indian children – a sense of pride in their history,” he said. “You get the true experience, and a place where all of the country and the world can come and learn about America’s indigenous people.”

The first creative contribution from the northeast that visitors can see as they enter the museum is in the first floor gift shop.

There, stretched along a display shelf, are strips of alder wood studded with pieces of wampum from the Martha’s Vineyard shore. Berta Welch, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, used brilliant purple and white pieces, carved from the hard shell of the quahog clam, for the nine sections that set off rows of pottery and baskets.

Usually Welch’s wampum is embedded into picture frames. Or her husband, who digs for the clams, makes it into jewelry that they sell at their store. But a museum architect who was working with the Aquinnah tribe asked her to make the wampum for the display.

It took her about two years to finish, with the help of five other tribal members, and she was paid an undisclosed sum for it. She’ll see the completed project for the first time on Tuesday.

“I’m thrilled! I have butterflies!” she said. “The diversity that’s going into the museum – it’s just going to have such a positive impact on all people who visit.”

The Northern Woodland tribes aren’t the focus of any major exhibits, unlike other tribes from the Midwest, Alaska and South America. But their work is represented in several displays, their native food is a popular stop in the Mitsitam cafe, and some tribal members will participate in events throughout the week.

During the six-day First Americans Festival on the National Mall there will be dancing, music, storytelling and craft displays. Trudie Richmond, a Schaghticoke from Kent, Conn., and Paulla Dove Jennings, a Rhode Island Narragansett, will take the stage to recount stories. And Mashpee Wampanoags Anita and Ramona Peters from Cape Cod will demonstrate traditional clothing and regalia making.

Inside the museum, a wooden turtle bowl is displayed on the fourth floor, and was probably carved by a Connecticut Niantic artist, Sciota Nonesuch. A 55-centimeter sturgeon club made around 1750 by a Western Massachusetts Mahican is in another display, and among the photos of Native Americans showing the diversity of Indian nations, there is a photo of “Penny,” a Chappaquiddick, Mass., Wampanoag.

There is also a nod to tribes’ relatively new involvement in casino gaming. An exhibit called “Our Lives” includes two panels, titled “Hard Choices,” that talk about the deep divisions in Indian country over gaming. In their daily struggles with poverty, it says, tribes may have to choose to “send our children into the mines” or “bring gaming into our communities.”

Next to the panel are descriptions of programs made possible by gaming proceeds, and they include a photograph of the Pequots’ museum in Mashantucket, just west of their highly successful Foxwoods Resort Casino. Another picture shows a native language program funded by the Oneidas.

But the broadest reflection of northeastern tribes is in the cafe, where the Northern Woodlands is one of five geographic regions represented with special menus. There visitors can sample ash roasted corn on the cob, maple roasted turkey or a lobster roll. And here the quahogs aren’t decorating the counters, they’re in the clam chowder.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.