FARMINGTON — Fourth-graders from Cascade Brook School were at the Farmington Library Thursday to learn about the early Native Americans who were living along the Sandy River when the first settlers arrived in the 1700s.

The children also viewed a rare, well-preserved and intricately carved birch bark basket owned by the Colonial Daughters Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The round basket, sealed in a moisture-controlled glass box and kept under dim light to preserve it, is covered with a carved design representing the Abenaki family of the basket maker, a woman known to the settlers as Hannah Susup.

Her husband, an Native American named Pierpole, fought in the Revolutionary War and was described by settlers as a friend who helped them become established, Connie Hiltz, the DAR chairwoman of the chapter’s American Indian Committee, told the children.

Last month, the local chapter, in conjunction with the town of Farmington, proclaimed November as Native American Heritage Month. The announcement has since evolved into a partnership with the Farmington Library, which coincidentally was promoting its own Maine Native American literature display, and it coincided with the fourth grade social studies unit.

On Thursday, the classes gathered in the auspicious, book-lined genealogy room to hear Hiltz’s brief talk on Pierpole and the earliest settlers who moved into an area along the river in Farmington Falls that historically had been a Native American village.

“There are very few baskets made by Hannah in existence and the partnership with the DAR is very important to us. We are very, very lucky to have it on display here,” Farmington library director Melanie Coombs told the children.

“Farmington’s roots were established by the settlers with the help of Native Americans. They taught them how to live on the land, and without their help, the (settlers) may not have been able to survive here,” she said.

Currently, the library has “The Passamaquoddy Language and Culture Collection” on display, a gift made possible through a grant from the Maine Community Foundation. It includes a DVD set, a film and a Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary of the Penobscot tribe language that are available for loan. The library was one of only a few in the state chosen to receive the materials, Coombs said.