Take a journey through time at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center

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I know many people who enjoy the trip to Foxwoods Casino and never took a side trip to this Indian Museum right there on the reservation. You can either plug the address into you GPS or if you are staying at Foxwoods, any hotel there will shuttle you to it.

I have been to this museum 12 times so far because it has great spiritual meaning to me. My husband Bob loved going there because he could relate to it with the hunting and the fishing. He was amazed by how lifelike the Indians looked and they created a village for you to walk through. Every time he would see the Indian holding his fish high, he would exclaim that that was him!

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For me it goes beyond that. It was the last trip he ever took when he fell ill with his brain cancer. This place will always hold special meaning to my heart! It was a trip we had to leave early from, and he would be upset with me for doing so. My only fear was that I didn’t want him to be in a Connecticut Hospital so far from home when the seizures would happen. He was listing and his gait was off but he trusted me enough to come home. That WAS our last trip together, except ambulance rides to the hospitals! Going to the museum refreshes a sweet memory of a place my husband loved so much!

I love seeing the reactions of the many different friends I have brought there through the years! There are three floors and they are still adding on. Their brochures will boast that The Pequot Museum is an award winning, interactive, multi-media environment that stimulates the senses, captures the imagination and stirs the spirit. You know me and SPIRIT!

The journey would start with exhibits and clothing they made with certain tools. You would then descend into a glacier crevasse. The cold climate would boast large animals that once roamed New England, like the mastodon and wolves.

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Soon you would enter the diorama, and discover how family members participated in an ancient Caribou hunt, 11,000 years ago. This room made you feel like you were on the hunt where the Indians had to learn to survive off the land. This area is incredible with life-sized animals and hunters.

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As you walk around you start to get a sense of what life was really like so long ago. There is also another diorama of forest creatures of Connecticut, which is the same for New Hampshire. There are exhibits of four seasons and little films to watch and hear the tribal language. Every time I go back to visit, I can see where I had missed something or where things were added on.

 I love when we enter the Pequot Indian Village. This village shows how life was in Connecticut 450 years ago. The faces of many I have taken there is priceless! This last time I went, I took my kid sister, Tami. She couldn’t believe her eyes, as we walked around and listened to the stories of each exhibit with an acoustiguide.

There is so much to see. It starts off with harvesting the food and the women preparing what their men brought back from the hunt. The wigwams can be entered as they are huge! There are also pictures of the Indians making clothes out of skins of the Caribou they hunted. My pictures will give you an idea of what you can expect. You can take photos without a flash. I used one photo with my sister in it to compare and show you how lifelike this village is.

[View the slideshow below.]


There is another floor where their dugout is displayed at The Mashantucket Gallery and how The Pequot’s way of life began to change.

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They have walking Pequot trails for the adventurous ones that you can start at the Great Cedar Casino lobby. You can also do a small walking tour outside the museum for outdoor exhibits.

They have food, music, films and powwows. Their next powwow is scheduled for Thursday July 6, 2017. Grand Entry is 11 a.m. and 2.p.m.

Last but not least, the Observation Tower. That’s a must! Take the elevator up after you pay for your ticket to the museum and you will see the Reservation at Foxwoods!

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These are all my photos and I hope it gives you a visual of what would lie ahead if you went to this American Museum. On this particular day just a few weeks ago, I got to hear a bunch of children coming into the Pequot Village for their class trip. In fact I saw at least three class trips. I would tell my sister Tami to listen to the sounds of the children’s excitement as they came into the village. It’s a sight to see and hear! I hope the next time you visit Foxwoods, you take the time out to see this extravaganza.

Expansive museum of Native American history, with life-sized dioramas and a 16th-century village. Zip line coming soon! They started work on it already!

Address110 Pequot Trail, MASHANTUCKET, CT 06338-Phone-(800) 411-9671

Hours

Monday Closed
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 9AM–5PM
Thursday 9AM–5PM
Friday 9AM–5PM
Saturday 9AM–5PM
Sunday Closed

carol 3Gail Durant is the fourth-oldest from a family of 13 children. She has lived in Manchester her whole life with the exception of one year in Hillsboro. She worked for 41 years in shoe shops, laundry and manufacturing and fully retired five years ago. She lost her husband Bob almost three years ago to brain cancer, and is currently writing a book about their love story, Bob’s diagnosis, and the signs she receives from him, to this day. Proceeds from the book will go to charities to help children in some way and also for brain cancer research.  She resides in Manchester with her dog, Miss Spirit (short for Christmas Spirit) and has a daughter she adopted a few years ago, who came into her life at age 7 and is now 40. She has enjoyed photography most of her life, and loves taking random shots, and spinning the thoughts she has into stories, with pictures. She can be reached at gailmoose527@gmail.com.

 

 

About this Author

Gail Durant

Gail Durant is the fourth-oldest from a family of 13 children. She has lived in Manchester her whole life with the exception of one year in Hillsboro. She worked for 41 years in shoe shops, laundry and manufacturing and fully retired five years ago. She lost her husband Bob almost three years ago to brain cancer, and is currently writing a book about their love story, Bob’s diagnosis, and the signs she receives from him, to this day. Proceeds from the book will go to charities to help children in some way and also for brain cancer research. She resides in Manchester with her dog, Miss Spirit (short for Christmas Spirit) and has a daughter she adopted a few years ago, who came into her life at age 7 and is now 40. She has enjoyed photography most of her life, and loves taking random shots, and spinning the thoughts she has into stories, with pictures. She can be reached at gailmoose527@gmail.com.