The Mashantucket Pequot Museum opened its doors on August 11th, 1998. It’s tribally owned and operated, and the museum covers around 20,000 years of history. According to the head of education for the museum, it’s the largest Native-owned museum in the world.
The head of education for the museum Nakai Clearwater Northup spoke about the new improvements and the mission of the museum.
He began, “Typically the losers of the war don’t get to tell their stories, other people get to write their histories for them, and we get to really combat that.”
Originally, the renovations were architectural.
Northup continued, “We’ve redone seating in our auditoriums, we have a 300-seat auditorium where we’ve run larger programs.”
The museum was also able to improve in other ways, says Northup.
“(We) revamped our witness film, which talked about the Pequot war, and if you came and saw it in the past 25 years it was really grainy and it was literally actually running on film, we've had it digitized and it's clear, it looks great.”
Northup says that the museum is also taking the renovations as a time to focus on repatriation and revitalization of language.
He said, “People would donate a lot of things or they would bring them and we’d house them here. And we're looking at a lot of things now and we are thinking ‘Well we really shouldn't have this.’ And we have the ability to return or repatriate these items back to these communities.”
Northup says repatriation falls under the museums' four values; trust, relationship, balance, and decolonization.
Continuing their mission, Northup says that decolonization within museum science practices is significant for them, from how visitors interact with exhibits to other traditions.
He explains, “And just how we start the day, we are able to participate in ceremony we have our family tribal community here and hosting events.”
This decolonization also takes the form of; farmer's markets, powwows, and other community-led educational programs.
Along with this, Northup says the renovations opened up the pathway for youth to learn more about the museum and what it has to offer.
He continues, “To have the next generation here being able to soak up information, and for us to have the awesome opportunity to continue to share our story - our history, so it’s a really exciting time of year.”
The museum offers virtual tours and experiences along with interactive in-person exhibitions, and in the coming years, there are plans to reinvigorate more exhibits.
