Our Lands, Our Home, Our Heart / Nda’keenã , Weekeyaak , Nda’anã”
In conjunction with the exhibit, there will also be an in-person speaker series on five fall weekends. The presentations will feature Tribal representatives sharing on topics such as indigenous education, traditional medicines and healing, and mapping historic sites. The exhibit and speaker series are co-sponsored by the Trustees of Reservations, Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area and the Clark Art Institute. Students from Williams College assisted in the creation of exhibit and will serve as docents to visitors throughout the summer, working through the Tribe’s local Tribal Historic Preservation Office in Williamstown.
- Monday October 9 at 11 am (Healing Within the Community with Kim Hoffman)
- Saturday October 21 at 11 am (Honoring our Traditional Seed Relatives with Lucy Grignon)
- Saturday November 4 at 11 am (What is Indigenous Education and the SMIL with Sandee Barton)
- Saturday November 18 at 11 am (Tribal Medicines with Misty Cook)
Through an indoor exhibit, a garden and a traditional medicine cabinet, Our Lands, Our Home, Our Heart is a resource and connection point. It seeks to connect those living on Mohican homelands with the Tribe’s local history as well as its ongoing governance, protocols and priorities for establishing respectful relationships.
Hours
September 9 – November 18, 2023
- Saturdays ~ 10AM-4PM
The exhibit covers a wide range of topics including an overview of Mohican history, the Tribe’s historic relationship with The Trustees, information about the community today, the work of the Historic Preservation Office in the homelands, and displays of historic objects belonging to the Tribe.
The Tribe curated and designed the exhibit from the archives of the Arvid E. Miller Memorial Library Museum, which houses the largest collection of Mohican documents and artifacts in the world. Trudy Fadding, of Stockbridge, through a fellowship at Williams College where the Tribe maintains a Tribal Historic Preservation Extension Office, worked locally with the Tribe’s office to develop the exhibit content.
As a result of an agreement with the Trustees, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community will maintain exhibit materials in the Carriage House, the separate exhibit room behind the Mission House, for the next 4 years. This space formerly held many objects belonging to the Mohican people which were purchased by Mabel Choate, the founder of the Mission House. Recently, many of these same objects have been repatriated back to the Tribe after nearly a century of separation.
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