The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is a museum of Native American culture in

Mashantucket, Connecticut Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort ...

, owned and operated by the

Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in the state of Connecticut. They are descended from the Pequot people, an Algonquian-language tribe that dominated the southern New England coastal areas, and t ...

Overview

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, located near the tribe's

Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel and casino complex owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casinos have more th ...

, opened August 11, 1998. The facility was built at a cost of $193.4 million, largely funded by casino revenues. It includes a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and resources for scholarly research on the histories and cultures of the native peoples of the United States and Canada.

Museum exhibits

The museum's permanent collection includes artifacts of Native American peoples of eastern North America from the 16th century to the 20th century, as well as commissioned art works and traditional crafts by modern Native Americans. A series of interactive exhibits and life-size three-dimensional

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s depicts the lifeways and history of the Mashantucket Pequot and their ancestors from the last glacial period through modern times. One highlight is a walk-through re-creation of a coastal

Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...

village around the year 1550, shortly before the first contact with Europeans. The village is populated by 51 life-size figures of Indians engaged in activities such as building

wigwam A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup'' ...

s, sharpening arrows, and weaving mats. A photomural of an oak-hickory forest surrounds the village. A

observation tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, an ...

allows visitors to view the Mashantucket Pequot reservation, the casino, and surrounding areas of southeastern Connecticut. The museum reports having about 250,000 visitors each year. A reviewer for ''

Connecticut Magazine ''Connecticut Magazine'' is an American monthly magazine covering the life, culture, politics, and style of the state of Connecticut. Founded in 1971, it was purchased in 2017 by the Hearst Corporation. It is a sister magazine of ''Connecticut Br ...

'' described the museum as "rival nganything in the nation" and commented that the Pequot village reconstruction and other dioramas "almost put

EPCOT Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...

to shame".

Facility

The glass and steel building complex that houses the museum and research center was designed by New York City

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s Polshek and Partners. The building design is intended to blend and merge with the surrounding natural landscape. A circular building, the Gathering Space, forms the focal center of the complex and serves as its main entry. Elements of the design are based on the plan of the Pequot fort at

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton, Connecticut, Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in ...

, that played an important role in the tribe's history. The complex received several awards for design and construction, including: * American Architecture Award,

Chicago Athenaeum The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture, ...

, 1998 * Best of 1998 Award, ''New York Construction News'' * Merit Award,

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

(AIA) New York state, 1999 * Merit Award, AIA New England Regional Design Awards Program, 1999 * Innovative Design and Excellence in Architecture with Steel Award, AIA and American Institute of Steel Construction, 1999 * Honor Award, AIA Connecticut, 2000 * AIA National Award for Architecture, 2000 * New York Association of Consulting Engineers Platinum Award for Excellence in Structural Design, 2000 * Merit Winner, Engineering Awards of Excellence, 2000 In 2006, the museum building's

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

, which covers , was recognized with a Green Roof Award of Excellence.

References

External links

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
{{Authority control Native American museums in Connecticut Museums in New London County, Connecticut