Newly unveiled 17th-century artifacts show different perspective on Pequot War
The latest additions to the Pequot War exhibit at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center are bringing the 17th century war back to life from a new perspective.
The exhibit, which opens Saturday, features more than 50 artifacts recovered from two local battle sites. Kevin McBride, director of research at the museum, said the investigation started in 2007.
One of the digs was at the site of the Battle of Mistick Fort, which was located on the hill across the river from Mystic Seaport, while the other followed the retreat path of the English soldiers to the Thames River. McBride said the retreat was largely unknown, but was the biggest battle of the Pequot War and drew tribes from around the area to fight the colonists.
“What we found was evidence of almost continuous fighting along four and a half miles of that withdrawal,” he said. Artifacts were uncovered from Mistick Fort, Pequot Woods and a continuous distribution west of the reservoir in Groton to the Thames.
Museum Director Jason Mancini said the museum already has an exhibit dedicated to the war, which opened with the museum in 1998. The new exhibit will be one of a series of smaller exhibits that will open over the next few years.
“We’ve learned so much more about the complexity of the conflict, the involvement of Europeans and native combatants, and what we’re doing is trying to gradually unveil our findings,” he said. “We wanted to bring some of the really cool artifacts and observations that we made to the tribe, to the public.”
Some of the artifacts discovered during the investigation include items that both Pequot and colonial soldiers brought into battle, such as weaponry fashioned from metal traded from colonists and personal items like hair combs or jaw harps. They also found buttons from the uniforms of colonial soldiers, brass arrowheads and a stone ax with an owl carved into it.
“The archaeology informed us of aspects of colonial history’s battles that the historical records don’t talk about,” McBride said. He said they found that the English soldiers were more organized than previously thought, and the Pequot military organization, which had very little documentation, also was sophisticated and largely successful until the Battle of Mistick Fort.
Mancini said the investigation also allows researchers to examine how the narrative about the war was constructed.
“It re-animates a really significant event in American history, something that has been almost unilaterally written by the victors, so this allows us to get in the dirt, literally, and begin to tell the different part of the story,” he said.
The Pequot War was the first native encounter with European-style warfare; unlike native warfare, colonists fought to destroy entire communities, and the success of that style of battle continued through history.
“As the colonists intended, the Mistick massacre sent a clear message to all the other native people, and it was remembered,” McBride said. The war also ended up becoming the conquest that allowed Connecticut to petition for and gain its charter from the king of England in 1662.
In addition to the Pequot War series of exhibits, the museum is working with Mystic Seaport on an exhibit featuring the indigenous history of Mystic River. The project also is investigating other colonial settlements and battlefields in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island.
“It is very significant on a lot of levels,” McBride said. “Most people think the 17th century is just Jamestown and Plymouth, and we’re really beginning to see a piece of early Connecticut history that we haven’t seen before.”
Where: Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, 110 Pequot Trail, Mashantucket,
What: More than 50 new artifacts from the Battle of Mistick Fort on May 26, 1637, are on display.
Admission: $20 adults, $15 seniors and college students with ID, $12 youth, members and children 5 and under free.
Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, with final admission at 4 p.m.
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