Category Archives: Uncategorized

Alaska Cultural Exchange – Summer 2015 – Field Journal

June 25 – Yikes! Alarm accidentally set for 2:50pm instead of 2:50am. Overslept a little, but up early to catch a shuttle from Mashantucket Pequot Reservation to Hartford for this year’s cultural exchange. This year, I travel with co-chaperone Crissy … Continue reading

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Alaska Cultural Exchange – Summer 2014 – Field Journal

For the next two weeks, I’m going to blog what will amount to a daily journal of events that take place on the 2014 Mashantucket Pequot/Point Lay cultural exchange.  First, a little background on the project: Mashantucket/Point Lay Cultural and … Continue reading

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Voyaging on the Charles W. Morgan (Or, the Indian Mariners Project Goes Before the Mast)

The 38th Voyage of the American whaleship Charles W. Morgan is fast approaching and I will be one of the voyagers aboard her when she sails. This has been an extraordinary multi-year restoration project during which time I have had … Continue reading

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I’m working on several biographies of Indian mariners to understand the flow of their lives as they move between the land and the sea. I thought I’d start close to home and examine the careers of a couple of Mashantucket … Continue reading

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She Dreams of Home

From the outset of the Indian Mariners Project, I have wanted to demonstrate for a wider audience the intersection of history, community, and identity in Native New England (and by extension, Long Island).  My friend Courtney Leonard has brought that … Continue reading

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Pequots, the Lost Ship Hudson, and the Giants of Patagonia

As the Indian Mariners Project continues to unfold, I probe ever deeper into archives that I think I know well, only to find more.   This is not a story of shipwrecks, ghost ships, or anything of that sort.  It is … Continue reading

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Visiting Mashpee and Aquinnah

This past Friday I drove up to Mashpee to visit my friends from that tribe and to give a talk at the Mashpee Public Library on the Indian Mariners Project.  Once I arrived in Mashpee, I stopped by the Mashpee … Continue reading

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New London’s Indian Mariners

Here’s an article adapted for the Connecticut History website: http://connecticuthistory.org/new-londons-indian-mariners/

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A Sealing Voyage to the Falkland Islands aboard the Schooner Breakwater of Stonington

I’m now researching a sealing voyage to the Falkland Islands that was made in 1830 and 1831.  At least three of the men involved in this expedition were Indians, including Moses Brushell, Henry Shantup, and Charles Skeesucks.  Here are some … Continue reading

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Block Island and Indian Pirates

July 20 – I’m vacationing on Block Island, a charming little island 13 miles south of Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ocean. To the Narragansett Indians this place was known as Manisees, “Island of the Little God.”  I have been coming here … Continue reading

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Point Lay and Barrow, Alaska (the last four days)

July 5 – the day after… Having crashed at 9pm, I was up and out of the house by 6am.  It was cool, windy, and no mosquitos. Crissy soaked her Bog boots during the harvest and borrowed my extra pair, … Continue reading

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Point Lay (the whale hunt)

Wednesday, July 3 – 24 hours of sun is beginning to play with my internal clock. Slept until noon and don’t think that’s happened since college.  Played a couple of games of Farcle with my housemates. A game with 10 … Continue reading

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Point Lay (cont’d)

Tuesday, July 2 – no report of whales. Warm day, about 60F, little wind, and mosquitos very bad. A neighbor’s dog got loose and tangled up in the seal net at the research house and ended up in the ditch … Continue reading

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Barrow and Point Lay, Alaska

BARROW Saturday, June 29 – expecting a very early start, I slept at Shelly Scott’s house on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation; left 2:30am to meet Crissy Gray, Ashanti Kelly, Brianna Sebastian, and Shaquanna Sebastian at tribal community center; Tina Menihan … Continue reading

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Research Travels: New Zealand

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Thanks to the hard work of Betty Apes, Barry O’Connell, and others, a link connecting the Maori descendants of Elisha Apes and his Mashantucket Pequot roots in Groton, Connecticut was established in the 1990s.   To … Continue reading

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Research Travels: Australia

From June 12-14, 2013, I attended the Sea Stories:  Maritime Landscapes, Cultures and Histories Conference at the University of Sydney.  The presentations were excellent with a distinctly, but not exclusively, Australian perspective.  More than that, kangaroos, koalas and the bush – … Continue reading

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Research Travels: Shinnecock Indian Nation, Long Island, New York – June 2013

On June 6, 2013, I traveled across the waters of Long Island Sound to present my research on the Indian Mariners Project at the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum.  During my stay I was able to spend time with … Continue reading

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Research Travels: Hawaii – April 2013

From April 2-8, 2013, I traveled to Honolulu, Hawai’i to present my research on the material culture of Indian mariners at the Society for American Archaeology Conference.  While there, I spent two days in the Hawaii State Archives scouring customs … Continue reading

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Moshup, Whales, and Wampanoag Maritime Narratives

The Indian communities of coastal southern New England and Long Island have important cultural ties to the sea.  This is exhibited in their histories, story-telling, activities, and art.  Here are some examples. As related by Thomas Cooper, a Native of … Continue reading

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Tracking Amos and Sam on the Ship Electra

In my search for stories about Indian Mariners, I decided that I would focus on the decade between 1830 and 1840 give or take a couple of years.   I did, however, allow for some exceptions.  This particular exception falls about … Continue reading

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The Roots of Collaboration with Mystic Seaport

The Roots of Collaboration with Mystic Seaport I have had an ongoing collaboration with Mystic Seaport since I became a Cuffe Fellow (Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship) in 2006.  My paper “Beyond Reservation: Indians, Maritime Labor, and Communities of Color from … Continue reading

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The Indian Mariners Project

Jason R. Mancini, Ph.D from the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center   A number of years ago I came across a footnote in a book that referenced two Indian men, Peter George and Benjamin George, in the Records of … Continue reading

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