"the more usual Place of their Abode": Ethnogeography, Community Dynamics, and Household Economies on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation

Summary

Between December 1773 and June 1774, a new road was surveyed and laid out across the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation. Two survey points along this route, mention an “Indian meeting house” and a “small Indian house.” The construction of this road and the architectural landmarks along it illustrate, in part, the considerable adjustments that Pequots were making in the aftermath of colonization and land dispossession. Public architecture such as the “meeting house,” was unknown at Mashantucket only ten years earlier and prior to that time, there would have been little question that the “Indian house” was a wetu or wigwam. In this maelstrom of change, informal land divisions, social tensions, and the rapid shift to a market economy highlight many new ways of living. This paper provides a framework for accessing and contextualizing hidden indigenous histories – notably household and community dynamics - through the integrative use of historical archives, archaeological data, and ethnogeography. Data from Mashantucket problematize an otherwise static perception of Indian agency and reveal a rich, complicated, and dynamic cultural landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exploring 12,000 Years of Occupation, Land Use, and Conflict: Archaeological and Historical Research Sponsored by the Mashantucket and Eastern Pequot Tribes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage