Native Footsteps

Begin your search for Connecticut’s Indians with a visit to the Institute for American Indian Studies on 15 wooded acres in Washington. You’ll find a replicated Algonkian village, a healing plants garden, nature trails, a chief’s longhouse and the 10,000-year story of Connecticut’s native population.

At Hartford’s Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, the focus is on all things Connecticut, which means there is much to learn and see regarding the region’s native peoples. Be sure to see the Making Connecticut permanent exhibit, which maps out the state’s history from the 1500s onward.

Nowashe Village is an outdoor museum of Indigenous life located on a ¾ wooded acre directly behind Wood Memorial Library.  A visit to Nowashe Village always includes a multimedia self-guided tour on your personal electronic device. Special programs are also offered highlighting different themes and often feature special guests.

After lunch, make the drive out to Storrs, where you’ll find the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History on the University of Connecticut’s campus. Associated with the museum is the Connecticut Archaeology Center, which houses a variety of Native American collections. The Norris Bull Collection, for example, includes a 12-foot dugout canoe fashioned from an American Chestnut tree, one of only three ever excavated in Connecticut.

Pay a visit to the Indian Burial Grounds nearby in Norwich. This is the resting place of Uncas, the Mohegan chief who gave the original land for the settlement of Norwich.

The award-winning Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center (seasonal) is the largest museum in the world devoted to Native American life. Many exhibits brilliantly re-create early aboriginal days in Connecticut and tell the difficult story of what happened when the European settlers arrived.