Evan and Lauren's Cool Blog: 8/5/14: Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center

Next up in our mini-vacation to Connecticut is the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (MPMRC) which is a Museum bringing to life the story of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. The MPMRC is the world’s largest Native American museum dedicated to the history and culture of the Mashantucket Pequot, the histories and cultures of other tribes from the United States and Canada, and the natural history of New England and North America.

When we arrived we started with the Observation Tower.

From here there are lovely views of the Foxwoods Casino.

Here is the Casino.

Here you can see the Observation Deck area.

Here is a view of the museum from the top. It is a state-of-the-art, 308,000-square-foot research institution, located on the Pequot Reservation in Mashantucket, CT. The facility opened in August 1998.

Here is a view from the front of the museum.

We then walked through the Gathering Space. We were told they had a wedding there the night before.

There is a circle where you can stand and say something and hear it echo back.

Both kids trying it out.

Exhibits take visitors on a journey 18,000 years through time, up to the present day.

Exhibits start with modern-day Tribal life.

Here the kids are exploring and by pressing buttons different areas light up.

Don't worry this isn't real.

Then we entered the world of ice exhibits.

Some Native Art.

We even got to see a Mastodon.

We got to see Caribou hunting.

We were lucky to have a tour guide that took us through and highlighted important areas.

The most interesting portion is the village. It is a 22,000 square foot recreation of a 16th century Pequot village.

The people are so life like as they were cast from real tribe members.

You are able to see how they lived and our tour guide gave us highlights along the way and asked the kids questions.

There is also an audio tour that you can pickup on your way in to the village.

Some views around the village.

Here you can see some of the hunters.

The kids checking things out.

Inside one of the Wigwams where an extended family would live.

The kids checking out another Wigwam.

There are also many theaters throughout the exhibits with short films on the history. Here is Robin Cassacinamon. He was a leader and very important to the Pequot tribe. We learned that it is his signature under the tree in the Foxwoods logo.