It's interesting that the Mohegans so valued material possessions, but not in the same way that we do in the current day. The Mohegans believed in a life force that flows through everything, whether it be animate or inanimate. Today, we don't generally believe that but we still highly value our material possessions. Why is this? Maybe because, as we discussed in Dr. Fernandez's class, our material possessions represent our class standing.

What could the reason for this be? Possibly because when we think of how we teach history here in the U.S. its obviously easiest to refer people to written texts. But that doesn't mean other historical artifacts are excluded from the record or aren't studied with the same degree of scrutiny.

A Key into the Language of America was a book written by Roger Williams in 1643 describing the Native American languages in New England in the 17th century. Williams seems to have not taken the cultural aspect of these baskets into account from this quote. Initially I assumed from the quote that he was in the majority of early American colonists who antagonized Native Americans. From a bibliographical website I found however, Williams was actually known for peacekeeping between colonists and Native Americans.

“Roger Williams Biography.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.rogerwilliams.org/biography.htm.

After reading the essay, this intro seems lacking in comparison to how Fitzgerald describes the Mohagens' baskets. Perhaps she wrote the intro in this way to play on our expectations of what something as simple as a basket can be.

Christopher Schaberg’s Gender in Flight discusses how modern day gender issues may be less “pressing and more profuse” than some would have you believe through the example of the commercial airplane. He notes how airplane bathrooms have been gender neutral for years without incident, how gender doesn’t determine who flies the plane or who passes out the pretzels. He asserts that the reason for this might be abundant “pragmatism” in airplanes where people are mostly focused on getting from one point to another. This isn’t to say we are all one big happy family when stuck in those flying “metal tubes”, but rather we are looking out for signs of a fellow passenger’s character; will this person be obnoxious, friendly, possibly dangerous? Airplanes are a very public space where we try our best to remain intact in our own private world.

“Mini Object Lesson: Gender in Flight - The Atlantic.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/06/mini-object-lesson-gender-in-flight/486620/.

A Mohegan Basket lined with newspaper

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “A Woodsplint Basket.” Harvard Magazine, March 1, 2002. http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/03/a-woodsplint-basket.html.

This makes me wonder, what other methods did the Mohegans use for storytelling aside from written text?

The Mohegans likely had a strong sense of collective identity. They saw themselves as part of a unit tied together through culture. The fact that we don't see much of this now could be related to the emphasis of "private space" we discussed in Dr. Fernandez's class.

I can't find anything on The Trail of Life or The Path of the Sun. What were these, were they similar to the infamous Trail of Tears?

We don't see the same community fueled projects as often anymore, possibly because we are so culturally diverse here in Atlanta that we don't have any one cultural project to center on.

This essay really broadens my understanding of what can be studied as a historical "text". When we include non-textual sources such as sculpture and painting, we see the full picture with regards to a nation's culture and history.

This is the quote I referred to in a previous annotation.