Mohegan woman played an important role in in cultural preservation. Without them creating of each basket, the story of their tribe and spirituality potentially could have been lost in translation.

Here we have Gladys Tantaquidgeon, a Mohegan elder who passes down the tradition and stories to younger generations. She is also known as the medicine woman of the tribe. She recalls, “One day, we are told, an old chief, looking out across the Great Water, toward the sunrise, saw a ‘Great White Bird’ coming toward him. . . The chief was fearful for his people. He sadly told them that many changes would take place after the coming of the white man" and ever since then, the dynamic of oral tradition has changed. The Mohegan tribe endured the challenge to protect and uphold their culture.

The Standing Rock Sioux fought to preserve their land and culture. An oil pipeline not only threatens the environment that surrounds it in the case of an oil spill, but it also it is threatening the survival of the Sioux tribe. Fishing and hunting is how they get their food and if a disaster to the pipeline would occur the Sioux would have to relocate to find food.

In the past, the superiority complex of western society threatened many Native American tribes and ultimately stripped them of their everyday life. Regarding the final approval of the construction of the pipeline, President Trump stated, “Nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg. And I just closed my eyes and said: Do it.” which exemplifies the ignorance Western society has toward the cultural threat to Native Americans. The land of the Sioux, along with their hunting and fishing practices and other cultural aspects will be forced to change if an oil spill happened.

Imagine forcing all Mohegan basketry to cease. Imagine the loss of tradition and storytelling. The Mohegans could talk about how they once made the baskets, just like the Sioux could talking about the way they once hunted and fished, but there wouldn’t been “multiple layers of meaning” to these practices.

Supplemental Source: The Standing Rock Sioux Claim ‘Victory and Vindication’ in Court By: Robinson Meyer https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/dakota-access-standing-rock-sioux-victory-court/530427/

This statement describes the Tree of Life and the spirituality of the community as a whole.

Developed by the Mohegan Strategic Planning Committee and adopted by the Council of Elders in 1997.

"We are the Wolf People, children of Mundo, a part of the Tree of Life. our ancestors form our roots, our living Tribe is the trunk, our grandchildren are the buds of our future.

We remember and teach the stories of our ancestors.

We watch. We listen. We learn.

We respect Mother Earth, our Elders, and all that comes with Mundo.

We are willing to break arrows of peace to heal old and new wounds. We acknowledge and learn from our mistakes.

We walk as a single spirit on the Trail of Life. We are guided by thirteen generations past and responsible to thirteen generations to come.

We survive as a nation guided by the wisdom of our past. Our circular trails returns us to wholeness as a people.

Ni Ya Yo."

I relate this to the Sioux tribe and their struggle right now. They respect their land and hope that wisdom will guide them forward. They also plan on many more generations to come and don't want to jeopardize their culture because of a pipeline.

https://mohegan.nsn.us/about/information/our-tribe

The four-domed medallion consisted of four semicircular domes, four sacred trees, thirteen dots around the center circle, and the sacred center circle.

This specific design is the most common. There is a greater spiritual connection that flows through each basket and is “felt through the universe”. The Mohegans believe that all inanimate objects have a spirituality that will transcend through generation.

Here is an image of the four-domed medallion:

To truly grasp the meaning of this specific basket lined in newspaper, it is important to analyze how the Western print juxtaposes with the Mohegan communicative practices.

During this period, American settlers were flowing into Connecticut, Vermont, and surrounding states. As more land was bring occupied for the settlers, the Native Americans were forced to relocate. In her article, Thatcher states that Native Americans had two options to choose from; they could either sink into the crowd of the settlers or assert themselves within the new communities. Basket-selling was a form of preserving their native identity.

A Woodsplint Basket By: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/03/a-woodsplint-basket.html

The baskets were more than just a piece of art from one specific artist. They all played an important role in creating the culture and telling the historical story. While some of the newer baskets have a signature of the artist on it, baskets were seen as part of the community and were left unsigned to eliminate the individuality aspect and present a communal component.

Baskets were used for various parts of Mohegan life (games, ceremonies, transportation of objects, storage, religion, etc). Fitzgerald expresses an idea that basketry contains a “spiritual power” since it can touch all aspects of life for multiple generations. From a Westerner point of view, these baskets are simply well utilized objects, but from a Mohegan view, these baskets are vital to the very foundation of their society.

Types of Native American baskets that have different purposes: http://www.aaawt.com/html/item/feat_1740.html

To read a baskets narrative, we must first consider material culture and its role in preserving history.

Material culture opens the undocumented parts of a society from one generation to all generations. It refers to all tangible objects from past or present societies that were utilized by the people. Examples are houses, books, mugs, chairs, etc. To study material culture is to study how each object affected the lives of those who obtained them and to understand that there is a deeper connection between objects and people.

Today, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is an example of material culture. The quilt is a representation of all the lives that were lost due to AIDS/HIV and gives hope that one day there will be a cure. All the different sections of this quilt are from all around the world and have individual background stories, yet they all come together to share the same narrative.

AIDS Memorial Quilt display in San Francisco, California Material Culture – Artifacts and The Meaning They Carry By: K. Krist Hirst https://www.thoughtco.com/material-culture-artifacts-meanings-they-carry-171783

Why are they excluded from historical records? Western concept of historical preservation and research include analyzing artifacts along with written texts. While the material aspect is important, I am shocked that these baskets have been so easily dismissed from historical records.

Symbols and objects were just as effective as literature in a sense that the Mohegan cultural background is preserved and shared throughout time. Since writing and painting utilize the same word for the Mohegan's, this solidifies their belief that communication is not just though literature. The feeling one gets from an object is sometimes stronger than words can describe.

This concept is different from the Western idea of literature. In our society, when communicating with others there is a clear difference when we use pictures verses written text. Images and objects cannot always portray the exact meaning we are trying to share with others since we all are from different backgrounds and cultures.

With American culture, objects we treasure seem to have a more materialistic vibe surrounding them. Today, we experience a connection with objects used throughout our lives such as televisions, cell phones, and laptops. Many of us cannot go hours without using one of these devices and it is due to the surface-level connection we share with them and how they can communicate our personal ideas to others around us.

The words from the newspaper that are woven into the basket have absolutely no literary purpose. While the Mohegan's might have been able to comprehend the article, the basket was created for its own unique function to serve the community. This basket shares a story with the community without having to use words. To an outsider, the artifact looks just like a standard basket, yet decades of life experience transpire from this object.