The Mohegan baskets contain so much detail in them that some one would need to spend more time to view them and understand, than if they just see a text or meaningless painting. Typically history will be told to us through a book or text that we an read word for word and figure out what happened or we will see a painting or picture that gives us an image of exactly what something may have looked like. To understand these baskets and their stories we must switch our way of thinking or we won't ever understand them, or it may take a long time. In order to really perceive the intended meaning of the basket we must completely indulge into their culture.

The creation of these baskets was the Mohegans way of story telling. These baskets told the story of the history the Mohegan culture has gone through. Therefore, many of the creators of these baskets opted to not sign them because they would basically be taking credit for what the Mohegan culture has gone through and their history. If the basket creator were to sign the basket that would be considered very Western and often times were just sold as baskets instead of Mohegan baskets, because they were looked at as having no meaning to the Mohegan tribe

In the Western culture we are more accustomed to viewing old artifacts as text, that specifically tells exactly what was going on at the time depending on the author. In the native (Mohegan) culture they do this differently. These baskets and the symbols on them are of strong importance.(I.E. Trial of Life symbol). Shifting to the Mohegan perspective of story telling, of symbols and designs from what we are routinely used to seeing, which is texts, can be difficult. This often times causes us as the Western community to look at these Mohegan painted baskets as simply designs or decoration, when they are in fact telling a story that has previously had a heavy impact on the Mohegan culture.

The medallion has 4 different parts to it. Four half Circular Domes, Four Trees, 13 dots around the center circle, and the red Center Circle. All of these parts of the medallion relate to the Earth and the past generations of the Mohegan tribe. According to a website dedicated to the meaning of the Mohegan flag. The meaning of the four semicircular domes point to each of the four sacred directions, represent "Grandfather Turtle upon whom the earth was formed " The four diagonal lines are four sacred trees reminding us of the"The Sacred Tree" or the "Tree of Life", which is a design seen a lot on Mohegan baskets.

Ann McMullen said that she beleived once the Natives were forced to leave their land that they would no longer be able to keep their Mohegan identity due to the fact that they would be forced to move and share land with other Native groups that have their own beliefs and cultures. What McMullen said would end up being somewhat correct. After the "Trail of Tears", a significant part of the Mohegan culture ended up lost due to leaving their land. This happened to many cultures and the results are typically the same with them losing a large part of the identity they once had on their land before being forced out. (Sioux, American Buffalo, etc)

Due to the fact that the Mohegan culture and ways of life are so different from the Western culture, it makes it hard for a lot of us in the Western culture to fully understand the value of certain objects in their cultures. In our current culture a basket has no religious traditional, or cultural value at all. It also makes us look at our current culture and how a lot of things that we use everyday have no meaning to it in our mind, but yet it is a big part of our culture and the knowledge of some of these things could help someone outside of our culture understand us more. Just because things are different than our cultural norm does not mean we should discredit its value for another culture.

Mohegan baskets are used for everyday use by the Natives but also used fro cultural purposes, religious purposes, and traditional purposes. Trying to learn and figure out all of the purposes that these woven baskets are used for can help us learn a lot about the Mohegan culture and their specific way of life in comparison to other native cultures.

The practice of making the woven basket is more of a role that the women take on instead of the men of the community. Women were very important within the Mohegan Culture. They were very well known in the areas that they lived in for creating these baskets and selling them as well as keeping the culture and beliefs together. This is clear because the baskets were intended to fully represent what the culture believed and stood for. Women held many positions of power in the Mohegan culture and the basket making was one of these positions.

These Mohegan Basket are meant to keep the culture going and not forgotten. It is meant to remind the current natives of where they started and where they come from. After the large migration, many people of the culture died and then after they had a hard time holding onto the culture. This can be compared to the ways that the Black Lives Matter Movement did such an amazing way of gaining awareness to the issue. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter was not widely known at first. However since the Trayvon Martin case was announced the Black Lives Matter Movement has made strong efforts to inform people on police brutality. Black Lives Matter made improvements on gathering awareness on the issue, but they still face adversity from people who may not understand its purpose. However, with them continuing to share this message relates to how the Mohegan culture continues to hold on their identity.

The symbols an designs on the baskets represent natural landscape and Mohegan Cosmology. Gladys Tantaquidgeon was a Mohegan medicine woman, anthropologist, author, and tribal council member. She said "to the Mohegan, designs and life are more than simple representations of nature. There is a spiritual force that flows through all things, and if these symbols are true representations of that force, this spirit should be expressed in these designs." To many these designs may not look attractive and if we do not Mohegan cosmology than we have no chance at understanding what they mean. However these baskets have a large power in them to the Mohegan culture. This compares easily with "The Life of an Object ". These baskets do more than just symbolized something. In the Digital Curation project, the student is forced to think of what the object does, rather than what it symbolizes because that would leave the value of it completely up to the viewer. These Mohegan baskets are more than a representation of the culture, they are a part of it.