My internship at the Mashantucket-Pequot Museum was academically challenging and rewarding, as well as interesting and enjoyable. I worked with the research department, which provides the museum with archaeological, ethnographic, ethnobotanical, and historical information. Various other departments and individuals sought assistance from the research department, for the information necessary to improve exhibits, plan special events, and trace genealogies. I also utilized the research library, which has an extensive collection of books, microfilm, and periodicals.

The projects that I worked on, though different from my original plans to assist in a recreation of an eighteenth century farm, allowed me to have a multi-disciplinary, and thus more comprehensive, internship experience. During the first half of my internship, I spent most of my time assisting Toby Glaza, Senior Researcher, in his fieldwork on the Relict Vegetation Study. In this project, several archaeological sites on the reservation were surveyed for their plant populations. These sites, which bore the remains of homesteads, were compared with random plots from the undisturbed surrounding area, in order to determine the extent of human impact on the environment. My duties in this project consisted of recording the plants that were present and helping to locate and set up plots to survey. During this portion of my internship, I learned much about botany and ethnobotany; I was able to recognize many plants I had previously not known, and learn some of their primary uses. In addition, I learned about the histories of the sites and the families who had lived there, which allowed me to put the botanical and ethnobotanical information into context.

While at the archaeological sites, I also worked on another aspect of my internship, which was gathering plant specimens for the research department's herbarium. I continued the herbarium project throughout the internship, having more time to devote to it after the fieldwork for the Relict Vegetation Study was completed. For this project, I gathered, identified, pressed, dried, and mounted the plant specimens. Towards the end of the internship, in late July, I expanded this project to include seed samples. I enjoyed this project for several reasons. First, I was able to use plant identification skills I had learned from taxonomy class. Second, I learned the ethnobotanical significance of many of the plants and seeds I gathered. Finally, the learning environment was very beneficial: I worked essentially independently, and I enjoyed the outdoors, hands-on environment.

I devoted another portion of my internship time to a library research project, working in conjunction with Jason Mancini, staff archaeologist. For this project, I researched non-native plant uses from the mid-1700s until the early twentieth century. The information I gathered can be used to make comparisons between native and non-native ethnobotany, and see the patterns of exchange and influence of natives and non-natives on one another. I split my research time between the research library at the museum and the Connecticut College library, which has a more extensive collection of journals, such as the Journal of American Folklore, from which I gathered a great deal of information. I also worked at the Indian and Colonial Historical Society in Old Mystic. There, I transcribed a nineteenth century manuscript, "Medicinal Recipes," which contained instructions for making many botanical medicines.

My internship was certainly a valuable experience and went well beyond my expectations. I left with much more knowledge of botany, ethnobotany, and the Mashantucket-Pequot tribe, as well as many more skills, from developing an effective research methodology to pressing and mounting plants. In addition, the museum staff members I worked with were friendly and helpful, and were interested in making sure my internship was beneficial, successful, and enjoyable.

My internship also gave me adequate preparation for my senior independent project. While looking for books and articles for the museum research, I came across several sources that would be useful for this project. I had not known about many of these sources, such as several of the journals in the Connecticut College library, the names of authors who have written on the subject, and the names of anthropologists who have studied various New England tribes. For this senior project, I am continuing to study the ethnobotany of native New England, but narrowing the scope to focus on the spiritual and religious aspects. This includes researching the plants used in rituals and ceremonies, the significant plants found in mythology, and plants that have spiritual meanings attached to them. I am also comparing these data to environmental philosophy and religious theory, with the goal of providing a multi-disciplinary theoretical perspective on the topic.