Lindsay Michel

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

This past summer I interned at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. I worked in the historical research department. The historical research department uses a variety of old documents like war lists, land records, and censuses to create comprehensive databases and develop an understanding of Native American life throughout the past. These databases help other researchers when searching for information. The main database being compiled now is called People of Color and it allows researchers to type in family surnames to help find records associated with these families. There is a wealth of information hidden within documents that are spread all over the world and the research department's main goal is to compile this information to understand how Native American societies were living throughout history.

My internship responsibilities changed throughout the summer. I began transcribing old documents that would be entered into one of the databases for easy access in historical research. This helped me get acquainted with the handwriting and type of speech used in the eras that I would be researching. After this task I began looking through New London documents to find land-owning families of color that could be connected to either the Mohegan or Pequot Indian tribes. When I found two families, I began to trace their land ownership in New London and then later their connections to families on the Mohegan Reservation. I established connections through marriage and birth records, as well as, overseers' records. Once I was certain that these families originally from New London were living on Mohegan land, I began to reconstruct a reservation map from that time period using land records and an old book written by the tribe's sachem. This map helped situate these families on the land and provided the research department with a map not previously seen. In the middle of my research experience, I also helped with a Tribal Youth Camp. The activities of the camp involved archaeological digging, animal trapping, and nature and cultural walks. This camp helped me share some of the information I was learning through my research with Pequot Tribal Youth.

Although I felt that I had a valuable experience during my internship, I did not feel that my objectives were met. I intended to be outside mapping cultural resources with GPS to help provide the tribe with a database and map of the reservation showing culturally sensitive sights to protect and manage. This job was supposed to provide me with background information about the uses and history of these cultural resources so I could make an educational booklet to be used at the reservation and in local educational settings. I do not feel that I gained the knowledge I set out to acquire. Working indoors in the research department provided me with an experience totally different from what I thought I would be doing and changed the entire spectrum of information that I learned. I did not learn enough about the cultural material to create an educational booklet about its uses and building process.

My internship was not what I was expecting and did not provide me with a lot of the information that I thought I would gain, but it was still a valuable learning experience. I improved upon my researching skills and learned new avenues for gaining valuable information. I learned how to search through land records and censuses and how to piece together these resources to form a comprehensive story. I was taught how to use the information in old land records to reconstruct area maps, which may be useful in many environmental jobs. This mapping project honed my problem solving skills because I had to piece together parcels of land from records that were often miscalculated and difficult to read.

Not many of the skills that I learned in my internship will help me with my original senior integrative project, but I can adjust my project to fit the training that I received this summer. I can now look through historical records to see how the land was being used in the past and I can create a series of land-use maps to show the changes in land use.

I am now planning on doing my senior integrative project here on the Connecticut College Campus. I hope to use some of my land records research combined with surveys of historic artifacts to trace colonial land ownership in the northern part of the Arboretum. I want to create a series of GIS maps that indicate tract ownership and distinguish stone-wall boundaries from interior farm walls and foundations. This project will make use of my new mapping and researching skills and will provide a valuable historical perspective on the land owned by the college.