Posted on December 6, 2022

CT Begins Uneasy Task of Teaching Its Tribal History in Schools

Mark Pazniokas, Connecticut Mirror, November 30, 2022

It seemed inevitable that a celebratory press conference announcing a state and tribal partnership to develop a Native Studies curriculum for use in public schools in Connecticut would end on an awkward note.

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In the lobby of the office building that houses the state Department of Education, Gov. Ned Lamont stood Wednesday between ancient enemies, the Pequots and Mohegans, united in a desire to write their own story.

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There were no answers to reporters’ questions about how the story would be taught, not by the state’s chief academic officer and not by its governor. The curriculum is to be finished by January of 2024, offered, but not mandated, for use by local schools.

What of the Treaty of Hartford? What of John Mason, a Connecticut colony founder who led the dawn attack in 1637 on a fortified village in Mystic that killed 400 Pequots, including 175 women and children?

“I don’t know as much as I should have about the Treaty of Hartford, John Mason,” Lamont said. “I understand John Mason is incredibly offensive to at least one of our tribes and Native Americans. And we want to take a hard look at that.”

A marble statue of Mason stands in a niche above the north steps of the Capitol, clutching a sword and gazing over Bushnell Park. To its right, a stone frieze depicts the attack Mason led against the Pequot village.

Reporters kept pressing. What of the frieze that commemorates the slaughter and is blandly titled, “ATTACK ON AN INDIAN FORT?” Should it be removed? A push to move the statue has not succeeded.

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“I don’t really know,” Lamont said, finally. {snip}

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But then a Mashantucket Pequot elder called Laughing Woman stepped forward. To start the press conference, she led a prayer in a mix of English and a Pequot language the tribe has struggled to revive.

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“It will not wipe out history,” Laughing Woman said. “It still hurts us very much about the massacre of our people. We became the first slaves in America. It wasn’t the Blacks. It was Pequots that were sent everywhere. It was a form of genocide.”

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