Mohegan Tribe welcomes home centuries-old artifacts from a CT museum

A wooden mortar and pestle, covered basket and historical documents are finally home – at the Mohegan Tribe.

Tribal members gathered Monday at a ceremonial homecoming to welcome back the centuries-old items after a Connecticut museum returned them.

Chief “Many Hearts” Lynn Malerba says Mohegans believe that their artifacts are imbued with the spirit of those who craft and care for them – and that it’s important they are returned.

“It is more than an artifact; it is our ancestor,” Malerba said. “We are joyous to welcome our ancestors home to Mohegan Hill.”

The objects had been in a collection at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.

“Like many museums of its era, it collected objects under standards and assumptions that were very different from those that we hold today,” Robert Kret, the museum’s former executive director and CEO, said during the ceremony.

Provided by the Mohegan Tribe

The Mohegans first requested the return of the collection in the 1990s, when the museum was called the Connecticut Historical Society, Kret said. But at the time, museum leaders decided they weren’t legally required to do that. Since then, the thinking has changed, Kret said.

“Thirty years ago, the Historical Society largely asked, ‘What do we have to do?’” Kret said. “Today the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History asked itself, ‘What should we do?’”

And this, Kret said, represents a profound shift in values, a willingness to listen and learn.

“And ultimately to recognize that museums do not simply preserve the past,” he said. “They also have a responsibility to build trust in the present.”

Tribal and museum leaders say it’s a new chapter in their relationship - now that the artifacts are back home.

Returned materials include historical documents connected to Samson Occom, an 18th century Mohegan scholar and minister. Malerba said each historical object carries a story and memory.

“As our artifacts have come home,” she said, “we are able to restore and ensure that our culture lives, by erasing significant losses that we experienced over the centuries.”