A 9,000 year old site has been discovered at Mashantucket that changes the way we view Native American history in New England.

    The Sandy Hill site, located next to the Foxwoods casino complex along the Great Cedar Swamp, has raised many questions about some of the earliest inhabitants in Northeastern North America.  The Early Archaic Period, dating between 9,500-8,000 years ago, has traditionally been thought of as a time when people were nomadic hunter-gatherers that did not settle in one place for a long period of time.  Evidence at Sandy Hill disputes this claim in the form of several "pit houses" that were found dug into the side of the hill.  The pit houses are semi-subterranean (partly below ground) structures where people would live for several months of the year, and in this case year after year, to escape the harsh winter climate of ancient North America.  The wetlands and surrounding terraces of the Great Cedar Swamp (which was an open lake at the time) provided a variety of plants used by the inhabitants of Sandy Hill. Roots and tubers such as cattail, water lily and arrow root were obtained from the wetland margins, nuts such as hazelnut from the adjacent terraces, and tubers such as yellow nut sedge and Indian cucumber from nearby forests and clearings. The people at Sandy Hill would collect large amounts of these foods in the fall and process them for storage and use through the winter. (More)

Kimberly Hatcher-White new Executive Director at Pequot Museum

Kim Hatcher-White assumed the position of Executive Director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

Theresa H. Bell, Executive Director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (MPMRC), will step down from the position she has held since 1994 at the end of this month. She hands the reins over to Kim Hatcher-White, a fellow Mashantucket Pequot tribal member who has served as MPMRC Deputy Director since April and has worked at the center for five years. Hatcher-White was named to succeed Bell by the tribal council.

"Kim and I have been working closely this year on everything from upcoming special exhibits to budgets and cultural programming," Bell said. "Kim cares deeply about the museum and research center and its mission and is ready to take this institution to another level."

Before being named deputy director Hatcher-White served in the research department as collections manager/registrar and conservation assistant. "I have enormous respect for Terry and the work she has done to establish this institution as one of the nation's premier centers on tribal histories and cultures," Hatcher-White said. "It's been a privilege to work closely with her and to be entrusted by the tribe with this position, which I see as a great challenge and a wonderful opportunity." (More)

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