It all started with a field trip to NMAI.

A few years ago, members of Plimoth Plantation’s Wampanoag Indigenous Program made a trip from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Washington, DC to visit the National Museum of the American Indian. While there Darius Coombs, Associate Director of the program, noted in the museum’s canoe exhibition there was no representation of a traditional mishoon.  Today, he and Richard Pickering, Deputy Executive Director of Plimoth Plantation, are back in Washington, DC to meet with NMAI to coordinate their donation of a Wampanoag mishoon to the museum.

The meeting was held at NMAI’s  Cultural Resources Center where they were first granted a behind the scenes tour of the storage facility. It was quite a treat to be able to view the rows upon rows of drawers upon drawers of artifacts including the entire Wampanoag collection. After the tour Darius gave a brief presentation to the staff at NMAI CRC including this video of the Wampanoag mishoon trip to Martha’s Vineyard:

The meeting was a great success and we are eager to share follow up information as it becomes available. Stay tuned for more on this exciting collaboration!