The Arrival of the People A gallery features contemporary works by nine Native artists that visually represents the creation story of each artist s tribe. To complement the artwork, video segments on view in an adjacent mini-theater shows storytellers relating Kwakiutl, Kiowa, Cayuga and Mohave creation stories in their own languages. This series of exhibits explores the impact of the changing social and natural environment on Native life 6,000 years ago. Adapting to the change of seasons, people gathered a diverse array of plants for food and harvested fish at Mashantucket. Four dioramas reflect daily life in each season in different time periods.
Autumn showcases the bounty found in a typical cross-section of land.
Dozens of plants, trees and animals are shown, and an accompanying computer interactive program locates them and describes each sample s function in daily life. An oral history program entitled The Four Seasons relays tribal members insights into contemporary seasonal activities. Display cases filled with prehistoric tools and their modern counterparts are also on view. Visitors can walk among chestnuts, oaks and maples, through wigwams, and past handcrafted figures shown in cooking, talking, weaving and working poses. Hundreds of sounds can be heard.