Episode #14: Preserving Tribal Culture with Josh Carter
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To kick off Native American Heritage Month, Josh Carter, Executive Director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, joins the podcast to share the story of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and his dedication to preserving and promoting Northeastern Woodland culture. Josh shares insights on the role of cultural intelligence in fostering relationships with Native communities and highlights current and future initiatives at the museum to bring the story of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and their sister nations to life in new and exciting ways.
Notes
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Anika: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Level Up with Wondr. I'm your host, Anika Howard. November is Native American Heritage Month, and I'm excited to feature our next guest. I'm happy to welcome Josh Carter to the show.
Josh Carter is a citizen of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, which is the largest Native American museum. Formerly the Director of Tribal and Native American Relations for Foxwoods Resort and Casino, his professional career has always been marked by his passion for preserving and promoting Mashantucket Pequot culture and fostering relationships with the Native American community. Josh is also a proud wampum artist with nearly 20 years of experience.
So Josh, once again, welcome. I feel like it's full circle because I remember when I first met you, it was when I was doing orientation for when I first started at Foxwoods and you were doing the tour at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, and now you are the executive director.
So why don't you tell our audience a bit about your background when did you start your professional career, and a little bit about your journey.
Josh: Absolutely. Yeah. Wow. That seems like lifetime ago.
And it's amazing. Here we are. Like you said, it's been a wonderful journey.
I've always been involved in the community here at Mashantucket and blessed to be a part of the community. It started a really long time ago when I was just a boy and there wasn't much here in Mashantucket. We still had the beautiful land and particularly the swamp. And as a little boy, it was always my favorite to run around the reservation, catching frogs and snakes and all that stuff. But, you know, fast forward, my first job here for the tribe was actually for the tribal council, and I was an assistant to the tribal chairman, Michael Thomas at the time.
A great opportunity to understand tribal governance and sovereignty and more importantly, self determination within the structure here at Mashantucket. and That was an amazing opportunity and really kind of set me on my path that eventually led me to work with our tribal and Native American preference law, Title 33, and an opportunity for me to support not just the Mashantucket Pequot tribal community but also all of our sister nations that are a part of the community and work here for the tribal nation.
Shortly thereafter I ended up here and that's, that's a whole nother story. But
Anika: yeah,
And so let's dig into that story. What sparked your desire to get involved with the museum? And like, what are some of the things you want to accomplish, both personally and professionally?
Josh: Well, initially it was as a result of me working over at Foxwoods, and as you mentioned, participating in the orientation process, which I was able to help revise and bring that orientation process back to the museum, providing this wonderful start to a relationship whereby we had the opportunity to use this beautiful facility to begin that relationship with our new team members.
It was about 3 years ago that the change in leadership was happening here at the museum and the tribal council reached out and asked me to be the interim executive director, as they went on a search to find new leadership. I jumped at the chance to be able to help out again, just head over heels in love with this building and and all that it does for our community.
After about 4 months to my complete surprise, the tribal council offered me the executive director. I did not see that coming, but just humbled and honored with the awesome, beautiful responsibility it's been a wonderful ride so far.
We immediately changed the mission to focus again on what is most important to us, and that is our family. And So the mission of our museum is to strengthen Pequot culture in order to honor and serve our tribal family and friends. The Pequot community is certainly number one. Secondarily, we focus on our sister nations and then thirdly, we invite all other guests to be a part of what we do here at the museum.
We've changed our approach to programming, which is a major part of what we do here in an attempt to educate the larger public on who we are and how we came to be where we are today. All of our public programming now, even internal facing programming, is based on the seasons and the moon cycles, which is just a reflection of who we've always been as a Northeastern Woodland peoples, the land and the water.
It's nice to be able to utilize those traditional teachings as the foundation in which we provide education, not just again for the tribal community, but also for the external public.
Anika: I mean, and for me, it's no surprise. You've always been such a strong advocate for the tribe and for preserving the culture and preserving the history. And with that, can you talk a little bit about the brief history of the Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation and in the broader context of American history?
It's because it's not just Native American history. It's the history of this country.
Josh: Yeah, very well said. It's an amazing story. I'm in awe on a regular basis that I have any connection to it and to be this connected to it fills my heart to be in this role.
So the very first war that ever happened between the original people here of the Northeast and the colonizers was the Pequot War. Our ancestors initially did their best to fend off colonization, and this happened in 1637. As a result of that war, the Hartford treaty came about, which ironically enough, we wouldn't consider a treaty. Usually treaties 2 parties are signatories and we were not signatories on the Hartford treaty.
That treaty said that speaking the word Pequot was against the law, speaking the original Pequot language was against the law. and They furthered their efforts by splitting our community into three. This is an age old tactic of divide and conquer, and it's pretty effective.
So there was a group of Pequot ancestors that were actually sold to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is a pretty prominent power underneath the king at the time establishing themselves here. As a result of that, they became our ancestors that were part of that Massachusetts Bay Colony were some of the first indentured servants and slaves on this land. Some of those folks actually ended up in Bermuda as a result of the slave trade. We've since reconnected with our Bermudian relatives which is a beautiful thing and they have this amazing culture that is part Native Bermudian because there were people there. It's actually part African again, because of the slave trade and part on Northeastern Woodland. It's a beautiful mix of all 3.
but Then there are other descendants or, or ancestors that were here. They were actually split up into two. As a result of the Hartford treaty the state and federal government still considers there to be two Pequot tribes, the Western Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation, and the Eastern Pequot tribal nation. Same history, same family, same community. I consider this their museum just as much as I consider it the Mashantucket Pequot Museum because of that connection.
That war in our history really set the precedent and created a structure by which the systematic attempted dismantling and even some say the attempted genocide of Northeastern Woodland People started with the Pequot Nation.
Fortunately, my ancestors were unbelievably resilient. Certainly the connection to this land, to these waters in and around the southern part of the Northeast kept us grounded and allowed us to weather the storm. And as a result of that, somehow we were able to hold on to this place that we have always called home and Mashantucket was one of the original villages we had prior to the Pequot war. This would have been a hunting or a winter village. We spent the vast majority the cold weather months just sheltered from the ocean and this would be a place that we would spend that time.
Mashantucket is the longest continuously occupied reservation. They say it was established in 1666 but as I mentioned, we had been living on this land to 12,000 years. It's an amazing comeback story, we were able to secure our federal recognition on October 18th, 1983.
and As a result of that, my ancestors did some wonderful things in the way of providing economic opportunity for our community. They pursued IGRA, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and before you know it, Foxwoods was born and then that provided the resources for us to build what we consider the most important aspect of this modern living and that's the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
Anika: For this museum, when was it built and kind of what motivated the tribe to establish the museum?
Josh: The building opened on August 11th 1998. I think the tribe in its modern era, and again through the fight for federal recognition, understood how important it was that we continually add to the foundation of who we are. Making sure that we have all of our history, all of our culture, all of our traditional life ways accessible first and foremost again to the community, but also for us to share that -amazing story with the world.
The generation before me much, much more wiser than than I'll ever be, they were able to establish this facility, which is over 300,000 square feet of space, 80,000 square feet of exhibit space. We have 12 original films, 186 foot viewing tower. All amazing tools, but understand they are just tools because at the heart of everything here at the museum, all that we do is the story of the nation. The generation before mine really understood how important it was to preserve that story, to ensure that that story will be held and passed down for future generations to kind of take the baton and continue to be who we've always been the Pequot nation.
Anika: Yeah, I mean, in addition to the museum, there's the library, there's the research component of it as well. It's just a very amazing source of information and inspiration. I know as I've gone through the museum, I love the way that exhibits kind of feed into really just taking you through a journey.
Can you talk about how the exhibits were set up and and how someone would experience the museum for the first time?
Josh: Absolutely. First, I would say you want to carve out at least 4 hours mean, because again, it's the largest museum there is, and we have the intention on taking folks on a 15,000 year journey. It starts with our welcome exhibit, Mashantucket today it's called. It introduces our guests to who we are as Pequot today, because a lot of folks really don't have a lot of experience in terms of what a tribal nation looks like, particularly on a reservation.
And Then we immediately take you back 15,000 years and how the glaciers that once covered this land receded and created the landscape that we see today. Storytelling and oral history is a really important part of our tradition and culture. so We not only share our own, but several creation stories from other tribal nations throughout Turtle Island, which is another word for what we refer to as North America.
We show folks what our communities look like prior to colonization with what most of us consider the heart of the museum and that is the village exhibit. The village exhibit is meant to represent a typical Pequot village around the year 1550, again, prior to colonization really taking hold.
It's just over a quarter acre and it shows exactly what our community would look like with our traditional dwellings with typical traditional life ways, everything from fishing, hunting, cooking and gathering. A beautiful, beautiful place to experience Pequot culture.
That leads us into the colonization process, which for us here started in and around the year 1600. We have an amazing original film called The Witness, which is about 30 minutes and it tells the story of the Pequot war focusing on the Mystic Massacre.
As you head to our second floor, we talk about our fight for our identity, freedom and land. Once you move through the second floor, which brings us to the late 1800s, we have a beautiful exhibit on the whaling industry, which is a really interesting time period in the 1820s, whereby many Native communities were intimately involved in this critically important economic engine for the United States at the time. A lot of folks may not know this, but most whaling crews had upwards one third Native Americans working on those ships.
And then we move into the last 100 years and again, the fight is still happening, land loss is still happening. And The ancestors are still doing what they do, and that's ensuring that that identity as Pequot people is being maintained. We focus a little bit on what it looked like to bring family members back home to Mashantucket. The last exhibit that you see when you leave our museum is our portrait gallery again, just reminding folks who we are today.
Anika: I do encourage anyone that has not had a chance to experience to do so and I know you can get a little bit of taste of it on the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center website, but there's no substitute for actually being here and experiencing it in person. And so you kind of talked about that core exhibit, but can you talk about any new exhibits and programming you're working on?
I know I remember you guys opened the 13 moons exhibit around the 25th anniversary.
Josh: Absolutely. Since you brought the 13 moons, which, which Kunâhneepamuhshâtunônak, is how you say that in Pequot, which is actually translates to our moons.
As a part of the 25th anniversary, we, with the support of Wondr Nation, were able to bring in some projection technology that creates an immersive experience in which we tell our creation story , which is of Sky Woman. It was pretty exciting for us to bring in some new technology to the museum That enhances our ability to be able to tell these stories and for folks to just not hear these stories, but for them to see the stories for them to feel the stories. Really create that immersive experience that we're looking for folks to have here.
In our Mashantucket Gallery, our temporary gallery, we have a few new exhibits in the hopper right now. The first, and again, with some support from Anika and her team, we're looking to create a Pequot women's exhibit. Our community is matriarchal and matrilineal in nature heart based wisdom or feminine wisdom has always been at the forefront of who we are. And so it's really important to us to honor our Pequot women. and We will do that with a permanent exhibit just outside of the temporary gallery.
There's another permanent exhibit that we're working on and ironically enough, coming into November, celebrating our veterans. We are in the process of creating a Pequot veterans exhibit. We also have our Pequot veterans powwow on November 9th as well in support of those that have served our country. We really look forward to the day that we're able to bring that particular exhibit to fruition.
Anika: Yeah, I mean, thank you for that. I know that technology plays such an interesting role in storytelling, and we saw that with 13 Moons. I look forward to working with you to figure out other ways that we can leverage technology in the future. As you look forward to some of the exhibits, do you have any plans that you can share about what your vision is on how to do that?
Josh: Absolutely. So one of my favorite attributes of our community is when they experienced cultures outside of their own, they were really good about discerning and assessing and not judging and then understanding those tools. We're really excited because things like AR technology, AI technology, all of those things are amazing tools. At first, there was a little bit of resistance because of the traditional ways but what we're actually looking to do is to incorporate both of those types of technology into how we tell our story.
Looking at the creation story as it stands right now, and utilizing AI as an opportunity for our guests to interact with Sky Woman. We're also looking at ways to utilize the technology and gamification of some of the cultural practices. Right? Why not utilize, you know, things like the unreal game engine for folks to play a traditional game that we've been playing for literally thousands of years, but to do so on a gaming console. Really just taking what has always been special to us and a part of our community, but utilizing the technology for folks to experience that in different ways.
Anika: I think when people start talking about AI, it's also about kind of the education of that engine to get it right.
One of the things that you just concluded was your third cultural intelligence workshop. And so I think a lot of that cultural intelligence goes into training and building out an AI that can be impactful.
Can you talk a little bit about that initiative around cultural intelligence and what you hope to achieve?
Josh: Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. We all understand that globalization is what it is. Right now, as it stands most of us will have more of an opportunity than we ever have in history to interact with cultures that are different than your own.
There's a lot of science around this. A lot of folks were hot and heavy on emotional intelligence for a period of time. There are a lot of folks, again, much smarter than myself, who did a lot of research and created a scientific approach to culture and what does it look like for us coming from a particular way of being to interact with folks that have a completely different way of being?
We created our cultural intelligence workshop with the intention of creating an understanding of the 4 components that have really been outlined. The first component is cultural drive and that pertains particularly to why are folks interacting with other cultures? Is it socially? Is it because it's where they live now and they're being culturally diverse communities? Is it business? so What drives you to want to be more cultural intelligent.
Ironically enough, the number 4 is pretty significant in our culture. And what we did was we also added a component that pertains particularly to interactions and creating relationships with tribal communities. Taking the science of cultural intelligence and being able to apply that, we felt like was a really smart way to solidify the learning. What does it look like for folks out there to create a healthy relationship with the tribal community? Because there is a very important foundation to have in order for folks to interact in a healthy way with our tribal communities.
But I would contend that that model and that structure and that understanding is applicable to many other cultures as well. That really is the intention is to provide some valuable tools for folks who are looking to better understand different cultures, create healthy relationships.
Considering the way the world works now, I would say it's, it's becoming close to a really important necessity to ensure that again, the relationships that are being created are done so in a healthy way. Really proud of this program and really feel like the workshop provides a ton of value.
Anika: No, I mean, absolutely. And you really just, answered my next question because you laid out the blueprint for how outside organizations and entities can engage in tribal communities and establish a positive relationship. It's really about kind of having that cultural intelligence and coming with an authentic and a pure heart to do that.
Josh: Yeah, if I could just touch on that miss Anika, I mean, for us, the highest value is relationship, relationship to the land. So what we're ultimately looking for is allyship.
And I would even go as far as to utilize Miss Carolyn Roberts, she created a really awesome tool called the allyship model. She's a Squamish woman and what a brilliant human. It's called the allyship model, but the end goal is actually to become an accomplice. I really appreciate that approach, because what that means to us is, you'll be standing next to us, whether times are difficult or not. I think that's what all relationships are about, right? I mean, it's easy to be a fair weather friend but real relationships means you're there through thick and thin.
The opportunity for folks to be a part of what we're doing is really important to us. Because that not only creates advocacy for what we're doing, but please understand we want to reciprocate and we want to be able to help other communities with their goals and aspirations as well.
Anika: I love that. Being an accomplice, I've never heard it quite communicated in that way, but that makes perfect sense, you want somebody kind of in the thick of it with you.
Josh: It has a negative connotation to it in most modern cultures
Anika: I know, I love it though.
Josh: Really spoke to me because we've had folks come through and they may be helpful for a period of time and they're looking for performative type relationships. But at our core, that is not what we're looking for, we're looking for the folks that want to be with us for the long haul.
Anika: Yeah, absolutely. With that, can you share some of the examples? of common misconceptions about tribal communities that can hinder kind of that effective engagement. Because I know even before I started working for tribe and coming into Mashantucket, everyone had an opinion on what to expect and it was just very interesting to hear different perspectives.
Josh: Yeah, absolutely. Another great question. Unfortunately, in the way of your American culture, we don't do a really good job of giving folks an insight as to what it looks like to be a tribal nation in the 21st century. But first and foremost, we live in houses and our community is probably not much different from every other community here in America, or even, expanded outwards.
With that being said, there are some pretty interesting differences. And one of my favorite difference is all of us here are related. In my experience, a lot of folks don't know their first or second cousin really well, but here in Mashantucket we regularly interact with our fifth, sixth, seventh cousins and that's pretty special when everything you do on a regular basis has a direct impact on your family and the people that you know and love.
One of the sayings here is we can't always rely on our ancestors for identity we must become ancestors worth descending from. The opportunity for us here that I think that makes us special is everything we do will impact our great grandchildren.
I would say if you haven't experienced Native culture go to a powwow. I think that's probably a really cool way for folks to taste, touch, smell, feel native culture and very quickly realize there's not much difference between any culture for that matter. Right? We all have our songs, we all have our dances, we all have our foods, we all have our art. Our community is no different in that way.
Anika: I have one final question in this section before I want to do a little bit of reflection and looking ahead. So last week, the chairman for this tribe, Chairman Rodney Butler, accompanied select delegates from Indian country for President Biden's historic apology for Indian boarding schools and that era and all of the negative impacts these federal policies had on Native communities.
When you're looking at forward thinking, how can businesses and government agencies better understand the unique challenges faced by, tribal communities and what are the things that they can do to help and not hinder those efforts.
Josh: Yeah. Wow. Another great question. The short answer is reach out and ask. I was always taught one of the most powerful tools that we have is a question and not to assume that we know the answer.
We talked a little bit about establishing positive, healthy relationship with tribal communities and because we are relational people, reaching out and asking how a tribal community would like to engage is always a much better approach than saying, hey, tribal community, we have this great opportunity because I know what's best for you. Right? It's one of those wrong approaches that the intention is good, but the way that generally would be received with tribal communities is not necessarily in a positive light.
One of the first things I'd noticed about the museum when when I started the position here was that, the museum institution is a colonizer tool, right? These originated in England for folks who are not of a particular culture, and they would go and take belongings and items and whatnot, and put them on display and attempt to educate people on that culture.
Looking around at these different elements, as you mentioned, we have research, we have archives, you have archaeology, and all of these are not traditional ways of a tribal community telling their story. One of the best ways I found that allows us to feel more comfortable about engaging with other communities is art.- Art is a very important part of who we are, and again, this is not specific to tribal communities.
Art is a very broad definition. It's not just painting or sculpting it means anything we do with our hands or anything that comes out of our mouths. But we do have some very specific artistic traditional practices. So, art is a great way to engage with tribal communities. It's a great way for us to find some common ground because know, if you put on that lens of creation and artistic perspective, I think that's something that most cultures can relate to.
Anika: Oh, I mean, I really appreciate that, and I appreciate your time and so as we close out , want to kind of start being a little bit reflective. When you think about legacy, when you think about what you want to leave people with when they think of Josh Carter, what do you feel that you want your legacy to be in this current role as the steward of the culture through the museum and your community as a whole?
Josh: So if I do a good job, it won't be about Joshua Carter. If I do a really good job, it will be about, you know Maurice Jackson and Robert Hayward and Makai Northup and Honey Carter and George Sebastian, and it will be about all the folks that, that came together to do what we do.
One of our values is certainly interdependence. Nobody does anything in and of themselves. If I find success in any way, shape or form the descendants that come from this particular generation, we'll look back and say, wow our family really worked together to provide all that we have today. There won't be a particular name being mentioned, it will be about the fact that we understood the strength and our togetherness and that they have the necessary tools to continue to be able to tell the story that was handed down to us.
I don't know how to say it any better. I don't want my great great grand babies to rely on me to determine who they are, I want them to be focused on them being an ancestor that is already providing for their great, great grandchild.
Anika: Yeah. Beautiful.
What advice do you have for other tribes that better want to preserve their culture and history? This is such a unique experience here and I even know that some of the artifacts that are at the Smithsonian are on loan from the museum. But for someone starting out for a tribe that sees this and is inspired to do this for their own tribe, where do they start?
Josh: Great question. I would say, start with where you are, right? Gain a good understanding of where you are and what some of those strengths are within your community. For instance, if you're a basket making community and that is a strength of your people, then that is a perfect place to start because what that allows you to do is one, gain a little bit of confidence with the understanding that you have what you need to be able to preserve who you are again for the benefit of the folks that will come after you. There are more than enough resources out there, but in order for you to take advantage of those resources, you've got to understand how and why what you have is important. Taking that time to kind of utilize something that your community is already doing really well can kind of set you up to maybe get some success and then build upon that success. I would also say it's critically important to reach out to other tribal communities, right?
We love working with our sister nations, we love being able to be a resource for other communities. We have not always been in this position and we relied on a lot of folks in order for us to get to where we are today. In fact,we are e just in the process of changing out the Passamaquoddy language with Pequot because for the last 26 years, amazing Passamaquoddy nation gave us the wonderful gift of allowing us to use their language in our museum, because we were still at our infancy stage in terms of our language reclamation efforts. Just an example of how we've relied on other tribal communities to do what we do here in our museum. There are certainly folks out there that would love to jump in the trenches and help you build yourselves up.
Anika: Thank you, Josh. I feel like we've covered the spectrum of past, present, and talked a little bit about the future, and so I want to give you like a 30 second commercial time. If you could like tell people how they can get involved, where to go to get more information anything upcoming that's going on that you'd like to extend an invitation to.
Josh: Absolutely. I would invite you all to come see us whenever you like, know that we're open in the month of November from Tuesday through Saturday. We're open on Tuesdays because it's Native American Heritage Month. We have our Veterans Pow Wow on November 9th. It's a Saturday starting at 11 o'clock. A wonderful, beautiful event again, honoring our veterans in the way that we should.
One of the programs that I'm super excited about are our seasonal markets and we start with our winter market coming on December 21st. A great opportunity for our guests to come and experience true traditional Northeastern Woodland culture. We're going to do the same thing again in March, although that is our maple moon but We're going to focus solely on the youth during the maple moon market. Springtime that is the time where we honor our young folks. A great opportunity also for you to experience the long standing traditional practice of making maple syrup. These markets will happen also in June and then again in September, and again, just a great opportunity for folks to get that immersive experience of traditional Northeastern culture.
Anika: Oh, absolutely, and I believe you can get more information about the museum at pequotmuseum.org. There are lots of opportunities to become members and membership benefits from friends and family to library membership to lots of different things that you can do. So I encourage everyone to check it out and learn more.
So Josh Carter, thank you so much for your time as always. It's been my honor and pleasure. I look forward to continuing to work with you as Wondr Nation helps to support all of your amazing efforts.
Josh: Feeling blessed to be in relationship with you, Anika, and your wonderful team. In the words of my community, Kutáputômush wuchee wamee cháneesh. Thank you so much for all things. Thank you.
