Massachusetts Native Americans call ontourists to boycott popular living history museum. increase.
The museum houses a colonial reenactment that recreates life in the town of Plymouth, a famous English settlement founded by the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower. is on display.
Members of the state's Wampanoag community and their supporters decided that the Plimoth Patouset Museum would create a "bicultural museum" that would equally tell the stories of the Europeans and Indigenous peoples who lived there. said to have failed.
According to them, the historic Patouset homesite, part of a largely open-air museum focused on traditional indigenous life, is too small and needs repair. It is said that there are workers who are not local tribesmen.
"I'm saying don't patronize them, don't work there," said Camille Madison, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, Aquina of Martha's Vineyard. "Until they find a way to respect their knowledge and experience, we don't want to deal with them."
That's just two years after it changed its name from Plymouth Plantation to Plymouth Patouset as part of a year-long celebration.
At the time, the museum said the "new and more balanced" name emphasized the importance of an Indigenous perspective to the 75-year-old museum's educational mission.
"Patouset" was an indigenous community near "Plymouth". The Pilgrim colony was known before it became present-day Plymouth.
"They've changed their names, but they haven't changed their attitudes," said Mashpee, who worked at the museum for nearly two decades. Paula Peters, who was serving, said. "They haven't done anything to please the tribe. Every step they take is deaf." He said he repeatedly ignored their proposals to modernize and expand the anniversary outdoor exhibition.
They argued that these frustrations, along with low wages and poor working conditions, led to the retirement of many long-time native employees who initially helped popularize the attraction. I'm here.
The Independent reached out to Plimoth Patuxet Museums for comment.
