PORTSMOUTH – Strawbery Banke started the structure of a classic Aboriginal wigwam on Wednesday morning, six years after archaeological excavations discovered imaginable remains of a wigwam on campus.
Paul and Denise Pouliot, key speakers of pennacook-Abenaki’s Cowasuck Band, others founded in Alton, led a blessing from the outdoor land of the Yeaton-Walsh House before the structure began. long-leaf tobacco from the Connecticut River Valley.
“What we were doing thanking the Creator for our homeland,” Denise Puoliot said of blessings.
Pouliot, he and his wife had helped build dozens of wigwams since the 1990s.
“If this is done correctly, it will involve a lot of pounds because all the power is force to the floor in other directions, so it will retain much more than it looks,” he said.
Museum archaeologist Alexandra Martin said the imaginable remains of a wigwam discovered during the 2015 excavations corroborated oral stories and other archaeological evidence that the Abenakis visited the sea coast for seasonal hunting and fishing centuries ago.
Strawbery Banke has a collection of more than a million artifacts and only about 20 of them are “made by Indians,” Martin said. When he saw a black circular spot on the floor of the 2015 excavations, he knew exactly what it was about.
“It’s very exciting, ” he said of the construction of the wigwam. “I paint a lot with Paul and DeniseArray . . . they were wonderful supporters of the history of the Abenakis and the presentation of culture in the museum. “
Denise Pouliot said the young trees would be nailed around a foot on the floor at an angle of 40 to 45 degrees. “If they pass directly, they may not stay,” he said.
When creating a circular ring, the 12 young trees embedded in the floor would create a five-foot-tall structure. Smaller young trees would be placed around the outside of the ring to complete the frame and young structural trees would bend towards each other before being twisted and tied.
“And then, when they dry, it will be like a basket, ” Paul Pouliot.
Tobacco was also placed in each and every gap before the young trees were placed there to “help maintain design for longer,” Pouliot said.
“It’s an ancient tobacco that has medicinal properties and prevents insects from eating wood when we build our wigwam,” he said.
The frame will be covered with piles of birch bark feet, Martin said.
The wigwam’s open-air design ended at noon On Wednesday with the help of museum staff and academics from UNH’s Minor Program for Indigenous and Native American Studies.
The museum expects the entire wigwam to be completed until Saturday, June 19, opening of Strawbery Banke’s historic house season.
Strawbery Banke CEO and President Lawrence Yerdon on Wednesday to witness the beginning of the paintings and thanked the Pouliots for their paintings.
“It’s just helping to tell a broader story about this property, so thank you,” he said.
The wigwam replaces the exhibit showing other artifacts made through the museum’s Aborigines, which will be closed during the museum’s historic space season due to COVID-19.
Strawbery Banke’s other Aboriginal artifacts are in the “People of the Dawnland” exhibition at the Jones House Discovery Center Gallery, which opened in 2019.
More information: Discover Portsmouth, Seacoast African American Cultural Center, John Paul Jones House to reopen on July 10
More: Historic Portsmouth: Anne Molloy’s Memorandum in Dawn