Recently, 4th graders from a local school visited the Museum’s Children’s Library and traveled back 350 years: from a thumbnail photograph of a deed on a page in Patricia Clark Smith’s 2011 book, Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets to the very real 17th century document, showing the mark made by Wampanoag leader Wamsutta. The class is about to read Smith’s book, a fictional “diary” of a real girl who grew up to be a powerful leader of the Wampanoag during the time of King Philip’s War. Leah Hopkins, a museum educator, who is also a member of the Narragansett tribe, provided more context for the story of Weetamoo, and helped to separate fact from fiction regarding the language and culture of the Native people depicted in the book, then and now. We all learned from this observant group of young students and we hope that we have helped the pages of the book come alive for them.
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