The Carriage House, Once the “Indian Museum”
Isn’t it strange that in a museum dedicated to telling the story of a Mission for the Mohican people, the story about the Mohicans themselves was segregated out back in a separate building?
The origin of this separation began with Abigail Williams, the wife of John Sergeant. The Sergeants built their home away from the center of town and by some accounts Abigail did not allow the Mohicans to come inside other than for domestic labor. Some 150 years later, similarly, Mabel Choate collected Mohican artifacts, but in 1937 she placed them in an “Indian Museum” behind the main house, separate from the story of John Sergeant.
The Carriage House was the location of the “Indian Museum,” an exhibit that intended to include the history of the Mohican people for whom the town of Stockbridge and this Mission were created
Before consultation with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, the museum mainly contained the Mohican cultural heritage objects purchased by Mabel Choate in the 1930s, and the collection did not receive the same level of attention as the colonial collection and was not climate controlled. Notes from a 1987 exhibit in the Carriage House included another section of the exhibit taken up by John Sergeant, and a “Kid’s Corner” where visitors were given headdresses and make-up and encouraged to put on redface. There was only a small reference to the reservation in Wisconsin and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s continuance as a Tribal Nation.
Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and Former Stockbridge Police Chief Rick Wilcox visit the Carriage House in 2012.
Changes to the Carriage House
Since direct communication between The Trustees and the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Council was opened in 1989, the Tribe has influenced many changes and additions to the Carriage House. After the repatriation of the Communion set in 2006, two panels and a video were provided by the Stockbridge-Munsee Community to replace the 1987 exhibits. More recently, Tribal leadership consulted with The Trustees and all objects from the collection of Mohican items were brought into the main house and added into the main collection. Now the Stockbridge-Munsee Cultural Affairs Department and Historic Preservation Office are using the Carriage House for their own exhibits. This opportunity to tell the Tribe’s own story here in the Carriage House is a tremendous evolution of the Trustees-Stockbridge-Munsee relationship and has presented the Tribe with a place to call its own on Main Street once again.