Explore Native American History at these New England Museums

November is Native American Heritage Month, but there is much to learn from and about New England’s indigenous peoples in every calendar month of the year. Native Americans inhabited the land we now call New England for more than 11,000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene, and their languages and creative achievements, their agricultural practices and their reverence for the seasons and cycles of nature are still woven into the region’s identity. When you visit one of these New England museums that preserves Native American history and culture, you’ll hear stories of tragedy and triumph. Of ingenuity, family, and legacy.

8 Native American History Museums to Visit in New England

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center | Ledyard, Connecticut

A hop and a skip away from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum is an immersive destination that leaves an unforgettable impression on visitors of all ages. It’s the largest Native American museum in the country—not just in New England—and you can spend hours here watching films, interacting with exhibits, admiring collections of native handcrafts, and listening to audio as you wander through a recreated Pequot Village. It’s an uplifting story of survival that unfolds. Purchase jewelry, baskets, and other items handmade by Native Americans in the Museum Shop. And check the museum’s calendar for events that sustain Pequot traditions and deepen scholarship and understanding. The museum is closed early December through early March.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums | Plymouth, Massachusetts

In the town where the Pilgrims built their settlement and celebrated the first Thanksgiving with their generous Native American friends, Plimoth Patuxet Museums is an evolving attraction that strives to balance its living history portrayals of the English settlers and the indigenous Wampanoags. It’s the rare place where you can speak with descendants of New England’s earliest residents and observe native ways of cooking, constructing, farming, recreating, and raising children. Visit from April through Thanksgiving weekend.

Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) | Salem, Massachusetts

Among its eclectic holdings, the oldest continuously operating museum in the U.S. claims one of the oldest collections of Native American works in the Western Hemisphere. You’ll see diverse creations by thousands of indigenous artists spanning 10 millennia, and that includes contemporary pieces in addition to ancient treasures.

Institute for American Indian Studies | Washington, Connecticut

Home to Wigwam Escape, an engaging adventure that immerses small groups of participants in solving challenges the way Native Americans did (i.e., without YouTube and Google), this museum in western Connecticut goes above and beyond when it comes to interactivity. Situated on the archaeologically bountiful homeland of the Schaghticoke tribe, the Institute for American Indian Studies offers so much more than indoor exhibits. Explore a replica of an Algonkian village, take a class in maple sugaring or native handcrafts, participate in a virtual book club, attend an event devoted to a tradition like storytelling, or shop at the annual Holiday Market.

Tomaquag Museum | Exeter, Rhode Island

Since 1958, this museum founded by a descendant of the Narragansett and Pokanoket-Wampanoag tribes has persevered in its efforts to dispel myths and vocalize indigenous viewpoints. While the museum is small and off the beaten path, its mission has only grown. Its Indigenous Empowerment Network works to uplift Rhode Island’s Native Americans in many ways, from fighting poverty to promoting indigenous artists and screening Native American films.

Abbe Museum | Bar Harbor, Maine

Long before tourists flocked to Acadia National Park to greet the sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain, Maine’s Wabanaki tribe, the People of the First Light, called this coastal region home. There’s a small Abbe Museum location within the national park, but it’s the downtown Bar Harbor facility where you’ll really get to know Maine’s indigenous people. The Smithsonian-affiliated museum, open May through October, is particularly known for its collection of baskets by Wabanaki makers.

Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum | Warner, New Hampshire

Tribes from throughout North America are represented in this small museum’s collection of artifacts and Native American art. Outside, take a walk along the Medicine Woods Nature Trail to learn about indigenous people’s many uses for plants, both cultivated and wild. From December through April, the museum is open only by appointment, so be sure to plan ahead. Starting in May, it’s open seven days a week until November, when it’s open weekends only. Native Americans are always admitted free.

Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum | Brunswick, Maine

If you’re interested in indigenous cultures, you may also want to pay a visit to this museum on the Bowdoin College campus. Named for two alums, Robert E. Peary and Donald B. MacMillan, the collections here include not only artifacts from their Arctic expeditions but modern artworks by Alaskan and Canadian Inuits. Housed inside the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies and open free to the public, the museum also examines complex issues like climate change, which has relevance for Native American communities in New England, too.

Have you ever visited any of these museums? Let us know in the comments below!