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Indigenous and Black people tell their own stories at the Mystic Seaport Museum

Published

2 years ago

August 23, 2024

Indigenous and Black people tell their own stories at the Mystic Seaport Museum

“Wail on Whalers, a Portrait of Amos Haskins” by Felandus Thames, an “homage to escaped enslaved people who found autonomy in whaling,” is comprised of hairbeads strung on coated wire. The piece is part of the “Entwined” exhibition, which reimagines thousands of years of maritime history through Black and Indigenous worldviews and experiences. (Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public)

Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public Radio

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Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public Radio

“Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty and the Sea” at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut explores Indigenous and African ties to the waterways of New England. The exhibition calls on visitors to think about history, water and spirituality in new ways.

“Walking through the exhibition space you get the sense that time is cyclical, not linear. And that everything cycles and has a birth, a life, a death and a rebirth, as do our histories,” said curator Akeia de Barros Gomes.

There are loaned “belongings” — or objects — from Indigenous and African communities dating back 2500 years. They show maritime navigational skills and spiritual connections to the ocean on both sides of the Atlantic.

Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories Akeia de Barros Gomes said a first step in creating the ‘Entwined’ exhibition was to ask local tribal and Black communities how they would tell their maritime history. “What came from that conversation was the ocean as a place of creation and rebirth,” she said.

Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public Radio

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Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public Radio

“Yes, for the last 500 years, colonialism, slavery and dispossession have been a major factor in our histories,” de Barros Gomes said. “But if you think about African and Indigenous Dawnland, or New England, maritime histories, they go back over 12,000 years.”

“Dawnland” is the Indigenous term for New England.

Mystic Seaport Museum was founded in 1929 to preserve America’s seafaring past. Visitors can walk through a 19th-century coastal village and climb aboard a wooden whaling ship. But for decades, most Black and Indigenous maritime histories were missing. Inside the gallery space, de Barros Gomes points to an ancient ceramic cooking pot that’s partly broken in pieces.

“We are going to continue to do the work until the vessel is whole and holds water once more.”

“Drums from All Directions” is a piece created by Sherenté Mishitashin Harris of the Narragansett tribe. It sits on display as part of the “Entwined” exhibition.

Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public

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Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public

The exhibition includes a brightly painted dugout canoe, traditional masks and jewelry, and a first edition Eliot Bible translated into the Algonquin language. There are also wampum beads found just across the river at the site of the Pequot Massacre of 1637.

Mystic Seaport Museum stands on Indigenous ancestral homelands, said designer Steven Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe.

Believed to be the first translation of a Christian bible into an Indigenous language is on display at

Believed to be the first translation of a Christian bible into an indigenous language is on display in the “Entwined” exhibition at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut.

Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public

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Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public

“There was a lot of healing that had to take place so that the communities became comfortable sharing within those spaces.”

Before loaning any materials, local tribes wanted to be sure that along with the hard history there would be stories of strength and resilience. Peters and de Barros Gomes spent nearly two years meeting with Native and Black community members from around New England to shape the narrative.

“It had to be both African and Indigenous communities that were saying, ‘Here’s the story that we want to tell,’” he said.

Director of Research and Scholarship Elysa Engelman said she hopes that visitors who are new to indigenous and Black maritime history can gain new perspective from the “Entwined

Director of Research and Scholarship Elysa Engelman said she hopes that visitors can gain a new perspective from the exhibition. “I think, like with reading, like with movies, one of the powers of museums is to transport you outside of your own experience.”

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Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public

This is not the first time Mystic Seaport has worked with outside advisers, says Elysa Engelman, the museum’s Director of Research and Scholarship, “but (it’s) the first time that we’ve had an outside committee that was responsible for the content and really was the voice of the exhibit.”

Advisor Anika Lopes traces her ancestry to enslaved Africans and members of the Niantic tribe.

“It reminds me always of your foundation, foundation, foundation,” she says. “Like, who is at the table and who are you involving in the discussions from the very beginning is so important.”

Anika Lopes is an Afro-Indigenous woman who was a member of the committee that helped to shape the narrative of ”Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty and the Sea.” To create it, the curator and designer asked Indigenous and Black communities in New England (or the “Dawnland”) how their ancestors would have wanted their history and stories to be told? The exhibition runs through spring of 2026.

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Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public

Standing outside the gallery, visitor Susie Gagne said ‘Entwined’ makes Mystic Seaport better. She appreciated the language of the exhibition.

“It was for the most part written in like, ‘we’ and ‘I’ perspectives; written by people in the groups that it’s about. And obviously there are historical atrocities associated with Mystic alongside all of the good historical connotations.”

Back inside, de Barros Gomes walked through two smaller darkened rooms. First, an attic space with ship carvings and spiritual objects of enslaved Africans. Next, an Indigenous hut called a Wetu. And finally, into a light, bright contemporary space with a large collection of art by current Native American and Black artists. There are paintings, sculpture, and traditional clothing.

“Art that really speaks to contemporary artists reclaiming their ancestry and their ancestral stories,” said de Barros Gomes.

For too long, others told America’s maritime history, she said. ‘Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty and the Sea’ shifts the tide.

News

Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

Published

7 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. All times on the map are Central time. The New York Times

A light, 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck in Louisiana on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 5:30 a.m. Central time about 6 miles west of Edgefield, La., data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 4.4.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Central time. Shake data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 10:46 a.m. Eastern.

News

Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

Published

9 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

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Man accused of plot to assassinate Trump testifies Iran pressured him, says Biden and Haley were other possible targets

Published

10 hours ago

March 5, 2026

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Man accused of plot to assassinate Trump testifies Iran pressured him, says Biden and Haley were other possible targets

The allegation sounded like the stuff of spy movies: A Pakistani businessman trying to hire hit men, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill a U.S. politician on behalf of Iran ‘s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

It was true, and potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man told jurors at his attempted terrorism trial in New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he’d be apprehended before anything came of the scheme.

“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” the defendant, Asif Merchant, testified through an Urdu interpreter. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”

Merchant said he had anticipated getting arrested before anyone was killed, intended to cooperate with the U.S. government and had hoped that would help him get a green card.

U.S. authorities were, indeed, on to him – the supposed hit men he paid were actually undercover FBI agents – and he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. During a search, investigators said they found a handwritten note that contained the codewords for the various aspects of the plot, CBS News previously reported.

Merchant did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but he ultimately ended up with a trial, not a cooperation deal.

“You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta asked during her turn questioning Merchant Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court.

“That’s right,” Merchant replied, his demeanor as matter-of-fact as his testimony was unusual.

The trial is unfolding amid the less than week-old Iran war, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike that Trump summed up as “I got him before he got me.” Jurors are instructed to ignore news pertaining to the case.

The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.

Merchant, 47, had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before getting involved in an array of businesses: clothing, car sales, banana exports, insulation imports. He openly has two families, one in Pakistan and the other in Iran – where, he said, he was introduced around the end of 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative. They initially spoke about getting involved in a hawala, an informal money transfer system, Merchant said.

Merchant testified that his periodic visits to the U.S. for his garment business piqued the interest of his Revolutionary Guard contact, who trained him on countersurveillance techniques.

The U.S. deems the Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization.” Formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the force has been prominent in Iran under Khamenei.

Merchant said the handler told him to seek U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. Then came another assignment: Look for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, “and maybe have somebody murdered,” Merchant recalled.

“He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me – he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley,” he added.

In 2024, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News Merchant planned to assassinate current and former government officials across the political spectrum.

Merchant allegedly sketched out the plot on a napkin inside his New York hotel room, prosecutors said, and told the individual “that there would be ‘security all around’ the person” they were planning to kill.

“No other option”

After U.S. immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his possessions and asked about his travels to Iran, he concluded that he was under surveillance. But still he researched Trump rally locations, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hit men and scrambled together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a “token of appreciation.”

This image provided by the Justice Department, contained in the complaint supporting the arrest warrant, shows Asif Merchant.

He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations – fake, Merchant said – tucked into a book that he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries.

Merchant said he “had no other option” than to play along because the handler had indicated that he knew who Merchant’s Iranian relatives were and where they lived.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors noted that Merchant didn’t seek out law enforcement to help with his purported predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he couldn’t turn to authorities because his handler had people watching him.

Prosecutors also said that in his FBI interviews, Merchant “neglected to mention any facts that could have supported” an argument that he acted under duress.

Merchant told jurors Wednesday that he didn’t think agents would believe his story, because their questions suggested “they think that I’m some type of super-spy.”

“And are you a super-spy?” defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked.

“No,” Merchant said. “Absolutely not.”

Robert Legare

contributed to this report.