May 6 & 20
SCOUT WORKSHOPS
These two hour workshops offered at 10 am and 1 pm combine guided exhibit tours and hands-on enrichment programs in our classrooms. Each program, which also includes museum admission for the day, is $11, maximum 25, call (860) 396-6839 to register. Choose from one of the following sessions:
Puppet Theater: Cautantowwit's Garden: Brownies and Cub Scouts use puppets in a play that explains how corn came to the Pequots long ago and also take a Pequot Child Village Tour.

What's in a Plant I? Brownies, Tigers, Bears or Webelos explore the Farmstead grounds and find six plants Native people used for food, medicine and shelter as well as make a wristband from plant materials. Includes a Gift of the Land Exhibit Tour.

What's in a Plant II? Cadette and Senior Girl Scouts examine six plants and their importance to Native people, such as cattails used for food and mats and witch hazel, which repels insects, and learn how to tell friendly and unfriendly plants apart. Older scouts make an insect repellent.

Digging into the Past: Boy Scouts, Cadettes and Girl Scouts identify artifacts and discover ancient tools and their uses at a simulated archaeological site. They also take a Mashantucket Natural History Exhibit Tour and discuss the role of archaeology in understanding the past.

Saturday May 6
CSI MASHANTUCKET:
FIBER INDENTIFICATION
IN FORENSIC SCIENCE & ARCHAEOLOGY
Fiber identification helps solve crimes as well as historical mysteries. For 45 years manufacturers - domestic and foreign - have been required to identify fiber content of clothing on their labels, and fiber identification is crucial to archaeology as well as for highly rated TV police shows. Dr. Margaret Ordoñez, professor in the Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design Department at the University of Rhode Island, shows in this slide presentation how microscopy is used to identify fibers and provides examples of this process in forensic cases and in the analysis of ethnographic and archaeological textiles. Dr. Ordoñez worked for a team that prepared and analyzed dyed fibers for the FBI and teaches both undergraduate and graduate students. At 1 pm in the Auditorium Lobby.

Saturday May 6
BE A GLACIAL GEOLOGIST & SWAMP WALKER
This workshop for Junior Girl Scouts explores Connecticut's glacial past, 18,000 years ago when the ice was a mile thick, and how geologists determine what happened since then and why. Become a glacial geologist for a day - or maybe for the rest of your life - and learn how glaciers shaped the land as they melted. Visit landscapes outside the museum, like the Cedar Swamp,  and study how they formed and changed as you help take a "core sample" of the swamp. Dress for wet muddy work and keep your eyes peeled for weird and wonderful creatures like giant water bugs. Program helps scouts meet their Science Discovery Badge requirements, from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, bring a lunch and meet in the Gathering Space, limited to 20, $20/$15 for museum members, 800-411-9671.

Wednesday May 10
TEACHERS' OPEN HOUSE
Educators are invited to this Special Open House to meet the Museum's Education Staff and to participate in our exciting new programs. Teachers, principals, educational coordinators and home schoolers are cordially invited to take a guided tour of the exhibits and learn first-hand how you can incorporate a visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum into your classroom curriculum. Enjoy refreshments and a complimentary "goody bag" plus great conversation on educational issues. We look forward to your visit. Please call (860) 396-6839 to confirm your attendance. From 3 to 4:30 pm in the Museum Atrium, free.

Sunday May 14
JAZZY MOTHER'S DAY BRUNCH
Treat Mom on her special day with a Springtime Brunch of Eggs Benedict with all the fixings plus the soulful music of Emma Joe Mills Brennan (Wampanoag) and her jazz trio. Also during brunch, Native American quilters Salli Benedict, Sheree Bonaparte (both Akwasasne Mohawk) and Barbara Helen Hill (Cayuga/Mohawk) share their craft and the meaning of quilting in their cultures. Their work is on display in the museum's special exhibit "To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions" in the Mashantucket Gallery. The menu includes spring asparagus, carved hickory roast buffalo brisket, irresistible desserts and more. The alcohol-free brunch is from 11 to 1:30 in the Gathering Space, $30/$25 for museum members and Mom gets half-price admission to the Museum Exhibits. Please RSVP by May 10, 800-411-9671.

Saturday May 20
TEXTILE ARTS OF THE NORTHEAST
SPECIAL BEHIND-THE-SCENES TOUR
View the wonderful and varied textile arts - woven bags, clothing, ribbon work, beadwork and quillwork - created by Native people of the Northeast over the last 250 years. Contemporary and historical examples will be on display and discussed as you visit the Museum Collections Department. From 2 to 3 pm, meet in the Gathering Space, $10/free to museum members, 800-411-9671.