Pamunkey Indian Tribe Museum

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe Museum is a museum in King William, Virginia, United States, that holds information on the Pamunkey tribe, their history and way of life.[1]

Pamunkey Indian Tribe Museum
Established1979
LocationKing William,  Virginia
Coordinates37.575456°N 77.002154°W / 37.575456; -77.002154
Websitepamunkey.org/reservation/museum-cultural-center

The museum was built in 1979 with the aim of preserving the people's inherited identity.[2] When it was built, the intent was to show the houses of the ancient Pamunkey.[1] It now displays ca. 12,000 years of artifacts that represent the Pamunkey people's history from the Ice Age to the present.[3]

The museum has followed a display model combining replicas with original Native American artifacts in order to provide a full and authentic view of the tribe's lifestyle. It is mainly the work of Warren Cook, an anthropologist, and Errett Callahan, an experimental archaeologist. Callahan was mainly responsible for the replicas. He also collected many of the artifacts.[1]

The several pavilions composing the museum start with the Ice Age, and all archaeological timeframes until the present. In "People", the ornaments displayed show the way of life of the Pamunkeys at that time. Natural Environment and Settlement show the dwelling places, whereas Subsistence exhibits the tools they used and how they survived. These four themes show up in this order in each archaeological time frame, and are color-coded blue, green, yellow, and red respectively, in order to assist the visitor in moving with ease from one era to the other.[1]

The museum also hosts a gift shop where visitors can buy handcrafted items crafted by the Pamunkey tribe. In particular, pottery is made using old techniques and the clay used is dug exclusively in the Pamunkey River.[1]

References
  1. "Official website". Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Reservation. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03.
  2. Barry Pritzker (2000). A Native American encyclopedia: history, culture, and peoples. Oxford University Press US. pp. 389–. ISBN 978-0-19-513897-9. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  3. Frank E. Grizzard; D. Boyd Smith (2007). Jamestown Colony: a political, social, and cultural history. ABC-CLIO. pp. 162–. ISBN 978-1-85109-637-4. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
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