Article published Mar 17, 2012
Preston, Mohegans go back in time
By Claire Bessette Day Staff Writer
Officials re-enact signing of deed that created town in 1687
Preston – Mohegan Tribal Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Bozsum greeted students at the Preston Veterans Memorial School Friday afternoon wearing a deerskin vest and pants topped off by a beaded and feathered headdress.
About a dozen students quickly abandoned their lunches and surrounded Bozsum as he waved a fan of turkey feathers in their direction.
“Are you a real Indian?” one boy asked.
“Is he a real Indian?” another, who hadn’t heard, asked a schoolmate.
“What are you wearing?”
“Where did you get the feathers?”
The questions came faster than Bozsum could answer: He made the outfit himself, with feathers that he found or that were given to him by friends. Someone else made the soft, deerskin medicine pouch he wore.
“It holds all my medicines,” he said, showing bits of natural items in the pouch.
In addition to being tribal chairman, Bozsum is the Mohegan Tribe’s ceremonial pipe carrier, an important position in the social culture of the tribe.
Bozsum wasn’t the only visitor to the school for the celebration of the town’s 325th anniversary – one day early. Several town officials joined him on stage to re-enact the signing of the deed, when Mohegan Indian Owanaco – son of Uncas – turned over a 5-mile stretch of his land to the settlers who wanted to form the 36th town in the Connecticut Colony.
First Selectman Robert Congdon donned a long, black coat and tall, black Puritan hat to portray town founder Capt. James Fitch.
Selectman Timothy Bowles wore a wool vest with pants tucked into his high socks to play John Stanton.
Veterans Memorial School teacher Dan Rearick – who received the loudest ovation from the partisan crowd – wore a beret cap to represent founder Samuel Mason.
Former First Selectman Parke Spicer was the veteran actor of the bunch. He donned the white wig, spectacles and blue breaches he had worn 25 years ago to portray John Morgan.
“I had a jacket to go with this,” Spicer said. “It fit me 25 years ago, but not today.”
The Rev. David Cannon read a narration describing the founding of the town as the deed-signing participants surrounded a small desk, complete with feather pen and ink set for the signing.
“It was signed with the mark of Owanaco,” Cannon said, “which was the shape of a turkey. That is why the symbol of a turkey is so important to the people of Preston. This deed was signed on March 17, 1687.”
After the brief signing ceremony, Bozsum used the Mohegan language to address the students and the more than a dozen senior citizens who join the students once a month for a shared lunch.
“Greetings. Thank you all for coming today,” he translated. “The Mohegan people are proud to be friends with you. The Creator is good.”
Costumed participants then joined the audience as third-graders formed dance circles in front of the stage to perform the dance “Gathering Peas cods,” which dates back to the early 1600s. Fifth-graders followed with a localized rendition of a North Carolina dance game, “Sally Down the Alley.”
“Here comes Sally down the alley. Here comes Sally down the alley. Here comes Sally down the ally, down to Poqetanuck.”
Students took turns running between lines of classmates singing their names as they came “down the alley.”
Preston is hosting numerous events throughout the spring and summer to celebrate the town’s 325th anniversary. Students also are making town quilts that will be displayed and possibly sold later in the year.
“You’re going to be actually a part of history, as well as watching history,” Principal Kathy Walsh told the students at the start of Friday’s ceremony.
c.bessette@theday.com

After a rough start to the weekend (the boys were tire yesterday after school), we had a really nice Saturday.  The morning started with a trip to a farm (see the previous post) for the boys and me, while Susanna stayed home and worked on homework.

After the farm, Ben wen to his piano lesson while I took Will shopping for a birthday present for the party he is going to tomorrow.

We all met at home for lunch.  After lunch, I took the boys on a bike ride on the trails behind the house.  It was quite a ride – we wound up coming out on Middle Road and riding down the hill to our street.  We spend over an hour out on the trail – of course we had to walk bikes up a lot of the hills.  We had to cross a stream, navigate lots of rocks and downed trees.

After the bike ride, the boy next door, Justin, came over to spend the afternoon playing.   Three boys playing, and no fights – that is always a good day.  They even got me to play “ambush” for a while – I have to remember to pay attention – Justin was able to ambush me because I was just daydreaming watching the dogs playing in the yard in front of me.

This morning, the boys and I made a visit to the Sawyer Family Farm. I was given a great tour of the farm by Rob and Anna. It is quite impressive the changes they have made over the past year or so.

There the boys got to see the baby rabbits and chickens (and Will picked up both). After a full tour of the farm, Anna took the boys riding on one of the ponies. Will is interested in taking riding lessons – maybe we will put him in lessons a couple of times a month once they start offering them.

Okay, so I didn’t finish any project.  But two of them are getting close. I had finished spraying the finish on the bookshelf case last night.

Today we moved it into the study.  Two of the four shelves are finished as well.  The other two shelves are in the workshop – built, but they need to be finished.  There just wasn’t room to do them at the same time as the carcase.

How did the bookshelves turn out?  Not too bad. There are places I could have made the joints tighter, but not a bad first try.  Also, the adjustable shelf pins seem a little loose in the holes – I’m not sure why.  I can also find a place where I messed up cutting the rabbet for the back.  However that mistake will be hidden by books.  I also can see where I didn’t do a perfect job with the router getting the face flush with the sides.  But it is big, and will hold lots of books.

Next time, I might just make the shelves fixed.  That will make the case stronger… but one will lose the flexibility of movable shelves.  Or maybe just make the middle shelf fixed (though there is no middle shelf with  four shelves…

I also made some progress on the lumber rack.  I don’t think it will hold all the lumber.  I actually know it won’t hold all the lumber. I’m just hoping to clean up under the barn, and move the lumber from the second floor of the barn to under the barn.  The wood was reclaimed from a barn that was torn down (a good find on craigslist) – I also got a couple of 4×6 beams at the same time.  Not sure what I’ll do with those though.   Just add to my lumber collection I guess.

Now what to do this afternoon?  Maybe a drive to northern CT to explore?  Or maybe more work on the lumber rack (to make sure I can’t move tomorrow after restacking too much lumber).

We had a pretty busy Saturday – for having nothing more than Ben’s piano lesson scheduled.

I was able to finish the bookshelf case. Three costs of finish put on in the morning (on the outside). After lunch, we stood the case up and I finished the inside and back (three more cases). I still have the two shelves finished after the case is moved out of the basement.

The boy next door, Justin, came over to play with the boys after lunch and stayed until almost dinner. We also had Ben’s friend, Anthony, over for the afternoon. Needless to say it was an afternoon of boys running around like crazy.

I started building the lumber rack, but didn’t get too far. That will be Sunday’s project.

Susanna, Ben and I watched the final of Melodifestivalen in the afternoon.

It was really nice to have a day hanging around the house – last Saturday was spent driving to New York. It was a good chance to spend some time playing with the boys.