Northeastern Woodland Tribal Woman Downstream, Fox, Fish

Young woman gives Fish to Fox

The MPTN Tribe was known as the “Water People” - who lived on Long Island, the Oceanfront in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. They also built their villages along the streams and rivers, and set up fisheries, either nettign the fish in weirs or spearing the large ones. This portrait of a young MPTN woman re-creates the historic scene, as she is resting on a sunny rock. The Tribe believed in feeding the animals, even abandoning their crops after two years, so that the animals might feast and grow. So she offers a small fish to a fox-cub out of their bounty. Her Wetu is a summer woven-straw wetu, behind her, and represents that she will soon be marrying one of the young men, and they will build their own Wetu together.