Celebrating Native American Heritage Month
Etuaptmumk: Two-Eyed Seeing in Our Daily Lives
Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 2:00 pm
$10 suggested donation
Registration required
Join us for a program in partnership with The Institute for American Indian Studies, that teaches us “how to see the strengths of Indigenous knowledge from one eye and the strengths of Western knowledge from the other.” The program is led by Darlene Kascak, of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation.
Etuaptmumk is a Mi’kmaw saying that translates to “Two-Eyed Seeing.” This concept refers to learning how to see the strengths of Indigenous knowledge from one eye and the strengths of Western knowledge from the other. Two-Eyed Seeing can lead to powerful transcultural and collaborative work to leave the world a better place for future generations.
IAIS Education Outreach Ambassador and Traditional Storyteller Darlene Kascak, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, and IAIS Educator and ecologist Susan Scherf developed this program to facilitate discussions on how people can include this “Two-Eyed Seeing” concept in their daily lives.
Duty of Care: The Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools and the Question of Repatriation
Open to the public November 16, 2025 – December 2025, during regular museum hours
A young Fairfield County teacher's work at an Indian Boarding School on the Standing Rock Reservation in the early twentieth century is awarded with heirlooms purported to have belonged to Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, raising questions, a century later, about the Stratford Historical Society’s responsibility to care for and, when appropriate, repatriate items of cultural significance.
Edith Hull Stein was educated locally in Bridgeport and Fairfield and later called by the Episcopal Church to teach on the Standing Rock Reservation (South Dakota) at the St. Elizabeth Boarding School for Indian Children. She taught there for several years in the 1920s, before falling ill and returning home. Edith’s instruction books, letters, and photographs give us a unique window into the conditions, hardships, and relationship dynamics of reservation life in the 1920s.
The Lakota items Edith was gifted, including an intricately beaded saddle bag, painted parfleche storage box and knife case, are on rare display while being researched for repatriation.
