ABSTRACT
The United States was founded through breakages imposed by conquest—through power and destruction. To effect this change, the Tomaquag Museum teaches the tenets of conquest described above, as we see education as the first step in the evolution of change and healing. Through the Arts and Wellness program, we have artists, elders and culture-bearers share their knowledge to ensure that the next generations have access to these traditional skills such as basketmaking, quill embroidery, pottery, tool-making, weaving, carving, music, language, wampum making, beading, canoe-making, and wetu or home building. Due to the rampant destruction caused by conquest, colonization, warfare, industrialization, urbanization, commercialism, and gentrification, the cycles of subjugation, inequity, segregation, poverty, disintegration of family, community, state, nation, and the individual spirit continue. The American federal government has tried to eradicate the Indigenous people through germ warfare, genocide, armed conflicts, and massacres.
