A Maori-led trade delegation was welcomed onto Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation land in the northeast of the USA. The group stayed at the Pequot Tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino. The purpose of the seven-day visit was to increase ties between indigenous communities around the world. Relationships were initially established due to digital trade.
Weta Workshop, masters behind The Lord of the Rings film effects, were part of the origin story of the recent trade delegation.
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What Began the Relationship?
New Zealand creators were asked to bring a native Pequot story to digital life. Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Centre reached out to Denise Chapman Weston, who is associated with New Zealand’s famous Weta Workshop. Denise is a USA citizen. She is also one of New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary Fellows and currently lives in NZ. The Weta Workshop is a famed movie effects company, that became world-renowned with the Lord of the Rings films.
The first digital character for the Pequot tribe’s “13 Moons” story was created by Metia Creative, a games company based in Auckland. Metia has created multiple educational games for the New Zealand Ministry of Education. From there, the current-day connection between the Pequot Nation people and the Maori people grew and thrived.
The Delegation
The trade delegation was made up of indigenous people from multiple countries but was led by Maoris. People from Australia, Hawaii, Samoa and Aotearoa New Zealand were represented. They stayed for seven days and were accommodated at the Pequot Nation’s Foxwoods Resort Casino hotels. The expedition to the USA was supported by the Te Aratini Festival of Indigenous and Tribal Ideas.
Maori visitors were pleased to discover that the Pequot Nation and Maori have a long history. The Pequot visited Maori waters on whaling expeditions hundreds of years ago. Intermarriage between a Maori and Pequot couple in the 1800s has produced over 600 descendants. The Pequot are a wealthy Tribal Nation who own and run their own casino on Tribal Lands.
The Pequot Tribe and Foxwoods Resort Casino
The Foxwoods Resort Casino is the largest casino in the USA. It covers an area of almost one square kilometre. After they legally received sovereignty over their lands in 1983, they opened a high-stakes Bingo hall, three years later. As legislation in the USA developed, table games and then slot machines were added.
They now have five separate casinos on their land with the most recent opened in August 2023. In total, there are 3,500 slot machines, Keno, regular and High Stakes Bingo, the option to wager on both college and professional games in Connecticut, a DraftKings sportsbook building open 24 hours, and a multitude of Live Table Games.
When it comes to Table Games, you can play: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow Poker, Face Up Pai Gow Poker, Pai Gow Tiles, Super 4 Poker, 3 Card Poker, Jackpot Holdem, Criss Cross Poker and Multi-Action Blackjack. Guests can play up to three different electronic Table Games at the same time!
The Foxwoods Resort Casino has three different hotels; the Grand Pequot Tower, the Great Cedar Hotel and the Fox Tower (previously the MGM Tower). The Pequot Tribe manage their own civil services, police and emergency, and make their own laws. The Maori contingent of the delegation was inspired by the self-sovereignty of the 1600-member Pequot nation. They noted that the economy of the Pequot tribe alone was greater than all Maori iwi tribes in New Zealand put together.
