From his home in Hartford, Mixashawn can see his ancestral homeland, the thickly forested flood plain of the Connecticut River. The boat he built to explore the river, the Amawonk Aftershock, embodies the living tradition of his people. The 18-foot vessel, made primarily of aluminum and plywood, combines elements of a canoe and a motorized trimarn.

"It moves like a canoe, but it really moves out," says Geofreey Conklin, and Old Lyme boat builder and restorer, describing the Amawonk's speed and grace to a Hartford Courant reporter.

"Both the captain and the vessel have a lot of flair," observes Ben Clarkson, director of the River School in Old Saybrook. The craft seems amazingly fast, yet safe and stable, Clarkson says.

Mixashawn has taken the boat farther than the river—in fact on one occasion from Long Island Sound into 12-foot waves in Naragansett Bay, through the canal at Buzzard's Bay, and all the way to Brewster in Cape Cod Bay.

The voyage demonstrated not only the capabilities of the Amawonk, but also the maritime range of Mixashawn's ancestors, the people who have lived since time immemorial in the area of Windsor, upriver from Hartford. The Windsor community is part of the Maheekanew branch of the Algonquin Confederation, which ranges as far as the Midwest and down the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Delaware.

Incorporating outriggers to stabilize an age-old design may be an obvious improvement, but the actual construction is far from simple. In keeping alive the ancient tradition, Mixashawn has adopted the past to the present, the present to the past.