Still Here, Still Thriving

By Quillan Anderson

Surrounded by stone tools and soft-worn buckskin, representations of an “old Indian” come face to face with modern Native Americans to the beat of a ceremonial drum. Children in traditional powwow regalia circle the drum, performing various dances for a curious audience, while the smell of a no-nonsense clam chowder fills the air. “I don't want to be Americanized,” said Vernon Pocknett, better known to his community as Buddy.

Members of the Mashpee Wampanoag and Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribes gathered Sept. 17 at the Robbins Museum in Middleboro — originally known as Nemasket — to celebrate Wampanoag Heritage Day. They're among the many Indigenous communities around the world fighting to protect and pass down their ways of life. There is a greater sense of urgency in the air as the horrors of Native American boarding schools — where Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their communities and sometimes killed — continue to be revealed throughout North America.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has called Cape Cod home for at least 10,000 years. Their ancestors welcomed the pilgrims, taught them how to hunt and farm, and participated in the first Thanksgiving. After a bloody war resulting in the death of over 40% of the tribe with more lost to the slave trade, the Wampanoag fought to maintain control of Mashpee as a praying town. They ultimately lost control in 1967 when an influx of settlers moved to the newly established town and were elected to local council seats. Without ownership of their ancestral lands, the Mashpee Wampanoag were denied federal recognition and their attempts to reclaim the land were blocked by courts. Tribal recognition was finally approved in 2007, and in 2015 they successfully reclaimed 321 acres.

Even with some of their land rights restored, memories of past trauma run deep. “Nobody talks about the boarding school era where they beat us — they killed us — because we spoke our languages, did these dances, sang these songs,” said Cameron Greendeer, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who married into the Mashpee Wampanoag. “And they were just children.”

From 1860 to 2007, Native children were taken from their families and forcibly assimilated, all while being underfed, abused and raped. Speaking Native languages, reciting tribal prayers, wearing traditional hairstyles and performing ceremonial song or dance were a few of the many things not allowed at boarding schools or in public until the Religious Freedom Act was passed in 1978. That trauma and pain, and the cultural loss that comes with it, “stops with me and my brother,” Greendeer said.

Greendeer and his brother, Dave, are dedicated to teaching their children traditional ways of life from both the Ho-Chunk and Mashpee Wampanoag people, including the languages, ceremonies, prayers, songs and dances, as well as the significance behind them.

At the Heritage Day event, their kids showcased the crow hop, grass, round, and male and female fancy dances. “They're celebrating resiliency and showing it today,” Greendeer said.

The event served as both an opportunity for community celebration and public education. Toodie and Darius Coombs worked with attendees of all backgrounds to create traditional corn husk dolls and spiritual wampum pendants. Pocknett, the Mashpee Wampanoag sagamore, or cultural chief, dished up a homemade clam chowder made from a centuries-old recipe. Half a dozen Indigenous artists and creators sold their goods, ranging from hand-woven blankets to screen-printed t-shirts advocating for attention on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis.

Ej Mills Brennan was one of the vendors selling her art. Brennan is a Mashpee Wampanoag Indigenous flute player and multimedia artist. Her work celebrates her heritage, questions assimilation and centers a love for and connection to nature, saying she believes “in the healing power of art and music.”

Her self-produced record “Breath of Prayers III” focuses on climate issues that seem even more relevant today than they were when the album was released in 2003. The paintings and drawings displayed alongside the CDs depicted traditional Wampanoag motifs, documented a memory of the Longest Walk and told the story of an old cranberry bog converted into a golf course.

“I think it's really important for the tribal people, Indigenous people, to gather together and bring a lot of [our culture] back,” said Pocknett. “History books are different compared to my history…. We need to keep the culture going and make sure our people know where they're from.”

“We're still here. We're still thriving and we're still surviving,” said Greendeer. “The thing is they're trying to slowly, slowly just delete us as Native people. I have a platform, but [making] change doesn't start with me. It starts with you.”