The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are an American Indian people in North America. They were a loose confederacy made up of several tribes in the 17th century, but today many Wampanoag people are enrolled in two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Massachusetts.
The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family, formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and south-eastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four communities of Wampanoag people. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.
The Nauset people, sometimes referred to as the Cape Cod Indians, lived in what is present-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, living east of Bass River and lands occupied by their closely related neighbors, the Wampanoag. Although a distinct tribe, they were often subject to Wampanoag overlordship and shared many similar aspects of culture, agricultural practices, and a common tongue, the Massachusett language. Due to their ocean proximity, they had a greater reliance on seafood than other tribes. The tribe was one of the first to be visited by European seafarers, whose abduction of tribal members for slavery and introduction of diseases reduced the Nauset even before large-scale colonization of New England. The pilgrims' first contact with the Nauset was during their landing near present-day Provincetown, when they discovered a village deserted, the Nauset being away at their winter hunting grounds. Desperately low on supplies, the pilgrims helped themselves to a cache of maize, though they left a note promising to pay for what they had stolen. The promise was eventually kept when the Nauset returned months later. The Nauset also returned a small boy who had wandered away from the colony and become lost, an act which greatly improved relations with the colonists.
William Apess, was an ordained Methodist minister, writer, and activist of mixed-race descent, who was a political and religious leader in Massachusetts. After becoming ordained as a Methodist minister in 1829, he published his autobiography the same year. It is among the first autobiographies by a Native American writer. Apess was part Pequot by descent, especially through his mother's family, and identified with their culture.
Jamaal Branch is a former American football running back. who played two seasons with the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. He was originally signed by the Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football at Colgate University.
Lloyd "Sonny" Dove was a Native American professional basketball player. As a star at St. John's University in New York, in his last season of 1967, Dove won the Haggerty Award. That year he was part of the United States basketball team that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg.
Mashpee Middle-High School is a public high school located in Mashpee, Massachusetts. It is located at the intersection of Old Barnstable Road and Route 151, has an approximate enrollment of 425 students in grades 9–12 and is the home of the Technology "Center of Excellence". The school's mascot is the Falcons, and the school colors are Royal Blue and White.
The Old Indian Meeting House is a historic meeting house at 410 Meetinghouse Road in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Built in 1684, the meetinghouse is the oldest Native American church in the eastern United States and the oldest church on Cape Cod. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The Avant House, also known as the Timothy Pocknet Homestead is an historic house on Massachusetts Route 130 at Mill Pond in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Built in the late 18th or early 19th century, it is one of the town's oldest surviving buildings. It is now owned and operated by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe as the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Cedric Cromwell, also known as Qaqeemasq in Wôpanâak, is the Tribal Council Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts. Elected in 2009 as chairman, Cedric Cromwell is the head of the official elected government for the 2,600-member federally recognized tribe.
Jessie Little Doe Baird is a linguist known for her efforts to revive the Wampanoag language. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc., formerly known as the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, is one of two federally recognized tribes of Wampanoag people in Massachusetts. Recognized in 2007, they are headquartered in Mashpee on Cape Cod. The other tribe is the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard.
Joan Tavares Avant, also known as Granny Squannit, is a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leader, historian, and writer living in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is a federally recognized tribe of Wampanoag people based in the town of Aquinnah on the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The tribe hosts an annual Cranberry Day celebration.
Adrian Haynes was a chief of the Mashpee Wampanoag and a United States Navy veteran of World War II.
Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum is a cultural center in the town of Mashpee in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The town of Mashpee is the location of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of the two federally recognized representative bodies of the Wampanoag people. The museum ground itself is well known for the Avant House as well as hosting the Mill Pond Herring Ladder, a Fish ladder on the Mashpee River. The museum was established in 1997 through a town meeting vote. Since 1999 the site has been listed under the National Register of Historic Places.
Paula Peters is a journalist, educator and activist. A member of the Wampanoag tribe, she has spent most of her life in her tribal homeland of Mashpee, Massachusetts. She hails from a prominent Mashpee Wampanoag family, including Tribal Chairman Russell "Fast Turtle" Peters, and was active in the tribe's long and contested push for federal recognition. In a 2006 interview with NPR, Peters recalled a time when "nobody in Washington cared much about which tribes were recognized." Like her father before her, Peters served on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council. In 2005, she ran against Glenn Marshall for Council Chairperson.
Mashpee Nine: A Story of Cultural Justice is a 2016 non-fiction book by author, journalist, and activist Paula Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. It is a companion book for the documentary, “Mashpee Nine: The Beat Goes On”. The book recounts details of a police raid, arrest and court trial of nine Wampanoag tribal members who were drumming on the Mashpee Pond campsite July 29, 1976 in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
