North American Indian Center of Boston

Last updated

The North American Indian Center of Boston, Inc. (NAICOB) is a nonprofit organization located in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston, which provides assistance to American Indians, Native Canadians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other indigenous peoples of North America.

Contents

According to its website, the organization's mission is as follows:

to promote greater self-determination, socio-economic self-sufficiency, spiritual enhancement, intercultural understanding and other forms of empowerment for the North American Indian Community and to assist North American Indians in obtaining an improved quality of life by providing health, job training, education, housing, and other related programs and social services. [1]

Boston Indian Council

The NAICOB began as the Boston Indian Council (BIC) on October 20, 1970, following meetings in 1969. [2] During this period the Native American population in Boston and other cities was growing rapidly, and urban centers like the BIC arose to provide health care and other services. [3] Founding members of the BIC included writer Mildred Noble, [2] American Indian psychologist Carolyn Attneave, [4] Canadian activist Anna Mae Aquash [5] and the artist Philip Young, both of whom were of the Micmac nation. Shirley Moore Mills (Mashpee Wampanoag) served as secretary to the Board of Directors. [6] In 1970, BIC joined with members of the American Indian Movement in what became "Day of Mourning" in Patuxet, in contrast to the colonial holiday of Thanksgiving. [7]

From time to time the center published a newsletter, The Circle; editors of that paper included the now well-known Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich. [8] The BIC was also involved in curriculum development, producing a curriculum for the Boston Public Schools focused on the indigenous cultures of Maine and the Maritimes, as many BIC members hail from that region. [9] Additionally, the center engaged in various forms of activism, including a 1973 protest against a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party. [10]

Incorporation and current projects

The organization was reorganized as a nonprofit corporation in 1991 and provides services to the Native American population (about 6,000) in and around the greater Boston area. The center networks with tribal councils in other parts of Massachusetts as well as other East Coast states. Current NAICOB projects include Employment and Training, Family Services, and a Tribal Scholars program.

NAICOB has pioneered the development of services and resources [11] for caregiver grandparents, "skip generation" families where minor children are cared for by their grandparents because of parents' substance abuse, incarceration, death, military deployment, or out-of-area employment.

NAICOB offers classes in computer skills and assists members with employment referral and job searches.

NAICOB is governed by a seven-member, all Indian, Board of Directors who are elected by the membership. NAICOB is located at 105 South Huntington Avenue in Jamaica Plain, MA and is accessible by the MBTA Green line E train and also by MBTA bus service. Membership is free to all American Indians, Alaska Natives, First Nations (Indigenous People of Canada), and Native Hawaiians living in and around the greater Boston area.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pequots</span> Indigenous people from Connecticut, US

The Pequot are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or the Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin. They historically spoke Pequot, a dialect of the Mohegan-Pequot language, which became extinct by the early 20th century. Some tribal members are undertaking revival efforts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mashpee, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Mashpee is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. The population was 15,060 as of 2020. The town is the site of the headquarters and most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of two federally recognized Wampanoag groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Philip's War</span> 1675–78 war in New England

King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands against the English New England Colonies and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Pokanoket chief and sachem of the Wampanoag who adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Plymouth Colony. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wampanoag</span> Native American tribes in Massachusetts

The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and formerly parts of eastern Rhode Island. Their historical territory includes the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusett language</span> Indigenous Algonquian language spoken in the Northeastern United States

The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four Wampanoag communities. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iḷisaġvik College</span> Public tribal community college in Utqiaġvik, Alaska

Iḷisaġvik College is a public tribal land-grant community college in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Operated by the North Slope Borough, a home rule government of the Iñupiat, it is the only tribally controlled college in Alaska, and it is the northernmost accredited community college in the United States. The college is located within the boundaries of the North Slope. It is an 89,000-square-mile (230,000 km2) region of Arctic tundra. It is connected to the 414-mile (666 km) Dalton Highway only during the winter, by an ice road for local residents. The community can also be reached by plane.

Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly used for tribes that were organized into villages. The villages were known as praying towns and were established by missionaries such as the Puritan leader John Eliot and Jesuit missionaries who established the St. Regis and Kahnawake and the missions among the Huron in western Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Apess</span> Pequot author and Methodist preacher (1798–1839)

William Apess, was a Methodist minister, writer, and activist of mixed-race descent. Apess spent most of his career in New England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildred Noble</span>

Mildred "Millie" Noble was an American writer and Native American activist. Noble helped to found the Boston Indian Council, which is now known as the North American Indian Center of Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Indian Meeting House</span> United States historic place, oldest Native American church in the eastern United States

The Old Indian Meeting House is a historic meeting house at 410 Meetinghouse Road in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Built in 1758, the meetinghouse is the oldest Native American church in the eastern United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Congress of American Indians</span> Native American rights organization

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist U.S. federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilation of their people. These were in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereign entities. The organization continues to be an association of federally recognized and state-recognized Indian tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American tribes in Massachusetts</span>

Native American tribes in Massachusetts are the Native American tribes and their reservations that existed historically and those that still exist today in what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Narragansett term for this region is Ninnimissinuok.

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 Wampanoag tribe is the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard.

Joan Tavares Avant, also known as Granny Squannit, is an educator, Mashpee Wampanoag tribal leader, historian, and writer living in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Avant served as the Mashpee Public School Director of Indian Education and was a founding Trustee of the Wôpanâak language immersion program. As a tribal leader, Avant has served as Tribal President, Tribal Housing Commissioner, Clan Mother, and Professional Tribal Elder. Her writer's credits include a long-running column in the Mashpee Enterprise, editing the National League of American Pen Women's newsletter, and People of the First Light (2010).

<i>Mashpee Nine: A Story of Cultural Justice</i>

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.

Native American newspapers are news publications in the United States published by Native American people often for Native American audiences. The first such publication was the Cherokee Phoenix, started in 1828 by the Cherokee Nation. Although Native American people have always written for state and local newspapers, including the official publications of Native American boarding schools, periodicals produced by Native people themselves were relatively few and far between until the 20th century.

Everett Gardiner Weeden Jr., or Tall Oak, was an artist, activist, survivalist, and historian of Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe stated that Weeden was "a documented descendant of the Mashantucket Pequot, Narragansett, and Wampanoag tribes".

Nelson Drue Simons (1885-1953) was a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe chief from 1916 to 1928 and government official who was also the first known Native American graduate of Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (NIWRC) is a nonprofit organization that provides health resources to Native American women and also advocates for women's health, housing, and domestic violence support. The organization was founded and is led by Native American women.

References

  1. ↑ "NAICOB". NAICOB.
  2. 1 2 Stickgold, Emma (2008-01-27). "Mildred Noble, 86; writer and Native American activist". Boston Globe . Retrieved 2008-02-15.
  3. ↑ Fixico, Donald (2000). The Urban Indian Experience in America. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P. p. 114. ISBN   978-0826322166.
  4. ↑ Wayne, Tiffany (2010). American Women of Science. ABC-CLIO. p. 201. ISBN   978-1-59884-158-9.
  5. ↑ Johansen, Bruce; Pritzker, Barry (2007). Encyclopedia of American Indian History. ABL-CLIO. p. 651. ISBN   978-1851098170.
  6. ↑ Mills Sr., Earl (2012). Talking with the Elders of Mashpee. lulu.com. p. 123. ISBN   978-1105953392.
  7. ↑ Delucia, Christine M. (2018). "Protesting the "Perfect City": Reorganizing Native Memoryscapes across Greater Boston". Memory lands: King Philip's War and the place of violence in the northeast. Yale University Press. ISBN   9780300201178.
  8. ↑ McClinton-Temple, Jennifer; Velie, Alan (2007). Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature. Facts on File. p. 110. ISBN   978-0816056569.
  9. ↑ Mackenzie, Robert; Stone, Peter (2013). The Excluded Past: Archaeology in Education. New York: Routledge. p. 119.
  10. ↑ Deloria, Philip (1999). Playing Indian. New Haven: Yale UP. p. 1997. ISBN   978-0300080674.
  11. ↑ "NAICOB Grandparents' Resource Guide". naicobfamilyresources.org.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.