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WAMPANOAG CULTURAL SURVIVAL: The Dynamics of a Living Culture

Wampanoag is the collective name of the indigenous people of southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The name has been variously translated as "Eastern People", "People of the Dawn", or more currently "People of the First Light". The current Wampanoag population consists of several groups, sometimes called "tribes", who base their membership upon closely maintained kinship ties to the aboriginal communities. Supposedly there are approximately 4,000 Wampanoag, some living in the traditional homeland, some living where their jobs and lifestyles have taken them. The two best known groups are those of Mashpee on Cape Cod and those of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard, which is the only Wampanoag group recognized by the federal government. Other Wampanoag trace their ancestries from Herring Pond (Bourne), Fresh Pond (Plymouth), Watuppa or Troy (Fall River), Pokanoket (Bristol and Warren, R.I.), Chappaquiddick Island, Christiantown or Takemmy (West Tisbury) and other places.
We are, sometimes to our embarrassment, often simply known as "the Indians who met the Pilgrims". Until fairly recently the Wampanoag were often described as being extinct. The usual time for our supposed demise is said to be at the time of the conflict known as King Philip's War when New England experienced its bloodiest war. However, many historians ignored our continued presence and participation in colonial events right up to the present. Those who grudgingly acknowledged our existence referred to us as some sort of degenerated remnant of our ancestors.
Since the 17th century our people have, for the most part, quietly existed while the United States' attention was focused upon conquering the native nations in the rest of the continent. Our genealogies prove that we did not disappear. Also the survival of our oral traditions and several customs shows a native cultural persistence. William S. Simmons, of the University of California at Berkley, in his recent study of southern New England folklore commented in his introduction,
The present collection is unusual. It represents one of the oldest continually recorded bodies of Indian folklore known in North America and is the longest-term historical study of oral narratives that I am aware of in the anthropological, historical, or folklore literature...We have recovered the voice of a people who lived through the whole of American history...
In the early 20th century the various groups of Native Peoples in southeastern Massachusetts reformed themselves into the Wampanoag Federation. Aside from being a politically-motivated public move, the result was a reinforcement of local cultural traditions, which had persisted through time, along with selective adaptations of traditions from other North American Native Peoples. Though purists might bewail the fact that many borrowed traditions were not Wampanoag, it must be remembered that conscious cultural borrowing is a sign of a living culture. After all, where would the Pilgrims have been if our ancestors had not adopted the cultivation of corn which originated, as both scientists and our recorded traditions stated, towards the southwest?
The current generation of Wampanoag are not only politically motivated, as evidenced through their participation in Native political events throughout North America, but are also keenly interested in cultural preservation. This can be seen through their participation in scholarly programs of various institutions, which mainly serve to teach the non-Wampanoag world of our continued existence as a people in spite of oppression, and in addition, cultural programs which directly serve the needs of the Wampanoag population in particular. It may certainly be said that political activism and cultural pride go hand in hand. This is what anthropologists like to call revitalization movements. (continued on next page)

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