Tribal Members Hopeful Rights of Nature can Protect Herring in Mashpee

As a muskrat splashed and played in Santuit Pond Thursday, Earl "Chiefy" Mills Jr. stood alongside the water's edge. He shared a story about Ahoo, a Wampanoag woman from long ago, who could still the area into silence, just by singing a song.

"There was a giant trout down in Shoestring Bay that heard her voice and he was enamored. He started digging — like trouts do — and he dug and dug to find the source of the voice," said Mills. "By the time he found the source of that beautiful voice, he died in exhaustion."

Mills pointed to a hill in the distance and said that's where the giant trout is buried.

"That's how this (Santuit River) was made," he said. "It's polluted now. But it's always been one of our most important fishing areas."

Tribal youth listened intently to Mills' story as they hovered over the Santuit Pond Herring Run. Surrounded by tribal elders, the high-school-aged students were collecting advice to ready themselves before they leave for Sitka, Alaska, on March 24.

Alongside Sitka Tlingit tribal students, Mashpee Wampanoag tribal youth, who named themselves the Native Youth Ambassadors, will participate in a week-long Intercultural Conversation Program and Herring Camp, run by Bioneers, a New Mexico-based nonprofit.

During the trip, Native Youth Ambassadors will learn about federal laws surrounding tribal hunting, gathering and fisheries.

They will also become familiar with Rights of Nature, federal laws they hope can protect the herring, which will soon make their yearly migration upstream.

What are Rights of Nature?

The Rights of Nature movement, encompasses the idea, that trees, waters and ecosystems are individuals that have a right to thrive and regenerate within legal frameworks, said Danielle Greendeer, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

For the last year, Greendeer, and other tribal members have been working with Bioneers representatives, who have helped other federally recognized tribes initiate Rights of Nature laws.

The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin was the first tribe in the country to achieve Rights of Nature, said Greendeer. The federal laws, established in 2018, granted inherent, fundamental and inalienable rights to — and jurisdiction over — ecosystems, natural communities and species within Ho-Chunk territory. As a result of the amendments, frac sand mining, fossil fuel extraction and genetic engineering became violations of federal law.

The Ponca Nation followed suit, establishing rights to their rivers; the White Earth Ojibwe declared rights for Manoomin (wild rice); and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe sued the city of Seattle on behalf of salmon, said Greendeer.

"It’s the idea that tribes and indigenous groups around the world are giving legal rights to what was once thought of as non-sentient beings," said Greendeer, owner of the Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery.

In Mashpee, under Rights of Nature tribal constitutional amendments, herring will also have guardians who will speak for them, said Greendeer.

"And that will be the (Wampanoag) tribe," she said. "We need to exercise our sovereignty and this is part of what that looks like."

Just as humans and corporations are considered to have rights, this legal strategy grants rights to nature itself, said Britt Gondolfi, a law student and community organizer who works with the Bioneers Intercultural Conversation Program.

These frameworks turn existing property rights-based paradigms upside down, she said, and offer a powerful basis and strategy to conserve lands and communities. The Right to Nature movement also says tribal communities can be empowered to press against structures of power that are attempting to cause damage, she said.

"We give personhood to corporations, trusts, to ships, to entities that are non-human for the sake of their preservation. It’s not that wild of an idea to grant personhood to herring," said Gondolfi.

Herring in a state of emergency

At one time, Mashpee River was so full of herring, the waters looked black, said David Weeden, tribal historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

"In colonial periods, we have been told that you could walk across the backs of herring to get across the rivers because it was so thick — there were so many," he said.

During the industrial era, water mills and dams restricted access for herring, and the fish began to decline as early as the 1800s, said Weeden.

Tribal elder Earl "Guy" Cash Jr., the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's medicine man, was also at the Santuit Herring Run, sharing stories with Native Youth Ambassadors to ready them for Alaska.

Cash recalled a moment in his childhood when he ran down to the Mashpee River to grab herring for dinner. When he arrived, he was shocked to see the river had completely dried up. Unbeknownst to Cash, the river was blocked off at that time, and the herring were trapped at another location.

"As a child, when you see something that you've always loved — somewhere where you could just grab herring out the river and it's not there — it was shocking to me," he said.

With problems surrounding water pollution, and overfishing, herring are now in a critical state of emergency across the Cape, including at Mashpee-Wakeby Pond Herring Run, the Santuit Pond Herring Run, and Johns Pond Herring Run, said Weeden.

How will the tribe establish Rights of Nature?

For Talia Landry, communications coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's Education Department, the time is ripe for the tribe to use the full force of its laws, its tribal council and regulatory departments to declare themselves herring guardians.

As a federally recognized tribe with land in trust, she said the tribe has sovereign jurisdiction over its territories and the federal government has a trust duty or fiduciary duties of care that benefit the tribe.

The tribe has also acquired a Treatment as a State designation by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which demonstrates its capacity to handle its own environmental regulations. Because the tribe also litigated treaty rights to hunt and gather wild herring, it's in an ideal position to pass a law protecting herring while asserting sovereignty, said Landry.

The legal process will begin with the Native Youth Ambassadors, said Weeden. Once they return from Alaska, they will help develop a tribal resolution that acknowledges and supports the initiative. They will then create tribal law, which tribal community members can choose to rally behind. Once tribal laws are passed, the tribe will ask the town of Mashpee to adopt similar town ordinances. When it comes to water quality and natural resources, Weeden said town and tribal initiatives often align, supporting collaboration."Right now the current climate in society is that everyone is kind of concerned with climate and environment. I don’t think this will be a heavy lift," said Weeden, who is also chair of the Mashpee Select Board.

Ongoing education through community meetings and art

There will also be frequent education opportunities about Rights of Nature for all Mashpee citizens, said Greendeer.

In her store, and at each herring run in Mashpee, Greendeer said she will establish installation artwork, using recycled materials. She's hopeful art can help people understand the struggles of the herring in another context.

"This is an ongoing social change movement and it's about rights and justice and I'm hopeful public art can connect people to the emotional aspect of the herring's overall struggle," Greendeer said.

Contact Rachael Devaney at rdevaney@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RachaelDevaney.