Creator, Great Spirit, Dear Lord Jesus

“We are a very quiet people... but we are proud, and wish we hadn’t been disturbed with our Tribal group. We still recognize our culture and beliefs... course, we can’t live the way we did, but we know that and still keep up...”- Selena Edward Coombs (1917-1987)

Arthur Emerson, the turtle that walked backward, is near Mashpee Rotary. He says he wants to go to the Ockry Trading Post on Route 130. He has a taste for penny candy and a beer.

Walking backwards is not easy. He has to hold his neck out and head high. The rainbow is helping him with its lights. Arthur Emerson is already a bit tired.

He’s now going slowly down Great Neck Road. “It’s so hard traveling backward,” cried Arthur Emerson the turtle.

Aunt Sonya was on the side of the road picking blueberries for her family. She spotted Arthur Emerson, the turtle walking backward, thinking “that’s not the right way.”

Just in time, the Reverend called, and Sonya said, “I see a turtle trying to walk backward with his long neck and head turned.”

“Oh my,” said the Reverend, “let’s give him a prayer and turn him around if you can.”

Sonya got two sticks and, using her feet, turned him around. Arthur Emerson looked ahead and off he went, slowly.

Now he passes the wigwam, the Warren Hecks house. Now he’s on the corner of Meetinghouse Road where he meets Leona with a box of cranberries. Leona said “You’re handsome with your big eyes, yet you’re a slowpoke, as we would say.”

Arthur Emerson, the turtle who walked backward, said “I’m going to the Ockway Post. I need penny candy to help me left foot heal.”

It is mentioned that the Mashpee Wampanoag Native Americans always love turtles because we live on Turtle Island.

Indian cultures have not been wiped out. Let’s keep each other safe, even if some walk backward. Amen.

- Joan Tavares Avant
Deer Clan Mother