The annual Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow will be returning; dancers, drummers, vendors, and visitors will once again enjoy Powwow on our tribal reservation. The annual Powwow will be held on July 1, 2, and 3 at the traditional Powwow Grounds next to the Community and Government Center at 483 Great Neck Road South.
Cultural Nights are back and will open on April 7 at 5:30 PM on the Pow Wow Grounds with a potluck. The weekly event will continue each Thursday from 5:30 - 7:30 PM on the Pow Wow Grounds.
Cultural Nights usually have a different cultural theme (Cornhusk Doll making, Wampanoag storytelling, quahog stuffer making, etc.) including MC, singing and dancing.
In May 2020, Earl Cash, along with his son, Julian, was fishing for herring at the Herring River herring run.
A woman appeared and accused them of poaching.
As she ordered them out of the herring run, Cash refused – claiming his sovereign fishing rights as a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member. The woman threatened to call police.
The (Owner) Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, a federally-recognized Indian tribe, will be accepting Bids from Qualified General Contractors for the Construction of and addition and expansion to the existing Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point – Fish and Shellfish Processing Center (“HACCP”).
The Mashpee Service Unit-IHS is now enrolled for Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP). The prescription mail-order pharmacy program provides an easy way for tribal members to manage their medication refills.
Some medications cannot be mailed. Please contact our pharmacist Cheryl Johnson at (508) 477-1894 for enrollment details and questions about the program.
Duration: 10 weeks for 35 hours/week; begin late May or early June and conclude August 2022 Compensation: $5,000 plus travel/technology stipend ($500) and completion award ($500).
The Rewilding Internship is hosted by Northeast Wilderness Trust with support from Native Land Conservancy, a Native-run land conservation group with a mission to preserve healthy landscapes for all living things, and help restore land back to its original state wherever possible.
Jody Santagate has brought forward a citizen’s petition for a vote at the Wareham Spring Town Meeting. Article 21 requires a majority in favor vote to pass. It is to abolish Columbus Day in Wareham and rename it as; Indigenous Peoples Day. Jody is urging all Tribal members and any other supporters of the article to please attend the meeting, which will take place at Wareham High School at 7 pm on April 25, 2022. You must be a registered voter in Wareham to vote. Hopefully, with your support on this matter, we can get it passed with the majority. If you need a ride, please feel free to email Jody at jodysantagate1977@gmail.com.
This writer ponders her family's Wampanoag past; she wishes that she could be down near the waters of the Mashpee Wampanoag; specifically, she would like to be near the Wampanoag Museum where her grandparents, George and Mabel L. Avant, once lived many moons ago. It would again give such joy to watch the Herring Run and possibly catch some.
Research tells us that the herring have been here for centuries (so have we). Their journey is paramount. They leave the Atlantic Ocean and swim over here to the rivers that have freshwater, then on out to Wakeby Lake and Santuit Ponds where a single female produces 60,000 to 300,000 eggs, then back to the ocean.
About seventy years ago, we Mashpee Wampanoags learned how to take care of the river near the museum. You could not get in the river, and you better not put trash in it. Then, the herring were so many that you chose to lay down on the river edge and grab a herring out or use your herring net. We got plenty for everyone.
Grandpa (George E. Avant) was watching; if you disrespected the river area and parking lot, he would holler out the front door, "Get out of the River," and you did just that and left. I learned later in life that there are two types of herring called Alwife and Blueback.
Russell M. Peters (Fast Turtle), author of 'the Wampanoags of Mashpee' 1987 has a story for you. He tells us that herring was called Mashpee Turkey." After the first herring appeared, it was only a few weeks when millions of herring darkened the river, struggling to get to the lake to lay their eggs.
At this time, an enterprising young person could catch egg-laden females. They would cut out soft pink to deep orange-colored eggs called roe and put them in glass jars. The roe sold for twenty-five cents a quart. Mashpee folk called the roe "Mashpee Caviar" and ate them at breakfast.
Wampanoag also learned to preserve the herring by salting them in the sun for two or three days. This curing process is called "corning ." The fish are hung on sticks carefully and placed in a smokehouse where hickory, cherry, and apple chips burned.
Mashpee folk ate herring in many different ways. There was herring and dumplings, baked herring, fried herring, stewed herring, and pickled herring.
I can see Eddie B. Amos, Tom Mingo, Willard Pocknett, or Carl Avant scooping up herring and preparing them for the smokehouse as I look back.
I'm writing this on March 27, and I just got a call from Rabbit Clan Mother(Marlene Lopez )that she was down near the river and saw a couple of herring. Yeah! They are running but not like they usta. "Once the river was black. I could catch them with my hands when I was young. Now most are gone, which makes me sad". (Daniel Tavares-Eagle Feather- 1/20/19 Mittark.)
"Vernon Pocknett- Sly Fox-(1934-1999) said, 'We don't take herring past the bridge. It's a sort of respect if the herring make it that far let them go." (1998).
"Where the river flows through the forest and sings home early, as it empties to the sea, in my heart there comes a longing where I stand in deep reverie. When I think of old traditions, ah the things that used to be, but beseech thee oh my tribesmen, our traditions not to forget." Her spirit is with me.
By Aunt Joan Avant Tavares, Deer Clan Mother
The Tribe’s Historic Preservation Department is establishing the Historic Preservation Commission per Chapter 3 of 2012-ORD-003. The Tribal Council instituted the Commission to provide advice to the Historic Preservation Department and to aid the Department in the protection and preservation of Tribal culture, history, language, historical sites, structures, cultural items, burial sites and other sites of significance.
The schedule for upcoming tribal council meetings is posted below. Meetings are open to tribal citizens to attend and are not open to the general public. Due to the ongoing pandemic, meetings may be held over zoom. Please check the tribal council meeting calendar for links, agendas, and attendance details that are posted prior to each meeting. You may also sign up to receive email notifications by sending an email to publicrelations@mwtribe-nsn.gov.
General Membership Meetings are open to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe citizens, their children, and spouses of tribal citizens. These meetings are not open to the public. With Covid-19 cases decreasing, the tribe has resumed in person meetings. The General Membership Meetings are held at the Tribe’s Community and Government Center.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Health Service Unit is now offering WIC. WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that provides foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.
Appointments will be available quarterly on the last Tuesday of each month from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. To make an appointment, call 508-771-7896 or email ccwic@healthimperatives.org.
There’s interest in the community to bring back our Tribe’s Annual Wampanoag Ball. If you would like to join the committee. please send a letter of interest to Tribal Council Secretary Cassie Jackson at cassie.Jackson@mwtribe-nsn.gov.
