August 2021 Mittark
Domingo “Mingo” Tiexeira and Nelson Andrews, Jr. Elected to Council
With 102 votes, Domingo “Mingo” Tiexeira was the top candidate at the July 11 Special Election. Nelson Andrews, Jr. was also elected with 92 votes, edging out David Pocknett, Sr. who received 91 votes.
Tiexeira and Andrews filled the seats that were vacated when Brian Weeden and Carlton Hendricks were elected to Chair and Vice Chair earlier this year. 276 tribal members cast a ballot in the election.
Results from the Special Election
Nancy Rose 29
Kimberly Frye 25
Walter Frye 33
Winona Pocknett 66
David Pocknett, Sr. 91
Nelson Andrews, Jr. 92
Nitana Hicks Greendeer 86
Domingo "Mingo" Tiexeira 102
Mashpee Commons proposes to build 90 affordable units and commercial businesses in Mashpee. It’s like a scary nightmare! This is another project that plays a major part in dehumanizing the Mashpee Wampanoag “People of the First Light,” Native American society and Mashpee’s Wampanoag spiritual landscape on our Mother Earth.
Curtis Frye Sr. said, “Mashpee was all fields and paths and woods. If you talk about the ‘The Garden of Eden,’ it was pretty close to that. I loved to go down to the river and see the fish and the frogs. You could dip your hand in the river and take a drink. There was nature all around you.”
My grandmother Mabel l. Avant (Nokoomis), 1892-1964, historian, left us with the following words taken from her poem titled “Reveries of Chiefs”:
In my heart there comes a longing
While I stand in deep reverie
When I think of the old traditions
Ah the days that used to be.
I’m getting older, oh my people
Soon my sinking sun will set
But I beseech thee, oh my tribesmen.
Our traditions not to forget.
To continue to not forget our traditions is what I’m fighting for. Nowhere in this article does it mention us or Mashpee ever being native. The nerve of planners who come here with loads of money and want to wipe out the natural trees, fruit, herbs, animals, paths to walk in peace, and especially Mashpee Wampanoags and other cultures who live here now, this called “first-class murder” and extreme disrespect.
I’m 81, Mashpee Wampanoag, born here and basically lived here all my life. From my perspective the plan to build another expansion makes me so sick that I’ll need to ask my doctor for another pill. Do the concerns of native people even matter to you?
I do love and care about our children, grandchildren and future Wampanoag generations.
Aunt Joan Tavares-Avant
August 12 Metacomet Day Approved by Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council
On Wednesday, July 28, 2021, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council passed a resolution that will forever make August 12th Metacomet Day; an official tribal holiday. As an official holiday, tribal operations will be closed to observe the historic day.
Metacomet, also known as King Philip, was the son of the Great Sachem Muhsasôyut 8sâmeeqan who welcomed English in 1620. Philip, or Metacom, became the last chief of the Wampanoags in 1662 and Grand Sachem of the Pokonokets.
King Philip's War, sometimes called the "First Indian War, Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion," was an armed conflict in 1675-1678 between the indigenous inhabitants of New England and the colonists. The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American History.
Chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Brian Weeden, drafted the proclamation. "We want to bring awareness to our history," said Chairman Weeden. "It's so important to remember the sacrifices of our ancestors. Metacomet defended our traditional ways against a wave of cultural genocide, and we must make sure his sacrifice is never forgotten."
2021 marks the 345th anniversary of King Philip's death on August 12, 1676, in Bristol, Rhode Island, at Mount Hope.
While the country celebrates 400 years since the arrival of the English, King Philip's war might have ended; however, the fight continues with the loss of our lands, culture, and sovereignty. Metacomet's legacy will live on forever through the future generations of the Wampanoag "People of The First Light" and memorialized on August 12th each calendar year and proclaimed as Metacomet Day.
Explore Additional News in this month's Nashauonk Mittark
