Historic Preservation & NAGPRA
Look at what is NEW in the THPO Department!
The MWT Tribal Historic Preservation Department (THPD) now has a Facebook page and a new blog, dedicated to Mashpee Wampanoag history, culture, and identity!
#MWT THPO Facebook Page - Click here
#Wampum Memories - MWT Tribal Historic Preservation Blog - Click here
Property Request Form
Looking to host an event at the Meeting House or the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum? Please click below to complete the form in order to secure the date(s) of your meeting or event.
Grant Opportunity for Artists
Deadline : October 26th, 2024
Mass Cultural Council believes creativity is the key to solving many of society’s concerns. Advancing this asset helps to make the Commonwealth a preeminent place in the nation for it to thrive.
Grants for Creative Individuals are unrestricted grants of $5,000 to Massachusetts artists, culture bearers, and creative practitioners to equitably advance creative expression throughout our diverse communities.
We encourage you to apply if you are:
An artist, culture bearer, or creative practitioner active in any artistic/creative discipline. For this program, the definition of “artist/culture bearer/creative practitioner” includes individuals whose creative expression is based in: community-based arts, crafts, dance, design, digital, film/video, folk/world/traditional arts, native/indigenous arts, literature, music, performance, photography, theater, and visual arts.
If you have any questions about whether your work is eligible for this grant, contact us.
AND you meet all the following requirements:
You are 18 years of age or older.
You are a full-year resident of Massachusetts for calendar year 2024 continuing through June 2025. This means you maintain your “legal residence” in Massachusetts, and you meet the definition of a “full-year resident”. Both terms are defined in the Massachusetts tax code.
You are not currently enrolled at a college or university as a full-time undergraduate student or as a graduate student in the arts.
You did not receive a Grants for Creative Individuals grant, Cultural Sector Recovery Grant, Artist Fellowship grant, or a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant over $2,000 in 2022, 2023, or 2024.
You are not a governor-appointed Mass Cultural Council member. Mass Cultural Council staff and family are likewise ineligible to apply.
Section 106
For all Section 106 related matters; send an email with detailed project information which is to include project scope
The following items should be submitted with each Project Review request:
A locus map showing the exact location of the proposed project, with the GPS coordinates, any historic maps considered for desktop review.
FCC projects will require a completed FCC "620" or "621" form.
Review submittals should also include civil engineering drawings.
Attach any previous reports associated with cultural resources and archaeological assessments related to the APE (include methodology, findings, field survey results, and project area geomorphology and soil analysis info).
Proposed dates and times for any scheduled archaeological walk-over of the site.
A copy of the review letter from the State Historic Preservation Office for the state in which the tower is located after it's made available.
If additional information is needed, our office will make that request in writing.
All Section 106 related matters are to be directed to the THPO at 106Review@mwtribe-nsn.gov and Cc David.Weeden@mwtribe-nsn.gov
* This consultation process is in compliance to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and all relevant amendments including but not limited to section 106 and 36 CFR part 800. Failure to provide the Submission Packet and complete the review process under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act ("NHPA") prior to beginning construction may violate Section 110(k) of the NHPA and the Commission's rules.
Additional Resources
Listed below are additional resources pertaining to Wampanoag history and historic preservation.
More Than Surviving - Wampanoag Political Agency, Ingenuity, and Persistence in the Antebellum Era
Majel Peters, along with her colleagues, has undertaken significant work in creating the “More Than Surviving” website, which hosts the “Wampanoag Political Agency, Ingenuity, and Persistence in the Antebellum Era” digitized collection. This project, developed by Master’s candidates in the Digital Humanities program at the CUNY Graduate Center, highlights Wampanoag resilience and political action, particularly during the antebellum period. Peters and her team focus on Wampanoag agency, showcasing how the community has navigated through, and actively participated in, pivotal historical moments, from advocating for Indigenous rights to supporting abolitionism. Their work brings to life Wampanoag cultural values of interconnectedness, not only by documenting political activities from the 1830s–1850s but also by challenging colonial and patriarchal narratives that have historically erased or misrepresented Indigenous peoples.
Whale Chat
Whale Chat was developed by Majel Peters as part of the Fall 23 Digital History course taught by Dr. Anne Valk at the CUNY Graduate Center. It was developed to investigate and document the intermingling of academic and cultural history and memory practices and convenes several points in time as a way of maintaining, building, and activating the vibrancy of historical knowledge. While answering the archivist Michelle Caswell’s call to “activate the archive,” by providing access to an obscure archival item that offers insight into the continuous expressions of Wampanoag agency and activism, the project also functions as part of my personal and continuous practice of immersion in the constant flow of my ancestral inheritance.
An excerpt of the conversation between Ramona Peters and Dr. Jason Mancini is at the heart of the project. The original recording was made on August 17, 2013, at the Mashpee Indian Tribal Museum. Peters and Mancini were collaborating on the gathering of exhibit materials for whaling exhibits they were independently developing. The recording offers a richly informative and entertaining demonstration of the method by which our histories inherently exist on multiple planes. In traditionally academic settings, we are often pinned down to linear progression—the building up of narrative as points plotted on timelines and assessed for meaning. Peters’ and Mancini’s conversation demonstrates how our shared knowledge and experience of it permeates time and place—it exists all at once. As we listen, they weave together their own associations across all points in time inspired by the other’s knowledge. They leap backward and forward in time and from place to place to create complex patterns of interconnectivity.
They pose questions that ask us to consider the vast and intricate connections Indigenous whalers have made across space: bringing both afar and back home new ideas technologies; and time: memory of the presence and actions living on the histories and traditions of the lands they visited. The underpinning of each story is the water. The oceans and seas act as conduits for not just the transportation of physical bodies but ideas, inspiration, and hope.
Majel Peters is an enrolled tribal member and continues in her mother’s footsteps in preserving the culture and heritage of our Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and Nation. She is a role model to many for pursuing an academic path that supports the preservation of our collective cultural heritage and builds upon the Tribe's professional capacities; which is to be commended. We want to highlight and share her work for all to appreciate and learn from.
Department contacts
David Weeden - Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO)/Director
Email: David.Weeden@mwtribe-NSN.gov
Phone: 508.477.0208 Ext. 102
Cell: 774.327.0068
Nakia Hendricks Jr. - Office manager
Email: Nakia.HendricksJr@mwtribe-nsn.gov
Phone: (508)477-0208x174
Learn More About NAGPRA
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted on November 16, 1990, to address the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations to Native American cultural items, including human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. The Act assigned implementation responsibilities to the Secretary of the Interior.
