During their February 22, 2022 meeting, the Truro Board of Selectmen approved a measure to assure the rights of the Wampanoag and all indigenous people to have access to our ancestral water ways in that town. The declaration reads as follows:

"The Truro Select Board, on behalf of the citizens of Truro, returns to the people of the Wampanoag Nation now and forever their custom and practice to recreate on beaches owned or managed by the Town of Truro without cost or fee upon presentation of a current Tribal Card. The right to recreate includes making beach fires where permitted by the Town and within the numbers permitted.

This declaration recognizes the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s stewardship of the land and resources of Cape Cod for over 12,000 years and honors their continuing presence. It adds to the ancient and aboriginal claim of Native peoples in Massachusetts to hunt, fish and trap the wildlife of this land the right to recreate at beaches owned or managed by the Town of Truro."

We are grateful to tribal member Annawon Weeden who has been an advocate for these practices and attended the meeting of the Truro Select board an testified to the critical importance of this measure for the Wampanoag and all Native people.

There are two other Truro projects in the works, approved by the Truro Community Preservation Committee (CPC) and awaiting approval by the Truro Select Board and Town Meeting. These are: a joint Truro Historical Society/ Truro Historical Commission request to funding a feasibility study for at least three monuments or memorials to the Paomet Wampanoag people of Truro and a THS funding request for a wet8 to be constructed in front of Highland House Museum.