FEMA just released a nation-wide press releasing urging Tribal Nations to follow the emergency response plan that was developed and implemented by the Tribe's Emergency Management Department. With a second wave of the fast spreading virus taking hold across the country, FEMA is looking for a plan of attack that can be replicated and sees Mashpee as the answer.

It is with the deepest sorrows that we learned last evening that the body of our young missing tribal woman Jalajhia Finklea was located in Florida.

Details of her return home will follow in the days to come but right now our primary concern is for the comfort, needs, and privacy of her family.

Our very deepest condolences to the family of Jalajhia Finklea. We hold them in our prayers in this most sorrowful time. We must be here for them and one another.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

There are two words in your language for the English word, ‘tribe’. These two words are our instructions; chupân8ôk, ‘Tribe’ it literally means the being set apart from others, being free. The other word is, Tahs88ôk, ‘tribe’ but literally to be counted among the collective. To be one collection of People.

The Mashpee Wampanoag are in fact, and have always been, a People created by Manut Creator free and separate from the world; a singular collective free to govern ourselves as we see fit and proper.

We are not a collection of mirror images of one another, however, and any one of us can lose our way. If we do, it is up to the collective Tahs88ôk, to ensure that the course is corrected and the way to free and fit government is opened.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Housing Department will present the 2021 HUD Indian Housing Plan (IHP) on November 19, 2020 at 5:30pm at the regularly scheduled Housing Commissioner’s Meeting. In order to participate in the meeting, please call the dial in # 978-990-5002, Dial In Access Code # 443734#.

In our continued efforts to identify and stop the spread of COVID-19, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Emergency Management Department has implemented a system known as the Text Illness Monitoring System (TIMs2) for the Tribal Community.

This is an effective cell phone text messaging system that has been used for many years to control the spread of disease such as Tuberculosis.

We need your support to quickly bring a young tribal member home. Please contact the authorities if you have seen or heard anything and please continue to share this information with your networks far and wide.

Jalajhia was Last seen on October 20th in the New Bedford area with the abductor Luis Robert Zaragoza/Barboza and may have been taken outside of Massachusetts.

Jalajhia Finklea is 18 years of age and is 5’3” and approximately 110 lbs. She has brown hair, hazel eyes and has a triangle scar on her left cheek.