Jessie Baird Named One of USA Today’s Women of the Century

Last month USA Today compiled a list of the 100 most influential women of the century and it included a woman from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Jessie little doe Baird was featured in this amazing list of accomplished women for her work preserving the culture and heritage of her Tribe through language. The significant connection between the revival of an unspoken language and the tribal community is profound and will impact generations of Wampanoag to come.

Jessie, who also serves that the Vice Chair of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, sees language as a way to communicate and a way to teach.  It was this drive to give back her community back their language and in the process their way of making connections with their tribal community that pushed her to found the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP).

WLRP has compiled a dictionary with more than 11,000 entries and it is continuing to grow.

For Jessie, words on paper are not a language. A language lives through the people who speak it. That’s why Jessie along with other teachers provide community classes and family camps.  Through the language immersion school and programs in the local grade school and high school also provide opportunity for tribal children to learn the language.

Jessie often talks about how the language teaches us. “In English, you can just say, ‘She’s a mother.’ But in Wampanoag, you can’t say that,” said Jessie. “You can say, ‘She’s my mother, she’s your mother, she’s our mother, she’s his or her mother. But you can’t just say ‘a mother.’ And that's the same with all of the kinship terms. Everybody in that circle is defined by the people around them. And that's reflected in the words. There are all sorts of lessons in the language that are not in English because English doesn't have the same (worldview). Our families, by recording all of these documents in our language, they left all of the lessons for us.”

Jessie is not the first and certainly will not be the last Wampanoag woman to make such important strides in the Wampanoag community. Traditionally, the Wampanoag were very much a matriarchal structure with a long line of women leaders. Leaders that included Awashonks and Weetumuw in the 17th century and more recently Clara Peters Keliinui, Amanda Gardner Hicks, Emma Oakley Mills, Gertrude Haynes Aikens, and Mabel Avant to name just a few.

Jessie hopes that this recognition will inspire a new generation of strong Wampanoag Women.

“If you don't know about women in your line, learn about the women in your line and ask them for strength,” said Jessie. Remember that you are made of the creator, that you come from a very powerful place in the universe. That energy that is the universe is also in you. You don't have to accept things that people put on you that are not good medicine or good energy. I know it's easier to do that, but you don't have to do that.”

“And I would say, too, remember to grab some floor with your knees. Remember to pray whatever your spiritual teaching is from your people or your family. And it's OK for things to get difficult and it's OK to cry and it's OK to be angry, but it's also OK to tell yourself you've done a good job and that things are going to be OK.”