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Wampanoag Tribes and Cape Wind
This letter is to address the editorial by the Boston Globe newspaper on Oct. 27 which opposes the claim that the Wampanoag tribe should have Nantucket Sound placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wampanoags say that their spiritual greetings of the sun require unobstructed views and commercial wind turbines could disturb the ancestral burying grounds.
The editorial fails to help readers understand this complicated story of the North American Indians. The North American Indians have rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States. They have the right to ask for the divine blessing of the Creator. How would we all feel if the news poked fun of a religion that thought God was really three divine people? The Indians were the first people. They have a right to be heard.
We need to look outside Boston to the South. For example, the town I live in is said to be an old Indian term meaning “a place of rest.” The town seal has a larger than life bow-carrying Indian overlooking a ship being built on the shore. The SouthCoast, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the Islands have such names as Moshup Trail. These names were handed down over 400 years. Here is an excerpt from a Wampanoag story about Moshup the Giant:
“One day Moshup told the Indians that a new breed of man, with fairer skin than they would soon be coming to their land. He warned the Indians not to let them on their shore, for if they did, the Indians would live no more.
“Then Moshup quietly slipped away into the choppy waters off the bay. Soon after, the pale-faced men came ashore, and landed near the place where Moshup once lay. The Indians greeted them with friendship and let them stay, and Moshup has not been seen since that day.”
Frank Haggerty
Mattapoisett
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Categories: Issues, Opinion
Keywords: Cape Wind, Wampanoag, Moshup, Nantucket Sound
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“Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in the National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.”