| Origins The recounting and passing on of spoken history is as valid as any written text. Wampanoag oral tradition affirms that Wampanoag people have always been here. Too often, classroom discussions use the unsubstantiated Bering Straits theory to explain how America was populated. Listen to contemporary Wampanoag people explain that Massachusetts is the Wampanoag homeland -- they are the indigenous inhabitants. They have been here for thousands of generations. |
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 Photo: Mark Alan Lovewell |
"The legends teach me that we have always been here.
Just take the Maushop legend for example. It says that Maushop led our people to Aquinnah
to take us away from the fighting that was going on, on the mainland. While he was leading
us there he dragged his toe and broke off that piece of land that became Noepe. The fact
that he created that island tells me that we have always been there, ever since that place
was an island. Ever since that place was created." -- Tobias Vanderhoop |
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| "Ours is an oral history, and was not written down.
Our story was never told in American history. This is a time to begin by doing research
and writing our history... This is the thing we must do. As the history of New England is
re-examined, it is imperative that it be revised to include the Wampanoag side of the
story. If this is revisionism, so be it. The history of this country will become more
balanced and believable." -- Russell Peters |
 Photo: John Madama/Lerner Publications Company |
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"Moshop was a man of peace who first lived on the
elbow of Cape Cod. He loved to contemplate the beauty about him and would sit long hours
tranquilly smoking his big Peudelee, or pipe, while he watched the clouds or stared out at
the ever- changing sea. He was known as a just man and a kindly philosopher whose wisdom
was unquestioned." -- From "How Martha’s Vineyard Came to Be" as told by Helen Attaquin, Aquinnah Wampanoag (1923 - 1993) |
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