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#HerringPondTribe of #Plymouth pushes for federal recognition

Story by Beth Treffeisen, Boston Globe
November 22, 2023

"PLYMOUTH — Raised by a tribal elder, Melissa Ferretti remembers growing up in a two-room shack in the woods in the 1970s on the southern border of Plymouth known as 'the valley,' where her family lived off the land.

"Ferretti is a member of the #HerringPond Tribe, one of a handful comprising the #WampanoagNation, which many years ago had a small reservation in Plymouth.

"Ferretti said gaining #FederalRecognition would help the tribe keep its distinct identity.

"'When most people think #Wampanoag, they’re thinking of #Mashpee or #Aquinnah,' said Timothy Turner, owner of Native Plymouth Tours and associate director of Indigenous education for the Plimoth Patuxet Museums.

"The Herring Pond Tribe, he said, still in Plymouth 400 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, is 'a small group of people . . . and they get left out of history because they’re not federally recognized.'

"The Wampanoag, which means People of the First Light, have called Southeastern New England home for 12,000 years, dating to when the glaciers receded, said Turner.

"The Herring Pond Tribe was at 'ground-zero' of #colonization, said Ferretti, and was part of the original #NativeAmericans who met the #Pilgrims on their arrival in 1620.

"Following the first treaty struck with #Massasoit, the Wampanoag chief, the Pilgrims signed treaties with many of the other tribes in the Wampanoag Nation, Turner said. That treaty promised mutual aid in the case of war and exclusive trade — contrary to the Peace Treaty sometimes taught.

"Like other Native Americans, the Herring Pond Tribe sees #Thanksgiving as a day of mourning. Still, members retain the tradition of gathering with families and friends around a turkey.

"Upon the Pilgrims’ arrival, it was estimated that 69 Wampanoag settlements, connected through language and at times political systems, ran along the #EastCoast from #Weymouth to #CapeCod and the Islands, and south to Bristol and Warren, #RhodeIsland according to Brad Lopes, director of Wampanoag and Indigenous Interpretation and Training at the #PlimothPatuxetMuseums and a member of the Aquinnah Tribe.

"Today, about 5,000 Wampanoag people live in New England, Lopes said."

Full article:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/herring-pond-tribe-of-plymouth-pushes-for-federal-recognition/ar-AA1knD3f