Continuous Presence Of Native People

THE CONTINUOUS PRESENCE
OF NATIVE PEOPLE

"Research and writing... [are] positive ways in which we can valance the scale of history and establish pride in the Wampanoag identity."

Russell Peters,
former Pilgrim Society Trustee and Mashpee Tribal Council President, 1997

Although the end of King Philip’s War spelled the end of Native political sovereignty, Native Peoples continued to live in the area and do to the present day.

For generations, Native heritage was preserved within families.

Zerviah Gould Mitchell, 1807-1898, was a descendant of Wampanoag leader Massasoit. Her pride in her heritage is evident in the book she published in 1878, Indian History and Genealogy.

Princess Red Wing, 1895-1987, wrote and lectured on her Pokanoket Wampanoag culture for six decades. In December of 1946, she became the first Native American to address the United Nationa.

Native heritage is today explored in museums such as the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, the Haffenreffer Museum (Rhode Island) and Plimoth Plantation.

Click for In Their Own Write : Native American documents from the collections of Pilgrim Hall Museum. In Their Own Write presents transcriptions of 12 original documents from the collections of Pilgrim Hall Museum, dating between 1649 and 1803, that can help to illuminate the Wampanoag culture and language, widen our knowledge of the interactions between the colonists and the Wampanoags, and demonstrate the continuous presence of Native Americans in the southeastern Massachusetts area.