‘We Walk Amongst You:’ Herring Pond Tribe Calls On Non-Natives For Action
July 19, 2024
Melissa Ferretti, chairwoman of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, is openly calling on non-Native individuals to join in the conversation surrounding tribal land reclamation and recognition.
Pre-colonial contact, the Herring Pond Tribe primarily lived in Bourne and Sandwich, and stewarded lands extending up to Plymouth and Cedarville. The Tribe is part of the larger Wampanoag Nation, which includes Herring Pond’s sister tribes, Mashpee and Aquinnah.
Ms. Ferretti, who also serves as vice chairwoman of the Bourne Select Board, said land reclamation is an essential aspect to embracing the Tribe’s culture and beliefs. Land conservation is a top priority for the Herring Pond Tribe, motivating their efforts to buy back their ancestral lands in the Plymouth and Bourne areas.
“Our goal is to conserve it, preserve it and protect the animals,” Ms. Ferretti said. “Our goal is to get these properties and rekindle some of the traditional knowledge that we’ve lost.”
Regaining Ancestral Lands
During the allotment era in the late 1800s and early 1900s, parcels of land were distributed to tribes, allowing them to keep mere fractions of the land they had roamed for years prior, Ms. Ferretti said. The Herring Pond Tribe was given about 3,000 acres of land in the Cedarville and Bourne areas.
The Tribe, at present, owns a 400-acre lot in Bournedale that hosts Chamber Rock, Burying Hill, Wishing Rock, Sacrifice Rock and all the area extending to Red Brook Wildlife Management Area. Little Sandy Pond, located to the west of Great Herring Pond, is their active burial ground, which has headstones that date back to the 1800s.
Current efforts the Herring Pond Tribe is working on includes a campaign to buy back a 38-acre parcel at Triangle Pond in Cedarville.
“We are in discussion with the sellers to try and come up with a fair and amicable agreement,” Ms. Ferretti said. Funds raised by the Tribe, she explained, will be used to buy back the land, once an agreement is reached.
The land is currently owned by Sagamore Cranberry. If purchased by the Tribe, Ms. Ferretti said it would be used as an educational nature hub, museum of Native artifacts, and community center to host powwows. The tribe would also use spaces on the land to honor specific populations, including dedicating a forest to two-spirit Tribe members, among other dedications.
“And, of course, we’d have our Wampanoag flare on it,” Ms. Ferretti added.
And, the Herring Pond Tribe also plans to use this land as a space for more than just their fellow Wampanoag people.
“It [the land at Triangle Pond] would be dedicated to empowering all of the people in the Tribe and in our town as well. We plan to share this space with the town,” Ms. Ferretti said. “It’s a community effort for us—we want to buy it back, but we also want to share it.”
The Tribe’s success in gaining back the six-acre Dinah Path lot in 2019 from the Town of Plymouth raises hopes for the acquisition of the Triangle Pond lot, Ms. Ferretti said.
“We walked into Plymouth to ask for that land back, and we were frightened at what kind of reception we were going to get,” Ms. Ferretti said, “but we were welcomed by those from the Town of Plymouth.”
Barriers Still Ahead
State recognition of the Herring Pond Tribe would help with land reclamation efforts, Ms. Ferretti said, as some applications for state funding are only available to state-recognized tribes.
State and federal recognition are two tiers of tribal recognition, and each is determined by different legislative bodies and features unique processes and requirements.
Federally recognized tribes, like the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, have access to federal benefits, protections and additional funding opportunities. These tribes are able to put their land into trust under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, deeming it an official reservation, and certain grants and programs are only offered to federally recognized tribes.
Massachusetts Executive Order No. 126, signed on July 8, 1976, by then-Governor Michael S. Dukakis, afforded formal recognition to the governing bodies of the Nipmuc and the Mashpee and Gay Head Wampanoag Tribes, but failed to formally recognize the Herring Pond Tribe. State agencies were to engage directly with the respective tribal councils of the three tribes mentioned by name; when it came to tribes outside of those named, however, Executive Order No. 126 mandated that state agencies instead deal with the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs.
“Unfortunately, that’s sort of been used as a weapon against us,” Ms. Ferretti said of Executive Order No. 126, “not just in the commonwealth or with grant funding or other programs, but it’s also a black eye to us in Indian country.”
Plans Take Shape
Achieving state recognition is the next step for the Herring Pond Tribe, Ms. Ferretti said.
“That’s our goal, but it’s a lot of work,” Ms. Ferretti said. “As we know from our sister tribes, whom we love dearly, it’s not an easy process. Once it gets bureaucratic, it can get ugly.”
Learning from those sister tribes, Ms. Ferretti added, will be a big part of the process.
“We want to make sure we do it right,” she said. “We want to learn from the experiences of the Mashpee, Aquinnah and Nipmuc people to make sure we’re doing it right—so that when we go in, we have what we need. Federal recognition is the end game. State recognition gets us there.”
Rather than calling out individuals or towns for discriminatory past actions toward Indigenous people, Ms. Ferretti said she wants to call them into action through means of education and fundraising.
“Our game isn’t to cause problems,” she said. “Our goals have nothing to do with punishing or shaming Plymouth or Bourne for the history.”
One concern of hers is how some non-Native people harshly view the local tribes.
“The best thing you can do for Indigenous people in your area is learn their history—then you know who they are, and it gives them a face,” Ms. Ferretti said. “We’re regular people. We’re lawyers, doctors, nurses, professionals and realtors. We walk amongst you.”