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Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (formerly Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc.) is one of two federally recognized tribes of Wampanoag people in Massachusetts. Recognized in 2007, they are headquartered in Mashpee on Cape Cod. The other Wampanoag tribe is the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard.
The tribe has its own health services, police force, court system, and education departments.
In March 2024, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had approximately 3,200 enrolled citizens. Their 170 acres in Mashpee, as well as an additional 150 acres in Taunton, Massachusetts, were taken into trust on their behalf by the US Department of Interior in 2015, establishing these parcels as reservation land.
The historic Algonquian-speaking Wampanoag are one of 69 tribes of the original Wampanoag Nation; they are the Native people encountered by the English colonists of the New Plymouth Colony in the 17th century. The Wampanoag also controlled a considerable amount of coastal area. They are one of the several Algonquian-speaking tribal nations in what are now considered Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Wampanoag and English (later European Americans) have interacted and shaped each other's cultures for centuries, with marriage between the groups also taking place.
English colonists began to settle in and around the traditional tribal community of present-day Mashpee, Massachusetts, which was also called Marshapoag (Big Pond), and Saukatukett (South Sea) when Rev Leverech of Sandwich began preaching there in the 1630s. He was later replaced in 1658 by missionary Rev Richard Bourne, from the neighboring town of Sandwich. In 1629, the Mashpee Wampanoag, along with eight other Wampanoag tribes, granted “Indian Title” to the King of England to a tract of land that would become Plymouth Colony. In 1660, Bourne assisted the tribe in codifying the territory in at least one of two deeds. Beginning in 1665, the Wampanoag, petitioned the General Court for Mashpee’s status as a ‘praying town’, a form of government established by missionary Rev John Eliot and confirmed by the General Court of the colony. In May 1666, a delegation of English leaders, including Richard Bourne, John Eliot and his son, John Cotton, Thomas Mayhew, and two Wampanoag interpreters convened a week-long meeting in Mashpee to hear from the Tribe regarding their petition (hearing the confessions) and report back to the General Court. The petition being granted, the Mashpees now governed themselves via the law of ‘praying towns’. Praying Town status afforded tribes protection of the English Crown and a greater chance to remain on their homelands. While this helped to maintain tenure in the land, these new laws also patterned English systems of justice and took away freedoms of the Wampanoag to live traditionally.
Following the Wampanoag defeat in King Philip's War (1675–1676), those on the mainland were resettled with the Sakonnet in present-day Rhode Island. Other Wampanoag were forced to settle in the praying towns, such as Mashpee, in Barnstable County on Cape Cod. The colonists sold many Wampanoag men into slavery in the Caribbean, and enslaved women and children in New England.
The colonists designated Mashpee on Cape Cod as the largest Native American reservation in Massachusetts. The town's name is an Anglicization of a Native name, Mâseepee: mâs meaning "large" and, upee meaning "water." It is named for Mashpee/Wakeby Pond, the largest fresh water pond on Cape Cod.
In 1763, the British Crown designated Mashpee as a plantation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, against the will of the Wampanoag. By this designation, the Crown gave the colonial district of Mashpee authority to integrate into its territory the area governed by the Mashpee Wampanoag. The colony gave the natives the "right" to elect their own officials to maintain order in their area, but otherwise subjected them to colonial government. The Wampanoag population of the plantation declined steadily due to social disruption and infectious disease contracted from the colonists. They also suffered from continuing encroachment on their lands by the English.
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Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (formerly Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc.) is one of two federally recognized tribes of Wampanoag people in Massachusetts. Recognized in 2007, they are headquartered in Mashpee on Cape Cod. The other Wampanoag tribe is the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) on Martha's Vineyard.
The tribe has its own health services, police force, court system, and education departments.
In March 2024, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had approximately 3,200 enrolled citizens. Their 170 acres in Mashpee, as well as an additional 150 acres in Taunton, Massachusetts, were taken into trust on their behalf by the US Department of Interior in 2015, establishing these parcels as reservation land.
The historic Algonquian-speaking Wampanoag are one of 69 tribes of the original Wampanoag Nation; they are the Native people encountered by the English colonists of the New Plymouth Colony in the 17th century. The Wampanoag also controlled a considerable amount of coastal area. They are one of the several Algonquian-speaking tribal nations in what are now considered Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Wampanoag and English (later European Americans) have interacted and shaped each other's cultures for centuries, with marriage between the groups also taking place.
English colonists began to settle in and around the traditional tribal community of present-day Mashpee, Massachusetts, which was also called Marshapoag (Big Pond), and Saukatukett (South Sea) when Rev Leverech of Sandwich began preaching there in the 1630s. He was later replaced in 1658 by missionary Rev Richard Bourne, from the neighboring town of Sandwich. In 1629, the Mashpee Wampanoag, along with eight other Wampanoag tribes, granted “Indian Title” to the King of England to a tract of land that would become Plymouth Colony. In 1660, Bourne assisted the tribe in codifying the territory in at least one of two deeds. Beginning in 1665, the Wampanoag, petitioned the General Court for Mashpee’s status as a ‘praying town’, a form of government established by missionary Rev John Eliot and confirmed by the General Court of the colony. In May 1666, a delegation of English leaders, including Richard Bourne, John Eliot and his son, John Cotton, Thomas Mayhew, and two Wampanoag interpreters convened a week-long meeting in Mashpee to hear from the Tribe regarding their petition (hearing the confessions) and report back to the General Court. The petition being granted, the Mashpees now governed themselves via the law of ‘praying towns’. Praying Town status afforded tribes protection of the English Crown and a greater chance to remain on their homelands. While this helped to maintain tenure in the land, these new laws also patterned English systems of justice and took away freedoms of the Wampanoag to live traditionally.
Following the Wampanoag defeat in King Philip's War (1675–1676), those on the mainland were resettled with the Sakonnet in present-day Rhode Island. Other Wampanoag were forced to settle in the praying towns, such as Mashpee, in Barnstable County on Cape Cod. The colonists sold many Wampanoag men into slavery in the Caribbean, and enslaved women and children in New England.
The colonists designated Mashpee on Cape Cod as the largest Native American reservation in Massachusetts. The town's name is an Anglicization of a Native name, Mâseepee: mâs meaning "large" and, upee meaning "water." It is named for Mashpee/Wakeby Pond, the largest fresh water pond on Cape Cod.
In 1763, the British Crown designated Mashpee as a plantation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, against the will of the Wampanoag. By this designation, the Crown gave the colonial district of Mashpee authority to integrate into its territory the area governed by the Mashpee Wampanoag. The colony gave the natives the "right" to elect their own officials to maintain order in their area, but otherwise subjected them to colonial government. The Wampanoag population of the plantation declined steadily due to social disruption and infectious disease contracted from the colonists. They also suffered from continuing encroachment on their lands by the English.