My first Massachusetts trip was to Cape Cod for the Wampanoag powwow in Mashpee, an annual event (this year was the 103rd) held for three days the first week in July. I went on Sunday, the final day, and it was the biggest and best powwow I went to this summer. I stayed for the veterans’ dance, the tiny tots dance, and a few others, but the heat was pretty intense, even for me sitting in the shade–I could only imagine what it was like for the dancers, dressed in regalia, dancing in the full sun.

There was an excellent assortment of booths selling crafts and food, as well as a clambake the day I was there (for an extra fee). Several contests were scheduled later in the afternoon, including the crowning of the Powwow Princess and Little Miss Wampanoag, all of which I would have enjoyed on a cooler day.

The next day I headed over to the Mashpee Wampanoag Museum, a small museum that tells the history of the Wampanoag people up to the present. There are several video interviews of contemporary Wampanoags, emphasizing the vitality of the tribe and its efforts to preserve the culture. A woman named Courtney was working there that day, and she gave me a warm greeting and introduction to the museum. When I mentioned I had been at the powwow the day before, she told me proudly that her son had won the boys’ junior dance competition.

The museum taught me more about King Philip’s War. I vaguely knew this was part of Massachusetts history, but I learned that it was much larger and more wide-ranging than I was aware. Named for the Wampanoag chief and sachem Metacom, who also used the English name Philip, the war took place from 1675 to 1676. While it was devastating for the colonists, who saw 52 towns attacked and sometimes destroyed, losing 2,500 people, its impact was far worse for the Wampanoag, who lost most of their land and suffered twice as many deaths. Other tribes in the area also saw losses of people, land, and tribal identity. The American identity was born, though, since it was the first time the colonists had fought a war without any help from Europe. It was a devastating and far-reaching war with important consequences, and it’s surprising it isn’t taught more as part of history.

You know what is taught? The Pilgrim Plimoth narrative. If you grew up in Massachusetts, chances are you visited Plimoth Patuxet Museums, maybe on a third grade field trip. Known as Plimoth Plantation until 2020, the name change reflects an attempt to focus more on the Patuxet band of Wampanoag that lived in the area long before the English established the Plimoth colony.

I hadn’t visited in at least a decade, so I headed over one Sunday morning in July. The Wampanoag village there includes a wetu, a canoe, a garden, and a cooking area, but I was surprised not to see any costumed interpreters there, since there were several dressed as English colonists in the Plimoth part. I asked a staff person about it, and she said they were working on getting costumes, which seemed odd to me since the Wampanoag village has been there for more than 40 years.

Back home, I did some research and discovered that the Wampanoag tribe has cut ties with Plimoth Patuxet due to a lack of Native American staffing and input and neglect in the upkeep of the Wampanoag village. From the introductory film to the separate gift shop for Native American items to the website that mostly features photos from the Plimoth part of Plimoth Patuxet, it seems like the 17th-century English village and Mayflower replica are still the main focus, despite the name change.

On the way home, I stopped in central Massachusetts to attend the powwow held by the Hassanamisco band of the Nipmuc Nation. When my daughter was in high school, she made an oral history video of this tribe for her Girl Scout Gold Award project. She interviewed the former and current chiefs of the tribe, and we visited the reservation a couple of times, which is a three-and-a-half acre parcel of land in Grafton, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, their petition for federal recognition was denied in 2004, but the band has 600 members and works hard to preserve their history and culture.

I had plans to go to the Abenaki Heritage Weekend in Vermont at the end of June, but it didn’t work out for me, so I don’t have any travel reports from Vermont. I do want to mention one bit of controversy around the Vermont Abenaki that has to do with children’s literature, specifically author and storyteller Joseph Bruchac. I know only the smallest amount about this issue, so I encourage you to do your own research, but apparently there have been some questions about the Abenaki heritage of Vermont tribes, which has in turn led to questions about Joseph Bruchac’s Native ancestry. Dr. Debbie Reese, a noted scholar of Native Americans in children’s literature, has written a post about this on her blog, in which she concludes that she can no longer recommend books by him, his sons, or his sister, Marge Bruchac. Since the Bruchacs have made substantial contributions to Native American children’s literature, this is a pretty serious statement for her to make. I urge you to read about it and decide for yourself.

Books About Indigenous People of Massachusetts

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2023)

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten illustrated by Garry Meeches Sr. (Charlesbridge, 2022)

If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving by Chris Newell, illustrated by Winona Nelson (Scholastic, 2021)

Tribes

Massachusetts

Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmuck*

Hassanamisco Nipmuc*

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)

Vermont

Elnu Abenaki Tribe*

Koasek Abenaki Tribe*

Missiquoi Abenaki Tribe*

Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation*

*Not federally-recognized

Reservations and Trust Lands

Massachusetts

Chaubunagungamaug Reservation (located in CT, but affiliated with the Chaubunagungamaug Band of Nipmucks in Massachusetts)

Hassanamisco Reservation

Wampanoag-Aquinnah Trust Land

As my summer was wrapping up, I came across a book that felt like the perfect coda to my travels. Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa by Leslie Stall Widener, illustrated by Johnson Yazzie (Charlesbridge, 32 pages) tells the story of the bond between the Choctaw Nation and the people of Ireland. During the Irish Potato Famine, the Choctaw Nation heard about the Irish people’s plight. Knowing what it was like to lose your home and to not have enough to eat, the Choctaw people collected $170 (about $5,000 in today’s dollars) and sent it to Ireland to help provide help to the Irish people. Almost 200 years later, when the Irish learned how the Navajo and Hopi people had been devastated by Covid-19, 26,000 of them donated to a relief fund, many of them citing the Choctaw contribution to Ireland back in 1847.

Sometimes a group of people can seem like just a name in a history book, but this story reminds me how learning about another culture helps us to recognize our common humanity. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had this summer to travel to places where, even though I might have been there before, I learned to see them in new ways. I got to witness resilient groups preserving their cultures despite formidable odds that have been stacked against them for centuries.

If you want to learn more about indigenous people and history in your area, you can start with Powwows.com to search for powwows and other Native American events in the U.S. and Canada. Google “Native American museums near me” to find places to visit and to take your kids. Read some of the books from my Indigenous Americans book list that include stories of Native people all over North America. And please let me know if these posts wind up inspiring you to do your own travels!

I started my time in Maine at the Wells Beach Powwow. Although it was held in Maine, this event was sponsored by the New Hampshire Intertribal Native American Council, and most of the participants were from New Hampshire. I recommend attending any powwow if you have the opportunity, since it’s a unique way to witness contemporary Native culture.

The powwows I went to opened in the morning, with booths selling art, crafts, and food. Dancing began at noon with the Grand Entry, in which all the dancers and flag bearers entered the powwow ring, usually with the American flag, tribal flags, and maybe a POW flag. The Wampanoag powwow I attended had a drum roll call, with the four drumming groups each playing a solo before the dancing began. After the Grand Entry, there’s a dance honoring veterans and their families. Then there might be dances for children, dances for elders, dance competitions, a blanket dance to raise money, and dances in which everyone is invited to join the circle.

I found it helpful to learn some powwow etiquette before I attended. There will likely be a master of ceremonies who may go over some rules about taking pictures, when to stand or sit, who can join various dances, and more. I felt that the powwows were really more for the participants than the audience, and I’ve opted not to post photos here.

Although I only made it to three powwows this summer, there were a number of others held in all the New England states. I recommend Powwows.com to find one near you. If you’re in New England, the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness (MCNAA) has a calendar that includes powwows and other Native events from all around New England.

From Wells, I drove up to Bar Harbor to visit the Abbe Museum, which turned out to be one of my favorites. Founded in 1926 by physician and summer Maine resident Dr. Robert Abbe, it became a Smithsonian affiliate in 2013 and has increasingly sought Native American collaboration and involvement. While I recommend paying admission and enjoying all the exhibits, there’s a room at the entrance that’s free. It includes excellent information on all of the Maine tribes, a good explanation of federal recognition of tribes, and an introduction to the decolonized approach the Abbe takes to presenting indigenous history.

From there, I headed north to visit the Penobscot Nation, about 60 miles from Bar Harbor. I’ve been curious about this since I read the novel in verse Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac. It’s about a girl quarantining during Covid-19 with her grandparents on what is called the Penacook reservation, but which I think is modeled on the Penobscot one. I drove around the reservation a bit, then headed a few miles down the road to the Hudson Museum on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono. Admission is free, with two excellent but quite distinct galleries. One is about the five Maine Wabanaki tribes (Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot), and the other looks at world cultures from different perspectives like food, clothing, and sacred practices, with artifacts from all over the world.

One excellent exhibit in the Wabanaki gallery is about basketry, focusing on the ash and sweetgrass baskets that are one of the best-known forms of Wabanaki art, now threatened by an invasive beetle that kills ash trees. Despite this, the baskets on display are a testament to the continuity of this art form to the present day. The First Blades of Sweetgrass by Suzanne Greenlaw is an excellent picture book about a contemporary basket maker passing along this art form to her granddaughter.

My last stop as I headed for home was the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, NH. This museum was founded by Charles “Bud” Thompson, a white man who died in 2021 at the age of 99. From childhood, he was fascinated by Native Americans and collected artifacts from all over the country. As I mentioned previously, I preferred the museums that focus on local tribes and cultures, and that have ownership or strong input from members of those tribes. I found those museums in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine, which, not coincidentally, are the New England states with federally recognized tribes.

Books about indigenous people of Maine

Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac (Dial Books, 2021)

The First Blades of Sweetgrass: A Native American Story by Suzanne Greenlaw and Gabriel Frey, illustrated by Nancy Baker (Tilbury House Publishers, 2021)

Books about powwows

Bowwow Powwow by Brenda J. Child, translation by Gordon Jourdain, illustrations by Jonathan Thunder (Minnesota Historical Society, 2018)

Josie Dances by Denise Lajimodiere, illustrations by Angela Erdrich (Minnesota Historical Society, 2021)

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Heartdrum, 2021)

Powwow Day by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight (Charlesbridge, 2022)

Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud, illustrated by Kalila J. Fuller (Penguin Workshop, 2022)

Tribes

Maine

Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians

Mi’kmaq Nation

Passamaquoddy Tribe

Penobscot Nation

Reservations and Trust Lands

Maine

Indian Township Reservation/Passamaquoddy

Pleasant Point Reservation

Mi’kmaq Nation Trust Land

Passamaquoddy Land Trust

Penobscot Land Trust

You may recall that last summer I went on a tour of southern states to learn more about Black history and wrote here about my experiences. I wanted to do something similar this summer–exploring a history that I didn’t know much about–but my travel funds were a bit less robust, so I decided to stay in New England and investigate the history and cultures of Native Americans here. While media portrayals frequently associate indigenous tribes and reservations with the western part of the country, I learned that there are many resources right here in New England and witnessed how the indigenous people living here today are working to preserve their cultures.

I began in Connecticut at the Mashuntucket Pequot Museum in Mashuntucket. If you only have time to visit one museum in southern New England to visit, I recommend this one. At over 300,000 square feet, this complex includes not only a museum, but excellent educational and research facilities, including an amazing walk-through diorama of a 16th-century Pequot village with audio accompaniment available.

The museum has been owned and operated by the Pequot tribe since it opened in 1998. I found that tribal involvement makes a real difference as compared to museums started earlier in the twentieth century by white people. The tribally operated museums tend to focus on local history, which was more what I was seeking, as opposed to those that include information about Native Americans throughout North America. They also have more exhibits and programming about contemporary indigenous people.

There’s a difference between tribes that are recognized by the federal government and those that only have state recognition, as I learned through my museum visits. Federal recognition gives tribes the right to self-govern and provides other benefits such as cash assistance through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are seven criteria for approval for the federal designation, and some of those, like long-standing historical community and descent from a historical tribe, can be extremely difficult to prove–precisely because so many of these groups were forced to assimilate. It seems to me like it may not be an entirely fair process, but I’m just beginning to learn about it, so I encourage anyone who’s interested to start your own research.

Only federally recognized tribes have the sovereignty to open casinos, giving those tribes access to much greater income streams. And if a state doesn’t want casinos, the government may work to deny recognition of tribes, as happened in Vermont.

Many New Englanders are familiar with the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos that the Pequot and Mohegan tribes opened in the 1990’s. Supreme Court cases from 1976 and 1986 opened the door for casinos to operate on Native lands. There have been strong feelings about this over the years, and different states have handled things in a variety of ways. The Connecticut casinos are the second and third largest in the country. I recommend the Wikipedia article on Native American gaming if you want to learn more.

Back to museums, the revenue generated for the tribe from the casinos allowed the Pequot to develop and maintain this beautiful facility. Their reservation is just down the road in North Stonington, and it’s interesting to drive over after learning in the museum exhibits how it was brought back to life from near extinction over the course of the twentieth century.

Travel about 20 minutes in the other direction, and you’ll get to the Tantaquidgeon Museum in Uncasville, the oldest Native American-owned and operated museum in the U.S. It’s run by the Mohegan tribe, admission is free, and they had some of the best staff of any museum I visited. I was greeted at the door, led to the first exhibit area, then guided into the main part of the museum when I was ready to move on. Outside, another guide talked about the wigwam on display and chatted about his experiences dancing at various powwows. The Mohegan reservation is about eight minutes away, right next door to Mohegan Sun.

The last two museums I’ll mention are one more Connecticut one and a Rhode Island one: the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT, about two hours from the other two Connecticut museums, and the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, RI. The Institute for American Indian Studies was founded in the 1970’s by a white archaeologist looking to preserve artifacts found in the area, while the Tomaquag was co-founded in 1958 by two women, a white anthropologist and a Narragansett/Wampanoag elder and historian. Both of these museums are small but offer a lot of educational programs and resources. One unique program at the Institute for American Studies is the Wigwam Escape, an escape room type experience designed to bring more teens to the museum, which has gotten lots of rave reviews online.

I regret that I didn’t get to any powwows in Connecticut or Rhode Island. I would have particularly liked to go to the Narragansett one in August, which, at 349 years old, is the oldest powwow in the United States and was highly recommended by my guide at the Tantaquidgeon Museum. Tune in tomorrow to read about my powwow experiences in other states.

Books to introduce the history of indigenous people in America

An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese (Beacon Press, 2019)

Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay (Christy Ottaviano Books, 2023)

Books about contemporary Native Americans

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (Roaring Brook, 2019)

We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lissac Charlesbridge, 2021)

Tribes (Note: these lists of tribes and reservations and trust lands are from my own research and may not be complete)

Connecticut

Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation*

Golden Hill Paugussett*

Mashantucket Pequot Tribe

Mohegan Tribe

Schaghticoke Tribal Nation*

Rhode Island 

Narragansett Indian Tribe

*Not federally recognized

Reservations and Trust Lands

Connecticut

Mashantucket Pequot Reservation

Mohegan Reservation

Paucatuck Eastern Pequot Reservation

Schaghticoke Reservation

Rhode Island

Narragansett Reservation