Recently home from the Mashpee Pow Wow up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
(Photo courtesy of Joyce Rain Anderson)
Wow, those Mashpee Wampanoags sure
know how to throw a powwow!!!
Deer meat, quahog chowder, raffles, quail, handsome men,bluefish, beautiful women, wampum, rabbit, contests galore and FIREBALL!!!
Guess they ought to since this was their 90TH annual...but still I gotta give 'em credit because they have survived so much and only recently (2007) got "recognized" by the [colonialist] federal government.
All those hundreds of years that the US government was saying they were wiped out they just kept on having pow wows and handing down traditions generation to generation. Impressive.
Keep in mind these are the Indians [think Squanto] who first befriended the misguided pilgrims-- a kindness they would live to regret.
Unfortunately there are other Wampanoag tribes who have yet to be recognized (like the Pocasset). They were at the Pow Wow too.
How long will it take the US to recognize all the surviving descendants of all the tribes they tried to exterminate?
My prediction: just as long as it takes that same government to make amends with the descendants of the millions of Indigenous Africans kidnapped and enslaved in this country.
Meanwhile we will all still be having our Juneteenths and Pow Wows and will still be passing down our stories because you can't kill the spirit, people.
