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442 Mabel Avant (Mashpee Wampanoag, 1892–1964) An important figure at Mashpee, Mabel Avant ran for tribal office in 1935, served as the Mashpee town clerk, and became a leading historian for the tribe. She devoted a great deal of time to sharing traditional stories; Joan Avant remembers children running to hear Mrs. Avant tell tribal legends. Mabel Avant belonged to one of the tribe’s oldest families, the Pocknetts; with her husband, George Avant, she had seven children of her own. Today her house is preserved as the Mashpee Tribal Museum. Avant wrote a poem, “Reveries of a Wampanoag Chief,” that has become something of a Mashpee classic, often recited at public events and republished in Mashpee authors’ books, including Russell Peters’s history of the tribe and Earl Mills’s memoir. Here we reprint instead “The Voice of Our Forsaken Church” (which also appears in Peters’s book), a poetic reflection on that historic structure that is referenced by several other writers in this chapter. The interview below was first recorded by Lou Cataldo in 1958, transcribed by Earl Mills Sr. in 2007, and later edited by Joan Tavares Avant for inclusion in her book People of the First Light. Interview with Mabel Avant mabel: First of all I think you will realize, all of you, that the People of Mashpee were here before; as I said in my pageant, the white people came across “the big sea water” to make our homes—their homes—with us. At that time the People were at Mashpee! And according to “Aunt Roxy Mye,” our People in Mashpee were under King Chief Popmomett. Now I can’t, and have never, run across any history on that. But it is handed down that Chief Popmomett was over the Mashpee People; I suppose he must have been under Chief Massasoit. He must have been one of the . . . well, like a deputy is now but he was called Chief Popmomett, and he lived in Quashnet. He was buried in Quashnet, north west of the homestead of Aunt Roxy Mye, near John’s Pond. And Mabel Avant 443 then she told me that Popmomett is a Pocknett. They first called them Pognet, Popment. The last of all the Pocknetts are from Popmomett! Note that down at the Old Indian Church, you will see “Popmomett” on the old grave stones there, east of the church. Then next to them, you you’ll see the Pocknetts there. So that proves that they were from Popmomett! lou: Let me interrupt you here. You mentioned that . . . for history . . . I’d like to clarify who is the aunt, who are you referring to? Aunt Roxy Mye (1827–1914). mabel: This Aunt Roxy Mye was very, very old. She was an aunt of my father (Willard Pocknett) so she knows she’s very old, because my father died—oh, I don’t know. He’d be upwards of almost a hundred, I guess now?! He was 74 when he died, and he’s been dead about 20 years or something like that! lou: If we can get some years and dates in here we can clarify for the sake of history. mabel: Well I couldn’t tell you just how old (Roxy) would be now but she would be one of the oldest citizens at the time. And in fact, I think she was my father’s great-aunt and not his own aunt. I know she was. Two of the oldest in Mashpee were Aunt Roxy Mye and Aunt Rhodie Sturgis. Aunt Rhodie Sturgis died about 25 years ago and I think she was 96 then. I got a good deal of history from her because she came from the Attaquin family, and that’s one of the oldest in Mashpee. They lived on Mashpee Lake, as did Aunt Rhodie Sturgis or Attaquin. She married an Indian from Herring Pond by the name of William Conant. Her second husband was a white man by the name of William Sturgis. He came from either Hyannis or Barnstable. They believed in funny business. She told that this Indian Lady said, “I’m going to show you—I want you to see your next husband.” She believed it and Aunt Rhodie believed it, and she made me believe it. She said that, this Indian Lady said, I’m going to put some kind of roots and herbs in this potion that I give you. And in this potion, these roots and herbs I...

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