Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England

Notes

Notes 489 After careful investigation and reviewing Phineas’s claims about the oak tree and the turtle, some of us heard the voices that he spoke of. The turtle’s ability to hear the voices can be explained rather simply: Turtles, being such simple and earthy creatures, can probably hear these voices because they have little else going on in their minds to distract them. We’ve come to the conclusion that the power that Phineas spoke of was the tree itself. Based on this report, the Snake Circle appointed all existing meetinghouses that were not made of oak to be torn down and replaced with oak structures. They also changed the procedure of the meeting: the snakes and congregation would gather in the oak meetinghouses and sit silently waiting for the voices to manifest. As quietly as they sat, all they heard was silence. Meanwhile, Blind Turtle and the other animals continued to gather under the oak tree. Blind Turtle gave thanks to the ancestors for their wisdom and guidance, thanks to the trees, bushes, and grass for conveying this wisdom, and thanks to the crickets and small birds who sat in the tree and conversed on the days that Phineas and the members of the Snake Circle visited the oak tree. To this day, you can still find snakes silently sitting among a meetinghouse congregation waiting to hear the voices. Notes 1. Mittark was the sachem at Gay Head from the 1660s to the 1680s. Nashaquitsa is land connecting Aquinnah to the rest of Martha’s Vineyard. The Gay Head community was initially hostile to Christianity, but Mittark convinced them to allow a mission. David Silverman has published an analysis of this petition in Early Native Literacies in New England, ed. Kristina Bross and Hilary Wyss. 2. The petition was written by the minister Zachary Hossueit, one of the most practiced writers in the community. 3. This petition was also written by Zachary Hossueit. 4. Elisha Amos was Mittark’s great-grandson. Daniel Mandell writes in Behind the Frontier that Amos “was unable to gain in Gay Head . . . even after he persuaded the English to appoint him as the enclave’s justice of the peace” (103). 5. “That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared.” 6. Hammond was the first Native American in Massachusetts to hold this seat in the General Court of the Commonwealth. According to Simeon Deyo’s History 490 wampanoag of Barnstable County, Hammond was born in 1837 and married Blind Joe Amos’s daughter Rebecca, with whom he had six children. 7. Mourt’s Relation is a famous colonial account, written in 1620 and 1621 by the Puritans Edward Winslow and William Bradford, about the settlement of Plymouth and the “First Thanksgiving.” 8. The spelling of his name has varied over time; Peters uses an older spelling, while scholars today more often use “Apess.” Further Reading wampanoag authors Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe. “Wampanoag Tribe: History & Culture.” Web. 21 July 2011. Attaquin, Helen. A Brief History of Gay Head or “Aquinuh.” n.p.: Helen Attaquin, 1970. Print. Attaquin, Helen, and Children’s Museum of Boston. Wampanoag Cookery. Boston: American Science & Engineering, 1974. Print. Avant, Joan Tavares. “Now, and Always, Wampanoag.” Cultural Survival Quarterly 30.2 (Summer 2006): n. pag. Web. 29 July 2011. —. People of the First Light: Wisdoms of a Mashpee Wampanoag Elder. West Barnstable ma: West Barnstable Press, 2010. Print. —. “With Intent to Civilize.” Cultural Survival Quarterly 3:1 (2010): n. pag. Web. 29 July 2011. Baird, Jessie Little Doe. “Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project.” Web. 10 June 2011. Bingham, Amelia. Mashpee: Land of the Wampanoags. Mashpee ma: Mashpee Historical Commission, 1970. Print. —. Seaweed’s Revelation: A Wampanoag Clan Mother in Contemporary America. San Diego: GGBing Publishing, 2012. Print. Coombs, Linda. “The Flow of Time and Seasons: Wampanoag Foodways in the Seventeenth Century.” Plimoth Life 4.1 (2005): 13–19. Print. —. “Holistic History: Including the Wampanoag in an Exhibit at Plimoth Plantation .” Plimoth Life 1.2 (2002): 12–15. Print. —. Powwow. Cleveland oh: Modern Curriculum Press, 1992. Print. —. Rev. of Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Cultural Survival Quarterly 31.1 (Spring 2007): n. pag. Web. —. “A Wampanoag Perspective on Colonial House.” Plimoth Life 3.1 (2004): 24– 28. Print. DeGrasse, Alfred. “About Poison Ivy.” Carlisle Arrow 23 Apr. 1909: n. pag. Print. —. “The Legend of the Red Eagle.” Red Man Mar. 1911: 297–98. Print. —. “Letter about Watson Hammond.” Red Man Mar. 1912: n. pag...