'Look Where We Are Here Today:' Native American Thanks Giving Brings Community Together
The pews at the Old Indian Meetinghouse were packed full on Saturday morning, November 23, as more than 70 community members came together for the 18th Annual Native American Thanks Giving Celebration.
As attendees continued to trickle in, Mashpee Wampanoag Medicine Man Earl (Soaring Eagle) Cash Jr. lit sage to cleanse the space before beginning his remarks. The light rain falling from a gray sky served as an antithetical backdrop to the ceremony taking place within the centuries-old walls of the meetinghouse, where people were coming together from all corners of the community to celebrate a simple yet important concept: “We Gather Together.”
“A lot of times we get so caught up in the outside world that we don’t really have the time to take a look at what’s really, really important—that time with your family,” Mr. Cash said. “I like to start by saying I give thanks for this time here on Turtle Island, and I give thanks for my elders and my family, my brothers and my sisters.”
Mr. Cash emphasized the importance of each individual within a community—men, women, and children, young and old—being present and open to the circle of togetherness that, in turn, strengthens all who form it.
“There are a lot of times when we get together, so this is a good opportunity for us to be able to sing with one another, be with one another, and, what I love the most, share our medicine,” he said. “That’s something I feel is so important because we’re all given gifts when we’re first born, but how good is that gift if you don’t share it with other people? When you share those gifts with one another, it helps make our circle stronger as a people.”
Wampanoag tradition honors the idea that Indigenous peoples have a responsibility to preserve their lands and culture for seven generations to come. In 1996, former Wampanoag Medicine Man John (Slow Turtle) Peters is quoted as saying: “From the very beginning man was made clear that his task was to preserve the land for those to come. We speak of seven generations; each Indian understood what his or her responsibility was to care for the land for generations to come.”
Speaking on Saturday, Mr. Cash took a moment to speak about the children in the room and in the community.
“Right there is our future,” he said. “What are we going to leave them? Think about that for a minute. It almost brings tears to my eyes when I think about the world today. But I can say to you that we’re strong, we’re Wampanoag, and we will persevere.”
Mr. Cash and the next speaker, Deacon Wayne Jackson of the Mashpee Baptist Church, both emphasized the perseverance of the Tribe and its people, for not just surviving but for maintaining their culture and reviving parts of it that were lost, such as the reclamation of the Wôpanâak language.
“When I was younger, we didn’t have our language,” Mr. Jackson said. “It always bothered me; that bothered me every day. And now we have our language back; our kids are doing it in school, and I’m thankful for that.”
Later in the ceremony the Eastern Cedar Singers group—who said they are learning the language through song—gave a beautiful performance of “Ancestor Song” in the traditional Wôpanâak language. The Elders Language Class shared a Thanksgiving prayer, also in Wôpanâak.
“What you heard just now is extraordinary,” Mr. Jackson said after the Elders Language Class’s prayer. “Don’t ever make it ordinary. Don’t ever say, ‘Oh, it’s just our language, it’s just a prayer.’ What you just heard is extraordinary, and when you hear it, your heart should be pumping harder every time, as it does with me. It’s so important. When you’ve never had something and you get it back, you hold on to it.”
The ceremony also included a reading of “23rd Psalm Hymn,” delivered by Vickie Wakanabo, and a reading of a poem written by Mabel Avant by her great-granddaughter Anita Peters.
Following Mr. Jackson’s remarks and a welcome from Tribal Council Chairman Brian Weeden, everyone in attendance participated in a prayer song offered by the chairman to honor the four directions—beginning in the east, where the sun rises, and ending with the south, as the People Of The First Light believe that “when our spirits journey on, they travel to the southwest where Kiehtan [the Great Creator of the Wampanoag] is, and that’s why when we pray and bury our people, we usually face them toward the southwest,” Mr. Weeden explained.
“I’m so proud to be Wampanoag, let me tell you,” Mr. Cash said. “It just pours out of my pores, how much I love our people… We are a fighting people. Look where we are here today. And we’re not even supposed to be here.”
Mr. Jackson shared similar remarks, saying he is thankful to have been born Wampanoag.
“My ancestors are here,” he said, “they’ve always been here, and if they could speak right now, they’d say ‘I’m glad you’re still here.’”
For many Indigenous people, Mr. Weeden said, Thanksgiving is every day.
“We’re thankful for waking up, we’re thankful for the roof that we have over our head and the food that nourishes our body and our mind and our spirit,” he said. “This year, I’m particularly thankful for our community. And when I talk about our community, I don’t just talk about our Tribal community. I talk about our community because I see so many of you here—town officials, select board members, different personnel from the town, different departments, different congregations and people that have come. And we’ve shared this place with you all for the past couple hundreds of years and we’ve welcomed you. That’s the way our ancestors always did.”
The first Thanksgiving, the Tribal chairman continued, did not happen the way many people are taught to believe. The English were sick, he said, and the help of the People Of The First Light aided them in their time of need.
“We greeted the pilgrims and we helped them, and that’s how this great nation was started, they say,” Mr. Weeden said, “and we’re really grateful for everybody, because it’s all of our ancestors together, and we’re paving the way for the future generations.”
The meetinghouse, which has stood for over 335 years as the oldest Native American church in the United States, has been “the nucleus of our community for hundreds and hundreds of years,” Mr. Weeden said.
The world today needs unity, Mr. Jackson continued, but the world “cannot be one unless we all come together as one with one thing in mind: peace on this Earth.” He took a moment to thank the people in attendance that rainy morning, Tribal and non-Tribal alike.
“We [Tribal members] actually can say that with you [non-Indigenous community members], we’re stronger,” Mr. Jackson said, “because… there are a lot of things being passed and we need everyone’s support. So when you see us, see us. See this. See this about us. Because no one, not one band of people has ever loved this Earth more, ever.”
A lot of things have happened to their people, Mr. Cash said, but the Mashpee Wampanoag have been “fighters all our lives.” They find strength in each other, he said, and in the community that rallies around them.
He ended his remarks with a piece of advice for all: “In our journey here on Earth,” he said, “squeeze as much as you can out of it—because it was given to us for a purpose.”