The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) flag could soon be flying at a number of Martha’s Vineyard schools.
Last week, the Up-Island Regional School Committee gave its unanimous endorsement for flying the flag — which depicts the legend Moshop holding a whale in front of the Cliffs — at the West Tisbury and Chilmark schools, though committee members are still working through the logistics.
Brad Lopes, an Aquinnah tribe member who works with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe education department, brought the request to the up-Island committee last week; he said it’s part of a larger effort to raise more awareness of the tribe’s sovereignty, and would help build pride for tribal youth.
“There’s a lot of power when a student has the opportunity to see themselves in education, and not just the curriculum, but in the structure itself,” Lopes told The Times. “We want our families and kids to be heard and seen in our schools.”
Lopes works in the Mashpee public schools, and said that all three — K.C. Coombs, Quashnet, and Mashpee Middle–High School — fly the purple and white flags of the local Wampanoag tribe. He said that’s a small but meaningful gesture to the Wampanoag students.
Lopes said that they are starting small on the Island, but that the initiative could grow to other schools as well. He said he is already working with the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School to fly the flag at its West Tisbury campus, and said that he would be open to talking with the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School as well.
“This is a great effort for tribal sovereignty, and I’m excited to see it move forward,” Lopes said.
At last week’s school committee meeting, while the committee endorsed the idea, it is still looking into how it would work. School officials said that building a completely new pole could be as expensive as $20,000, as was the case at the Tisbury School. They also considered flying the flag on the existing poles.
The principal of the West Tisbury School is expected to be before the town’s select board on Wednesday to receive permission to fly the Wampanoag flag. In a letter to the board, she noted that it would help honor the Tribe’s “enduring presence.”
“Flying this Tribal Flag would not only honor the sovereignty of the Wampanoag Nation but
would also be an educational symbol for our students, reminding them daily of the importance
of respect, inclusion and historical awareness,” Lowell-Bettencourt wrote. “It would offer a visible sign of our community’s commitment to recognizing and celebrating the people whose heritage continues to shape Martha’s Vineyard.”
It’s easy to overlook symbols until they’re missing.
The Aquinnah Wampanoag flag is more than a piece of cloth—it’s a quiet reminder that this Island’s story didn’t begin with ferries and vacation homes, but with people whose roots reach back thousands of years.
The effort to raise that flag at our schools isn’t about politics; it’s about acknowledgment, respect, and truth. For centuries, the Wampanoag people have carried this land’s history, language, and stewardship with dignity and strength.
Flying their flag is a simple act with deep meaning—one that tells every Island child, Native or not, that belonging here includes understanding where “here” began and who came before. It’s also an invitation for gratitude: that we live, learn, and raise families on ancestral ground that still holds memory and meaning.
I hope this gesture spreads beyond Aquinnah and West Tisbury, not because it checks a box, but because it lifts a shared pride in who we are as a community.
Sometimes the smallest act—like a flag in the wind—can quietly do the biggest kind of teaching, if we’re paying attention.
Nicely stated, Murray!
The Wampanoag flag should be flown proudly all over the vineyard. They were the first people of the island and we should all learn and celebrate their culture.
Hats off to the wise and respectful decision of the West Tisbury and Chilmark schools to fly the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah flag. The principal of the West Tisbury School, Lowell-Bettencourt, in her letter to the town’s Select Board eloquently summed up the deep meaning of this intention when she wrote, “Flying this Tribal Flag would not only honor the sovereignty of the Wampanoag Nation but
would also be an educational symbol for our students, reminding them daily of the importance
of respect, inclusion and historical awareness. It would offer a visible sign of our community’s commitment to recognizing and celebrating the people whose heritage continues to shape Martha’s Vineyard…..(“and honors their enduring presence”) among us. Beautifully stated! I am hopeful that all Island schools will follow their suit, if not other public places as well.
Murray Harvey’s comment also is a wonderfully stated reflection about how this symbolic gesture is a silent but very unmistakable signal of appreciation and solidarity with the First People whose presence on this Island of Noepe dates back to over 12,000 years ago. It is also a present day, long overdue attempt to apologize for the wrongful treatment they received at the hands of many newcomers to their home in more recent centuries.