Nestled in the woodlands of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, indigenous and non-indigenous community members gathered Monday afternoon for Sassafras Earth Education’s fifth annual Indigenous People’s Day celebration.
Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, is an official federal holiday, and is acknowledged as a paid holiday in Massachusetts. But many states, cities, and school systems across the country, including Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools, recognize this day off as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This alternative was initially proposed in the 1970s to honor the continent’s indigenous inhabitants who were decimated by European colonization. Columbus Day was established in 1937 in response to discrimination against Italian Americans and to recognize Italian-born Christopher Columbus’ sighting of what became the Americas in 1492.
The event Monday began with a drumming performance by the Black Brook Singers, a traditional musical group comprised of members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Throughout the afternoon, the group’s performances was interspersed with speeches mixed with English and Wôpanâak by several Wamponoag tribal members.
David “Two Arrows” Vanderhoop of the Aquinnah tribe, co-founder of Sassafras Earth Education, voiced his appreciation for the natural and spiritual world surrounding the crowd at the sanctuary, which is named after Chappaquiddick tribal member Felix Kuttashamaquat, who formerly lived on the land in the 1600s.
“I want to give thanks to the clean air and the clean water all around us,” Vanderhoop said. ”I want to give thanks for the spirit that lives in all things, including me, you, and everything that we encounter in the physical.”
Taj Madison, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), shared a poem, titled “Acknowledge,” with the crowd to recognize the enduring presence of indigenous people on the Island.
“I acknowledge the truth that we of the first light are still here. We exist. We matter. Our blood, our words, our silence, our sadness, our joy, and our laughter,” Madison said. “Our love mixes with the earth of Turtle Island.” Wampanoag translates to “People of the First Light.”
Madison urged the crowd to take actions large and small to support indigenous people in their day-to-day lives.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as when you wake up … you give remembrance or you give thanks for the land that you’re on or it’s through supporting organizations like Sassafras or showing up here,” he said.
Alexis Moreis, a council member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Chappaquiddick, emphasized the importance of “decolonizing language” by referring to tribal members’ particular sachemships — the six main Wampanoag communities on the Island: Chappaquiddick, Aquinnah, Takemmy, Nunpaug, Nashawakemuk, and Nobnocket. .
“That’s a nation. That’s a community that’s here that’s living on the land. So to say someone’s a descendant of Wampanoags, that’s erasure. You’re not acknowledging that these communities live here. Our families continue to live here on the land,” Morris said. “It’s really important that when we work within Wampanoag community or any community, that we’re really acknowledging our language and what that means.”
Thomas Fantasia, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), composed a song he dedicated to his mother and other indigenous women.
“My mother was a woman who wasn’t of herself. She was somebody who lived in service of her family and her community … as many of our mothers and grandmothers do throughout the generations,” Fantasia said. “Women have had to endure many things that, as men, we’ll never fully understand or realize … that’s why we sang that song.”
Carole Vandal, a tribal elder of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), emphasized the harm that environmental destruction inflicts upon native people. She highlighted the Vineyard Wind project, a highly controversial offshore wind farm 15 miles from the Island.
“Everything that’s done to harm her and our waters harms us. We are beaten, and in our DNA, comes trauma,” Vandal said. “I say this when I look out from the homestead of our family, and I see the windmills that they promised us we would never see. If it were a treaty, it would be another treaty broken.”
Vandal urged the audience to pay attention to the environmental health of the Earth.
“I want to go back to riding horses and slowing us all down. But if we can’t do that, we should have a way to meditate together and pray together for the strength of our mother,” Vandal said. “When she can’t feed us and when the waters can’t feed us, we as human beings won’t be here.”
