In 1907, the last piece of land belonging to the Wampanoag Tribal Nation, property adjacent to the northeast side of Watuppa Lake in Fall River, Massachusetts, was to become part of the reservoir that currently flows north of Interstate 195. This might well have been the end of the Wampanoag people of Fall River if it hadn’t been for Fannie Perry. She was the third wife of Dr. William Pequot Pellawango Perry, a Native American healer who is the great-great-great-great grandfather of Donna Mitchell. A century ago the city of Fall River pushed Fannie Perry to vacate this land, part of the ancestral home of her people. There were pictures in the local newspapers at the time of Fannie standing defiantly on her front porch protecting her home.
“Living in a time of land-taking, she stood proud and strong to protect her land, home and children from being another statistic in the doings of those whose mission was to control and conquer,” said Donna Mitchell who currently lives to this day on half of the original land trust. Fanny Perry, without any help from other Native families who had left this land more than 100 years ago, was its sole defender. “This story amplifies the strong mind, body and will of the women who married into Perry Clan. She lived life practicing the customs and culture in the traditions of indigenous people.”
In 1911, the Perry Clan was relocated into a vacant home that was moved by oxen to where it stands today. The land is one-half of the more than 190 acres put in trust by the Indian fighter Benjamin Church under the guardianship and trust of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the fourteen families of the Troy/Fall River Wampanoag Peoples. The old Perry structure was the result of years of fighting to retain Native American lands of Fall River given to Fannie Perry so she could raise her four children. The home and land have been passed down to subsequent generations of Perry women who have served as their custodians. As is often the case, matriarchal families like the Perry Clan take on the responsibility of protecting these lands to guarantee its stewardship remains with Dr. Perry’s rightful heirs. Mitchell explained that the next generation of Perry women have already been chosen to continue to live in the home so the land never leaves the family. Today, according to Mitchell, it is the last Native American land in Fall River.
When Tribe visited the Perry homestead, it was filled with the sound of a wooden flute and melodies composed by a Mashpee Wampanoag woman mimicking the ancient styles of her ancestors. Sage from Arizona was warmed in a small tin bowl releasing a fragrance that’s unmistakably of the Earth. Feathers feature prominently in the home’s décor—some for dancing, some for speaking and some, like an eagle feather, were given to her as gifts. There are also several paintings—one of a woman from Mitchell’s dreams and another of a ghostlike white angel protecting the land. Hanging on the walls near the front door and several book-lined shelves, are browning portraits of William and Fannie, each wearing steely gazes. The portraits are covered in bowl-shaped glass and hang in circular antique frames.
For Mitchell, who is of Wampanoag, Cherokee and African descent, these items are sacred. They are symbols of her connection with the Wampanoag people and it is her responsibility not only as a Wampanoag but also as a woman upholding the values and traditions of her people. Women are tasked with passing down wisdom, life lessons, trade skills and crafts like basket weaving to the next generation. Preservation of Mitchell’s heritage takes the form of poetry and art. It is with these practices that Mitchell communicates the spirituality of the Wampanoag people.
Mitchell describes the land as a gift from the “Creator,” a gift that contains everything required for human survival: sustenance, lessons of morality and materials needed to live. The Wampanoag people and all indigenous peoples, according to Mitchell, use the name “Mother Earth” to describe the land upon which they live. Female energy is the key to the continuation of life. “Most things come from the mother,” Mitchell said. “Life happens in the womb. Mother Earth is our womb, and night is when the seed gets nourished and finds its way above the ground.”
Mitchell, also known as Minoweh Ikidowin (“Cloud in the Wind” in Algonquin), told Tribe that spirituality, a shared trait of all indigenous people of the United States, is the focus of her poetry. Specifically, words are her way of explaining how she understands nature and her relation to it. “Indigenous people not only observe what’s around us. We are reflections of what we see.” The creator puts everything on Mother Earth to teach us, according to Mitchell, not the other way around. She believes that people are elements—not unlike the chemical elements of the periodic table—put on Earth to protect the dynamics that exist in nature.
Dr. Joyce Rain Anderson, an assistant professor of English at Bridgewater State University and the school’s U.S. Ethnic Studies Coordinator, said Native American women are survivors and this features in “everything we do.” Anderson told Tribe, “We feel a responsibility to hold things together, for our ancestors and for the next generation.” Anderson describes how wampum, the deep purple coloration inside a quahog shell, is used by Wampanoag artisans to create jewelry and ceremonial belts. It is a sacred medium and a gift of nature, not only for its beauty but also in the food inside each shell. Traditionally, being “gifted” a piece of wampum was a symbol, the dual nature of the shell and its connection with the Earth.
Anderson said that connection to tradition always surfaces in the work of modern day indigenous artisans, whether in peace or under duress. She expressed to Tribe how the Blackfeet women of Montana used flowers to create a symbol known as a trianglein rather than using customary beads. It was their way of defying the missionaries who discouraged use of the symbol. “This ‘survivance’ [survival and resistance] strategy is one example of how native peoples dealt with colonizing forces.” When times are not tense, Anderson said, artisans are free to express the reflections of Native American beliefs. “Work is often circular, showing a cycle of life or the interrelationship of all things, telling a story,” she said. Among the pieces Anderson described was a hand-woven bag, created by Wampanoag artisan Kerri Helme Boardley, which tells the story of Wampanoag whaler Amos Smalley harpooning a white whale.
Penny Gamble-Williams is an artist of mixed heritage consisting of Chappaquiddick Wampanoag, Alabama Creek, African and European ancestry. She uses acrylics, oil crayons and charcoal in her work. Gamble-Williams also creates collages using sticks, shells, leaves, sand, deerskin and other materials. While her background is reflected in her work, she told Tribe that her Native American heritage and connection to nature bond her art to her spirituality. Growing up, she spent time in city environments as well as in rural settings in Cape Cod and the Narragansett Bay area. “The energy of the land and the beauty of these places,” she said, “always had an influence on my creativity.”
Art has always been used to keep the beliefs of the Wampanoag and all Native Americans alive and thriving. Donna Mitchell is among those that go beyond creating this art. She teaches others of the Native American experience as part of the We The Peoples project. Organized through the Massachusetts Archeological Society’s Robbins Museum in Middleboro, the project’s goal is to inform and guide elementary and secondary school teachers on ways to teach the history of the American Indian from the perspective of indigenous peoples. This includes talking about the nurturing aspects of the large peach tree outside her dining room window and discussing how tradition shows itself every day among modern-day asphalt and automobiles. “When I see a squirrel heading toward the front of my car, I see it as a message from my ancestors. They’re telling me it’s better to get there alive, so slow down,” she said smiling.
