By Hartman Deetz (Mashpee Wampanoag)
Indian John, a Wampanoag, was taken captive in Massachusetts in 1676 throughout King Philip’s Battle (June 20, 1675 – April 12, 1678) and bought into slavery in Bermuda. He resisted his slave masters, finally trying his escape and the homicide of his captors. In 1681, John stole his grasp’s musket and pistol and ran out to the yard. He fired the musket within the air, and when his captors got here operating out, he aimed the pistol and had a misfire. Quickly after, John was captured and sentenced to be drawn and quartered. His head and physique elements have been impaled on pikes and displayed in notable locations to function a warning to others who may need been pondering to observe go well with.
Chief Metacom’s, a.ok.a. King Philip’s combat in opposition to the colonists in the end ended with the drawing, quartering, and show of his personal physique. For the survivors of King Philip’s Battle, or extra appropriately, Metacom’s Battle, this will need to have been notably pertinent—particularly to Metacom’s spouse and son, who have been rumored to even be enslaved in Bermuda. So the story was advised to us by St. Clair “Brinky” Tucker on the website of Indian John’s execution in Bermuda.
As Mashpee Wampanoag Peoples, we’re privileged to stay on our historical ancestral homelands. A few of our neighboring Tribes, such because the Chappaquiddick Wampanoags, have been totally dispossessed of their homeland acre by acre, foot by foot. The folks of Brotherton have been relocated to New York after their lands have been bought from below them, then relocated once more to Wisconsin. Our folks have been unfold throughout the globe as harpooners on whaling ships to New Zealand, Peru, and even Alaska. Nonetheless others, reminiscent of our cousins in Bermuda, have been forcibly eliminated in bondage.
These relocation experiences are frequent tales of Indigenous Peoples within the face of colonization. This previous June, I had the nice privilege to participate in a far much less frequent expertise—that of reconnecting with family separated for over 300 years. The biannual occasion of Bermuda’s St. David’s Reconnection Day has been occurring since 2002, and since that first event I’ve been keen to hitch in. This 12 months, I lastly had my likelihood. It was a full occasion together with a tour of serious areas on the island, a potluck and social, in addition to the primary occasion: the reconnection powwow, which featured conventional Jap Woodlands songs in addition to extra modern powwow kinds of dance and the infusion of Caribbean traditions of the Warwick Gombey Dance Troupe.
Coming to St. David’s felt just like the household reunion that it actually is. The work of reconnection was a bridge constructed from either side and fixed collectively the place we met within the center. For Native folks from New England, a lot of the analysis had been spearheaded by the late Tall Oak Weeden in a seek for what occurred to Metacom’s spouse and son after his demise on the finish of the struggle. The rumor that they have been bought into slavery in Bermuda was persistent however unverified; a lot of what exists within the courtroom information are the debates over whether or not Metacom’s 12-year-old son needs to be executed or enslaved as punishment for being the son of the chief who fought in opposition to the crown of England. The reply was not within the courtroom file nor in any ship manifest. The intention of the crown to sever Metacom’s household strains and bonds left no information, no courtroom ruling or judgment. The argument for execution centered round fears that Metacom’s son or different descendants may probably return and rise once more.
This bureaucratic erasure is bolstered by the scant proof that exists in Bermuda. Within the church graveyard, which was established within the 1600s and continues to be in use, there’s a part of the cemetery for enslaved African and Native American folks. Right this moment, as you stroll among the many graves and headstones, you may as well see the place gates and porticos have been walled over in years previous. On this difficult setting, the late Ina Christina Lugo endeavored to seek out the roots of her folks, sometimes called the St. David’s Mohawks. She began with a household tree saved within the again pages of a household bible; important information have been saved by the neighborhood itself.
Simply because it was in New England, the rumors that carried throughout generations proved what the official information wished to cover. Tax information usually listed enslaved folks as property with no title—simply age, gender, and generally race. However the tales got here anyway, that individuals have been descended from “the true Thanksgiving Indians, the folks of Massasoit and his son, Metacom, who rebelled in opposition to the English. After the struggle, [Metacom’s son] was despatched right here with 80 members of his household,” defined Kevin Watts of St. David’s. Metacom’s son was recognized and acknowledged by his kin and countrymen, “however there have been others right here earlier than him who had been introduced after their village was burned,” Watts stated. The place the State referred to as them Mohawks, Lugo knew there was extra fact within the rumor that they have been truly Pequots.
Weeden’s and Lugo’s analysis each managed to carry on to that promise of household—these bonds of blood that we’ll not neglect, our family members, our kin. Finally, a reconnection was made, and the lacking items got here collectively to create a transparent image for either side. For these of us left behind, we all know the place our family who have been taken into the darkish holds of slave ships after the Pequot bloodbath and King Philip’s Battle ended up, even the household line of Metacom himself. For these taken in captivity to Bermuda, we will confirm that the tales match, that they do certainly come from us.
They appear like us, too; generally remarkably so. Ishta Nuper Paynter of St. David’s discovered on various events that individuals approached him as if he have been Man Simonds from the Pequot Tribe, whereas Kevin Watts is usually mistaken for Larry. Paynter advised me, “We at all times knew that we have been of Indian blood however we have been by no means allowed to rejoice our tradition.” One of many stops on the preliminary tour of St. David’s included the place of Darkish Backside, the place, within the preliminary years of being delivered to Bermuda, the folks carved out a hole within the densest wooded valley, the place even in the course of the day the valley was nonetheless darkish. It was right here, in Darkish Backside, that they have been in a position to maintain onto their ceremony and tradition. For them, these practices have been outlawed simply as they have been for us right here at dwelling. Paynter commented, “Now these youngsters, this technology, is allowed to develop up with their tradition. They’re allowed to rejoice it, and we did not at all times have that.”
On either side, we have now endured centuries of hardship to carry on to who we’re from technology to technology. Simply as Weeden and Lugo adopted the tales and notes of the ancestors, they’ve now adopted them to the opposite aspect, turning into ancestors, too. A lot of the work of documenting and researching this historical past has fallen on the shoulders of Tucker, who has traveled to New England many instances and is an everyday on the New England powwow circuit. He was usually discovered sitting within the shade, swapping tales with Tall Oak or the late Chief Silent Drum. In 2009, he printed a e-book in regards to the true identification of the St. David’s folks and has been on the heart of the reconnection celebrations since 2002.
It was highly effective as a dancer, as a historian, as a Wampanoag, to see Tucker on his personal floor, to see the locations and listen to the tales of his folks the place they landed. In case you consider in spirit, you’ll be able to solely think about what these 20 years of ready will need to have been like in comparison with the 350 years separating these communities bonded by blood. These lacking elements of us are actually present in one another. Within the Native world, compelled relocation and assimilation by way of boarding colleges, foster care, and slavery have separated so many people. To cite Lenord Crow Canine, “Nothing is ever actually misplaced; you simply have to return and search for it.” Tradition and custom, these are issues which can be handed from one technology to the subsequent. These items bond us as a lot as blood and kinship.
–Hartman Deetz (Mashpee Wampanoag) has been energetic in environmental and cultural stewardship for over 20 years. He’s a conventional artist in addition to a singer and dancer, having proven his artwork in galleries and carried out for audiences from coast to coast throughout the U.S. He’s presently a 2023-2024 Cultural Survival Author in Residence.
