“They say themselves, that they have sprung and growne up in that very place, like the very trees of the Wildernesse.”

— Roger Williams, Key to the Indian Language (London, 1643)

“We name ourselves after the land we live with… [Whatever is] in the soil…in that water, is in us. So we are all one thing, and we name ourselves after the place that is our nurturing.”

— Ramona Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag

Wampanoag means people of the first light or people of the east. For thousands of years, the Wampanoag people have lived in the coastal regions of southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the Islands, and eastern Rhode Island. There were many separate Wampanoag communities, known by the names of the places they inhabited, such as Mashpee, Aquinnah, Patuxet, and Pokanoket.

Reciprocity and interdependence shaped Wampanoag society. Family and kinship ties were valued. Lineage and inheritance passed through women, including hereditary leadership positions. Each Wampanoag community had its own leader or sachem. Confederations of several villages could be formed as needed to deal with shared concerns.

Sachems monitored community boundaries, held councils with elders, warriors, and clan mothers to consider major issues, and were responsible for caring for people in need.

The Wampanoag people lived here for 13,000 years or more before the arrival of Europeans dramatically unsettled and reshaped their existence. They continue to live in the region today.

Today’s Wampanoag community includes the people of Aquinnah, Mashpee, Herring Pond, Assonet, Chappaquiddick, Pocasset, Pokanoket, and Seekonk. The current Wampanoag population, including all groups, is approximately 5,000 people. Both Aquinnah and Mashpee received federal recognition, in 1987 and 2007 respectively. In 2025, the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe was officially recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.