Before going to my grave I have thought it proper to be heard in behalf of my oppressed countrymen, and I now, through the medium of the printing press…speak to the understanding and sense of justice of the reading public.

— ZERVIAH GOULD MITCHELL, Indian History, Biography & Genealogy (North Abington, MA, 1878)

I have always been taught that the legends are things that are not just stories. Legends are our ancestors’ way of teaching the history….the things that they needed the next generation to know. The legends teach me that we have always been here.

— TOBIAS VANDERHOOP, Aquinnah Wampanoag

“Research and writing… [are] positive ways in which we can valance the scale of history and establish pride in the Wampanoag identity.”

– Russell Peters,
former Pilgrim Society Trustee and Mashpee Tribal Council President, 1997

The colonial encounter was devastating for the Wampanoag people. They survived and continued to live where they had always been. But for a long time, their presence was made invisible.

For generations, Wampanoag existence was obscured by a society that viewed them as a vanquished, disappearing or even extinct people, identified only with the colonial past. Officials erased Wampanoag identity by classifying individuals as not “Indian” if they intermarried with other races. Negative stereotypes of Native people proliferated. Many institutions prohibited the expression of Native culture, including language.

In the late 1800s, Wampanoag men and women began to reclaim their history and sense of identity. Zerviah Gould Mitchell, a descendant of Massasoit, was a strong voice for Native rights and Wampanoag heritage. Deeply knowledgeable about her culture, she taught her daughters local traditions, including basketry, healing and divining skills, and respect for lineage and land. In 1878, she published an influential volume of Wampanoag history.

The modern Wampanoag community continues to face misconceptions that they no longer exist as a people. The “extinction narrative” is part of a long history of the suppression and erasure of Native culture. To counter this persistent myth, many contemporary Wampanoag people embrace the expression, We are still here.

Today’s Wampanoag community includes the people of Aquinnah, Mashpee, Herring Pond, Assonet, Chappaquiddick, Pocasset, Pokanoket, and Seekonk. Both the Aquinnah (Gay Head) Wampanoag Tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe have received federal recognition, in 1987 and 2007 respectively. Prior to European contact and disease, the Wampanoag Nation was comprised of 69 known villages, and more than 70,000 people. Today the total Wampanoag population including all groups is approximately 5,000.