##VIDEO ID:xxokLaRpUvc## on the coastal Waters of the Southshore there are the ancestral homelands of the Wampa noag tribe prior to colonization by the English the Wampanoag inhabited the waterways marshes and forests that surround Plymouth Mass the name Wampanoag derives from wapan which means people of the first light a fitting name for a tribe that lived where the Sun would rise over Massachusetts Bay each morning prior to English contact in the 17th century the Wampanoag numbered as many as 40,000 people living across 67 Villages composing the Wampanoag Nation these Villages covered the territory along the east coast as far as Wes auset today called Waymouth all of what is now Cape Cod and the islands of nit and noepe now called Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard and Southeast as far as Pocono now Bristol and Warren Rhode Island the Wampa noag lived on this land for over 12,000 years on Thursday October 17th the riv Human Rights Commission and students and staff from R Public Schools set out to gain a deeper appreciation for our local Native American history and culture by traveling to Sacred indigenous lands in Plymouth that were home to the the thriving Wampanoag tribe led by strong Oak leev executive director and co-founder of the visioning Bear Circle intertribal Coalition Inc the group first traveled to Plymouth puet and later to the tidm mar sanctuary in Native American culture strong Oak is a symbolic name representing strength resilience wisdom and Longevity often used to signify a person with a strong character deeply rooted in their Community much like the physical qualities of an oak tree itself it is considered a powerful and positive symbol across many tribes the purpose of the visit was to understand the struggles the indigenous people have endured over the centuries of colonization while recognizing the strength resilience and survival of their cultures histories and communities the exposure to the indigenous land of allowed the group to travel back in time and connect with the spirit and soul of those who lived on this land before the arrival of the Europeans reflect on the inaccurate and false narratives taught in our textbooks for centuries and Foster cross-cultural understanding and appreciation for the indigenous cultures and their rights to ancestral lands before entering Plymouth pit strong Oak gathered the group for a tobacco ceremony Native American tribes have used tobacco for Spiritual and medicinal purposes for Generations it is Central to indigenous culture spirituality and healing as strong Oak explains tobacco is one of the four medicines given to walk in balance with all beings on Mother Earth we offer tobacco to our relatives we ask permission to walk among them wherever we go here the group watches the ancient art of constructing a michon or canoe for Wampanoag families mishun Boats were invaluable tools for fishing trading and transportation the most common michon style was a Dugout constructed from a single Pine Chestnut or oak tree michun are shaped using fire stone axes and various other scrap tools at Plymouth pit the group met modern-day native people some are woak while some are from other native nations the group talks about the way of life and a culture that continues to thrive with a contemporary interpreter from the museum The Interpreter shows the group the rabbit stew he is preparing using traditional methods and local ingredients found in Plymouth like wild onion and other vegetables a a wetu is a domed Hut used by Northeastern Native American tribes such as wanoa they provide shelter sometimes seasonal or temporary for families living near the wooded Coast as they hunt and fish witas are made from sticks of the red cedar tree and the frame is covered with tree bar or mats made from grass or Reeds these structures could last up to 15 years before the trib's clan would move to another part of their ancestral homelands and ow the Earth to rejuvenate so this kind of model is still happening and um like this one like they leave it and come back after 45 years when they do the other lodges now for the teaching lodges they're up for about 3 years and then they take them down in a sacred way then they build back up again so this is like kind of throughout Canada cuz this whole area was kind of um in the migration going down we were supposed to get to the place where the where the food grows on the water where the white rice goes we were all supposed to migrate and then the prophecies told us we were supposed to do that remember I shared that with you tidm Marsh sanctuary in plymouth's Manet section is within the region of the Wampanoag tribe who in earlier times maintained a fishing Weir at the mouth of Bartlett's Pond nearby its Outlet to the sea is sometimes known as Herring Brook the name manomet means bearing of a burden referring to the baskets used by the Wampa Nook on Trails between their settlements at pit Plymouth and Cape con the largest freshwater ecological restoration ever completed in the Northeast took place at this site converting a working cranberry Farm to a wildlife preserve among the many benefits were the return of river Herring and muskrat back to beaverdam Brook after a long absence yeah you can go change the world if you're not changing yourself I believe did Creator we are gathered here today firstmost with gra gratitude for the beauty of creation which we are just one part of um we are connected to all life forms and in particular we have reverence for the natural world and we learn and we heal much when we're in the natural we out in nature um grandmothers grandfathers four directions elements um we're here today to gather together to walk upon this land and um we just give it's just we're just we just have so much gratitude that's mostly what we have may we have permission to walk and be with you we have a tobacco Sy offering here before you go get started these are actually tobacco seeds oh that we oh thank you you play it you know and half four hours I don't have any to thank you so much grandmother would you a place for where we're going to so for everyone to be able to um just want to yeah we have I think um that we're on your territory here your visitors to visitors of the Heron W who've been here for 15,000 years and um and be good if we could each say our name you know like um you we are rown as and we come here as a visitor and we ask perion that we be able to empty your LS anybody would like to have some yes I'll pass mine around here you take it in your left hand you won't exp Clos it to your heart or take it it out yeah take it out which I was bad and suppos to do that yeah whenever we do serite we always take the tobacco and closest to your heart is very reason there's always a reason reason if you want to say your name or something you can hurt a word or two right very in love with us say something yes well I'm I am thankful and I'm grateful to be on this land and I appreciate the grandmother grandfather for the Seventh Generation for letting us be here on this land and welcoming all of us so for as I thankful everybody's got character you can I'll walk with you yep if you want to say a little something when you drop it that's fine we go slow land that isn't inherently ours just means that we have to take care of it more um we have this sense that if something is mine I could know I could treat it however way I want it to treat it but the fact that this L isn't our just me we have to take care of it a lot more um and that's something that we have to spread that message to interv it's kind of it will take some time but this is the first step is just putting our ourselves in this position to really be vulnerable and now like the next step is to take whatever we learn here and really um uh disseminate that within the community so I can't wait till we continue discussing about what happened today but I am over I'm really happy the fact that we're all here as a family um I think at this point in the HRC history we are indeed a family so yeah I just want to thank everyone for that all right so first I'd like to thank strong VK also uh likewise like many others have already expressed thank you for being here thank you for being here for being traveling three hours in a row uh GA thank you for your wisdom I learned that g uh served as a nurse 48 years that's a long time and it's another profession also that likely um all the professionals there the nursing profession is very important so uh and also I would like to thank all the Commissioners for being here Steve uh from the city uh ask uh ask you know we're from the city as well and everybody and torney um yeah Molly for being here you know this is John for covering this event this wonderful event he's been here with us uh since probably 7 7 a.m. thank you so uh this is a day for deep reflection uh what I have experienced on this land is amazing personally and I hope collectively we all have experienced that um I just looking around I see the trees uh I see the ground I see marks I see Stones I see everything things that probably you don't see every day because every day you are either in school in the four walls or you all there doing something else so what I can say is that uh the Lessons Learned uh from this trip today uh will be the foundation work uh as we pursue our visioning of building a strong a able community in Rivier reier needs us Rivier needs people like this uh you know to pursue or to push the work forward there's no other way around it we have students joining us now uh there's a lot of Education that we need to do we have come a long way in rever there's a lot of things that positive that taking place in our city uh that's something we have to acknowledge uh but I think we considering our demographic changes and the the number of students and families that we have in our city it is important to continue to push the envelope this is the beauty of our city and also for the human right commission so we have to keep the respect and the love and this is this is the important thing and also to bring this to the community and to our next Generation we when we look around yes we I see this land we all came from this land we have the same skin you know what I mean so I love this and I I'm happy that I will be able to go back and even tell my kids about my experience today so thank you again reflecting upon today and putting it all into perspective it the Nuance that it adds to The Narrative of the founding of our country really puts into perspective that um the freedom uh the very Freedom we feel like looking around this reservation um it shows that it it really puts into perspective that it came at a cost um the cost of lives of indigenous people um and how it was taken over so hos so um really being here and being away from the city it it's really Mindful and really brings a lot of peace to your mind while at the same time it makes you realize how the freedom that we preach every day of living in this country came at such a volatile cost I am so grateful to have been invited to be here to be a part of this circle to have people listen to my work words to speak about issues about inclusivity as an uh immigration attorney advocating that people be treated equally um when they are migrants in an area I'm honored to be able to come back to indigenous land and be uplifted by indigenous people in this quest for equality for everyone and equal treatment on land that isn't even ours to be regulating I am reminded about where I'm from where I was born uh when I visit such sacred land and I'm so pleased to hear from my fellow Commissioners about how we're all reminded about something being in this land and it really is something that I wish we could bring back and give to our community in rever and remind people to join us that it's nice to be included but it's it's essential to be included and through that inclusivity we're really getting to a place of belonging for everyone so thank you so much to my elders that shared thank you for that song that you would share your wisdom that you would know that we need you the younger generations and that the younger Generations would listen that you would listen and take it in continue to share I think especially being here and being here with you today um and just everything that we wit um it just it's adding to that I think um like being able to knowing that I'm going back to a space that Prides itself in quite literally claiming land that was public before and then colonized and then made public afterwards when it was never our land to begin with never our space to even make it public again that we're all part of the problem and we're all part of the solution too because like when things happen in front of us and we don't address it which happens a lot where people are afraid to say their truth or speak um their experience because they're afraid of things that could happen even the woman today who was afraid that uh we were going to um bring controversy to their space and where we see that even even there today there's not an adequate addressing of what happened to indigenous people here there's not the way you know if if somehow or other the whole concept of forgiving oneself if we knew how to forgive ourselves maybe it wouldn't be so hard to be accountable to say you know look we you know we're a part of really a wrong that happened here and let's how can we move forward together to to work on this and and Indigenous people are really generous and O open to that like we understand that we all have to go together and that everyone's related and so even those of us I mean even if you had a a child or someone you knew that was in trouble they will grow more by loving them rather than you know making them feel like they can't get up off the ground after after a mistake or something so I'm just thinking about um how upsetting it is to come to ply and see all those opulent mansions and to see the grudging amount of space they will uh acknowledge uh for indigenous people the overwhelming feeling that we get when we come to Plymouth and even more so after seeing the little amount of space that was given to the pit Village as opposed to everything else is that they wish for us to not not be here anymore so they wouldn't have to feel uh that what they wouldn't have to see that we still here and then they could rest easy like they could be we could be their mascots comfortably you know they still try to make us mascots even today and um so there's a sadness that I feel about it but when I look at all of you and I feel the hope of what's coming when when I look at you nor I just feel yeah it's in good hands you know because it's one hard at a time and there's no shortcut to this and like you're one of the ones that are going forward and we think a lot of you have come into the world at this time um and that we're your elders and we need to be supporting you we need to be accountable for what we've like the Legacy that we've given and we need to demonstrate what it's like to move forward together even in the face of All This calamity that we see I mean I'm looking at people that not on their homelands and why not some taken away without their permission and other people are here to be in a better place for their for theirselves for whatever the reason there's a purpose in coming and then when they arrive look at the mess that we that we put out there we're not who we say we are in the world you know we're not as welcoming as we need to be and and we're not as Equitable but that's where we're going and places like this can fill you up when you're having a tough day so we hope you visit a lot this is how it was for everywhere when the land was free voice your concern your excitement your opinion um because in my um culture this is saying called the B which mean um you are the next generation of manhood um so I mean not manhood human kind that too yes that too so um I will do anything in my power to make sure that there is a real pure love and empathy and peace and Equity there um knowing that October is domestic violent awareness month and a lot of violent that happened on the street also happened at home there's there's a lot of violent at home that stum to other violence on the street as as well so um I want to be part of that Community Solutions and all kinds of violence um gender based violence violent against women and children and all kinds of violence and and really modeling that and um I have seen a lot lately that people you know it's like instead of cherish Embrace people who are kind instead they take advantage of people who are kind um and yet I still encourage people who are kind still be kind you know don't have all of those animosity really changing the way you are um when I was with the teacher you last week learning that a lot of kids need lots of guidance and support from the adults um especially around what is healthy relationship what is consent what is boundary what is respect so I just want us to for me make a commitment and also want us to really looking and reflecting within us how how we contribute as an individual to all of this like grandmother St said we're also part of the solution we are part of the problem they also part of the solution right there always solution to every issue so um I know my commitment that I'm going to always respectful not just to be hopeful but to stay hopeful to forgive others to be respectful to be mindful and to care about others and to be grateful grateful to their parents grateful to their surroundings grateful to the opportunities they get I'm really grateful for my parents for raising me this way and teaching me how to be a really a good students just to be respectful and always push the need to do the right thing and I'm really thankful today for receiving invitation from Dr Garcia to come here because after seeing everything and meeting everyone I just you're all so kind that I'd not expect that I would be in an environment where I would find people that actually cared and had when made us go to lands that do not only belong to us but to everyone so everyone can just be fair so we can live in environment where it's not going to be 100% but we need to work to be 100% no one can be perfect nothing can be perfect that's why we always have to be try to improve there's always room for improvement people may forget everything many people forget things but they'll never forget how you made them feel that is very important yeah that we must work to help each other I was saying myself these kind of people you won't find them that kind know anywhere I said to Dr Garcia this morning I think people like kind three activists we need those kind of people around us and we need these people on this planet because that's the only way we can protect what we car have especially this land you have a land like this and I was talking to it amen about like kind of the fear I have on the upcoming years probably another 50 years what will happen to this land this building clim okay we want to put like apartment on it so we're going to need people like to continue like know to make like of the aware of the the kind of this country because we locky we in massachusett we have some people like kind of have different ideas about like kind of people living in the South uh when you're talking about like when you take like kind of 13 colonies States we're not the same as like kind of other state we have a different mentality we have a different but I think we need kind of to continue to work together the other group of like kind know the other state to teach them like kind know how to be together to resp each other to make sure like know we don't preach violence we make sure like know that we know we all in this fight together black white we all have the same blood it doesn't matter you white you yellow you like kind of any colors when you get pinched by something it's you see blood coming out it doesn't come in as a black as a yellow it come out as you as you you go ah oh yeah be cautious for we see what we do so we make sure everyone is included inclusive yeah that's so important the inclusivity yeah you're so young to know all this I just I love being here with you here right because he does that for all of you right so I really like this environments yes no so you came with this gr yeah visit visit a place uh called Pou and specially the all these indigenous sites that you saw and uh experience you're getting and uh so when you go back to your family in school what message would you like to share with your colleagues and tell them about the wonderful experience that you got with that year what are you going to tell your family today when you go home was it worthwhile was it something that you were not expecting uh what about tomorrow your colleagues at school okay so when I go home I'll tell my parents what happen I'll tell them how much I've learned about the indigenous people and the way they lived and the way everyone should be respected and treated fairly and just learning about today and seeing how people lived back then and just learning about their history and how they were treated and how they came here and made and made their way of life everyone should be treated fairly so tomorrow or any day when I go to school or any environments I'll always think that whatever I say whatever I do I have to keep in mind that everyone has feelings and we should always respect each other in our culture what I think about visiting places like this it always reminds me about the importance of building crosscultural understanding um among people from different Faith uh different beliefs experiences and so on and so forth so just being here with all of you um I can see um you know the collegiality growing the understanding of uh each other growing um I've learned things that I probably from um some of you uh that proba did not know about so visiting uh places this morning and now here reminds me about how small we are as you know and small not in the sense of being um diminutive or you know you know uh demeaning uh as but small in terms of sometimes we believe that we are these grandal right and there is a common denominator that unifies and bring us together and what we see is this circle of people it really giv me hope that there is always a better tomorrow uh it gives me hope that you know certainly there is something that is in us that makes us the people of the world we are one people after all it doesn't blong to me I know that but you know we belong to the land and land belongs to us it's a two-way street a lot of times you know some of my other friends they see the whole thing as stewardship but stewardship is yes it's good but that's all about you doing something taking care of the it's got to be a reciprocal thing right and that's one of my father's uh my father used to say that you take care of the land it'll take care of you you know just me here I I feel different you know by it just moving away from the great City the cities the noise and being on a land that is very secret and it's you know that is you can feel the Purity uh of this place just even the air that you breathe uh is totally different so uh my my two sentence you know uh that if I would put one message together for us it's for us to be uh United uh stronger and whenever we have an opportunity to learn and go and share uh the knowledge there's nothing that replaces um you know uh experience that you see you experience in the real place uh textbooks is one thing learning from the field is a total different ball game so um if I were to put my Reflections together I thank you for uh the opportunity and thank you for uh being here today uh I really enjoy it we sing the rocks to acknowledge them as keepers of ancestral [Music] memory as we conclude our day together in this magnificent Plymouth historic district we invite you to reflect deeply on today's experience and take actionable steps to educate our children and others about the wampanoags rich history culture and tradition as well as how these elements relate to their land and way of life we believe that this self-awareness Journey will help us understand the grief and suffering that the Wampanoag people have undergone for Generations allowing us to take conscious steps toward creating a more Equitable and inclusive society as we honor American Native American heritage month we invite you to be a real social justice Ambassador a change agent and an advocate for the downtrodden