For nearly three months in the winter and early spring of 2004, at the request of the Town of Montague, I helped facilitate a dialogue between the Town, the Friends of Wissatinnewag/Nolumbeka Project and the Narragansett Indian Tribe to create a ceremony of spirit healing and reconciliation. That ceremony took place on May 19, 2004, at Unity Park in the village of Turners Falls, across the river from the site of the attack and massacre of over 300 Indians in the early morning hours of May 19, 1676.
The signers of the historic reconciliation document were: Montague Select Board members Patricia Allen, Patricia Pruitt, and Allen Ross; Monique Fordham and Howard Clark for the Friends of Wissatinnewag; and Matthew “7th” Hawks Thomas, Chief Sachem, and Lloyd “Running Wolf” Wilcox, Medicine Man, for the Narragansett.
The National Park Service, mentioned twice in a Dec. 31, 2016, letter to the editor (“Didn’t we ‘bury the hatchet?’”), took no part in that ceremony. The Wampanoag were not represented that day. If one is to make a case for a point of view, they should do the research to get the correct information. Not embellish the story to fit one’s preferences. A detailed history of the Reconciliation Ceremony can be found at www.nolumbekaproject.org.
Perhaps this excerpt from the last paragraph of the historical document signed that day might bring clarity to the meaning of that days’ ceremony: “As we exchange gifts, ideas and good will today, we commit to a future that will continue the exchange of actions to promote understanding about and between the cultures …”
For a clearer understanding of the mascot issue, please read pages 92 to 99 from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book “All the Real Indians Died Off: And 20 Other Myths about Native Americans.”
Joe Graveline
Northfield
Howard Clark
Greenfield