PROVINCETOWN — A proposal to rename Race Point as Meeshaun Point, first made in early 2021 by representatives of the Wampanoag tribe, is still alive, though no action has been taken on it by local officials. Paula Peters of Mashpee, a member of the Wampanoag Consulting Alliance, told the Independent last week that “we’re still very interested in seeing this initiative move forward.”
What was then called the Wampanoag Advisory Committee (since renamed the Wampanoag Consulting Alliance) made a vocal effort in the spring of 2021 to gain the Provincetown Select Board’s support for the name change. “Meeshaun is the original Wampanoag name of the village that was there in what is now P’town,” former Wampanoag Advisory Committee Chair Linda Coombs told the Provincetown Banner.
Peters said last week that changing the name of the outermost point of land on Cape Cod would be something “lasting and ‘past-ing.’ It is the original name of the region,” she said, “and to recover that would be very meaningful.”
Coombs told select board Chair Dave Abramson in a March 6, 2021 letter that returning to the name Meeshaun would rightfully honor the place’s history and spirit. Former board member Lise King brought the name change proposal up for discussion during a meeting on April 26, 2021. When Abramson recommended referring the matter to the town’s consultant on indigenous projects, King said that Jennifer Himmelreich, who at the time was the consultant, had left the state following a death in her family and was unreachable.
Town Manager Alex Morse said at that meeting that it had “gotten to the point where staff here felt like they were harassing” Himmelreich. He recommended looking for a new consultant. According to the meeting minutes, Abramson moved “that Select Board direct the [town manager] to reissue the solicitation of price quotations for consulting services to advise the town on indigenous projects and execute the contract and refer this request to that consultant.” King seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously.
No action on that initiative, however, appears to have been taken in the last 18 months. The town has not yet hired a new consultant, according to the town manager’s office. King, who supported the idea of renaming Race Point, lost her seat on the select board in the town election on May 11, 2021, and was replaced by Leslie Sandberg.
Any move to rename a geographical place would fall under federal, not local, government jurisdiction. Such requests need to be submitted formally to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names for approval. The Wampanoag effort to get the support of Provincetown’s town government was a strategy for gathering momentum for the proposal.
“Generally, the wider the support the better,” said Brian Carlstrom, superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore. He added that town government backing “can be influential.” Race Point is part of the National Seashore.
The Barnstable County Human Rights Advisory Commission weighed in on the question, issuing a press release on June 9, 2021 in support of renaming Race Point as Meeshaun Point. According to that statement, “The name change would increase representation of local Native people and honor the original tribal village of the region.”
Peters said that her group’s “limited human resources” had been occupied with events related to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the upcoming National Day of Mourning — an alternative to Thanksgiving that recognizes the history of violence and oppression and commemorates Native American lives. She said that she had had an email exchange with Elizabeth Paine, the select board’s secretary, this past June, and that she had also written to Morse and to state Sen. Julian Cyr.
“Communication has been ongoing,” said Peters. “The Wampanoag Consulting Alliance is definitely still behind this 100 percent.”
This year has seen the removal of a significant number of place names that are derogatory to indigenous peoples from U.S. landmarks. In March, the New York Times reported that “660 U.S. place names include a slur for Native women.” The Dept. of the Interior under Secretary Deb Haaland made renaming a priority. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, one site that has been renamed — Halls Island, formerly Squaw Island — is located in Hyannis Port.
While King says she continues to support the renaming of Race Point, “It’s not just about the name. There’s a deeper story that would be important to include in the proposal.” She emphasized that “interpretive materials” would help visitors understand why a name that includes “Meeshaun” is significant and raised the possibility of creating a scannable QR code that would lead to a more detailed explanation.
“Having something named Meeshaun Point is an opportunity to tell a story,” said King.
Race Point gets its name from the intense tidal patterns at the juncture of Cape Cod Bay with the Atlantic. When a fast-moving tide passes through a restricted space, it forms hazardous currents or tidal races. The point “is not named after a person right now,” Peters said. “To recover the original name of the place should not be rocket science.”
