An Independent-minded calendar of arts and events for Outer Cape Cod

Advertise in the Indie.

Reach more readers from Eastham to Provincetown.

Unchained news for Outer Cape Cod

The Provincetown Independent

Let us bring you the paper.

Your subscription supports real community journalism.

native americans

    ACKNOWLEDGMENT

    Beach Rights Restored to Indigenous People

    Truro joins Eastham in waiving fees for tribal card holders

    By

    TRURO — The select board voted unanimously on Feb. 22 to waive beach fire and parking fees for Native American tribe members.

    Truro thus follows the lead of the town of Eastham, which in 2020 on the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower extended beach rights to indigenous people. The beach access declaration is meant to return to the Wampanoag their right to use the town’s beaches without cost.

    The waivers also apply to “other Native Americans” — though this detail sparked a moment of charged discussion before the declaration was ultimately approved.

    Helen McNeil-Ashton, a vice president of the Truro Historical Society, spearheaded the change in Truro. She said she plans to make a similar proposal to the Wellfleet Select Board and is waiting for it to be placed on a future agenda.

    The idea arose when McNeil-Ashton curated materials for the “Wampanoag Nation: People of the First Light” exhibit, which opened in July 2021 at Truro’s Highland House Museum. During her research, she traced how certain ancestral rights were restored to Native people in Massachusetts.

    A 1982 resolution adopted by the state House of Representatives recognized “the ancient and aboriginal claim of Indians within the Commonwealth … to hunt and fish the wildlife of this land for the sustenance of their families.” In 1984, a case in Barnstable District Court, Commonwealth v. Hendricks, et al., established that the Wampanoag could hunt and fish without securing state or town permits as long as they carried a tribal card.

    Eastham extended these rights in November 2020 at the request of Jim Russo of the town’s 400 Commemoration Committee. The Eastham Select Board made tribal card holders eligible to receive seasonal visitor beach stickers free of charge.

    When McNeil-Ashton heard of that initiative, she decided that Truro should follow suit.

    At the select board meeting, she described granting beach access rights as “one of several small initial steps by which the Truro community can recognize and honor our Wampanoag Nation members and neighbors who have lived here for 12,000 years before the arrival of Europeans and who are still very much here and might like to visit the beaches.”

    Truro residents also demonstrate respect for Native history by reading a land acknowledgement at the start of each town meeting.

    Following McNeil-Ashton’s presentation, select board member John Dundas raised a concern about including “other Native Americans” among those eligible for the parking and fire permit waivers.

    “Why wouldn’t it just include the Wampanoag Nation?” Dundas asked. “Why would you make it universal?” He later noted that Truro was declared the Wampanoag Nation’s land and recommended that other tribal groups be struck from the motion.

    Kelly Clark, the assistant town manager, explained that she had added “and other Native Americans” to the declaration to include lesser-known tribes in the area.

    Bob Weinstein, the select board chair, supported Clark. “I wouldn’t want someone representing the Mohawk tribes in eastern New York State or tribes in Maine who might be visitors to Cape Cod to have to pay a fee,” he said.

    Dundas asked about reciprocity between states and whether neighboring New England states offered the same inclusivity to out-of-state members of the Wampanoag Nation. “I think it’s worth investigating before we agree to this,” he said.

    “At first, I didn’t understand the motivation behind John’s comment,” said Kristen Reed, vice chair of the board, “but at the moment, it feels discriminative.”

    “Absolutely not,” Dundas said. “I just want to make sure there’s reciprocity. It has nothing to do with what the vice chair just suggested.”

    The board asked Annawon Weeden, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, for his input. McNeil-Ashton had invited him to the meeting. He said tribal members have recently been gathering on the Outer Cape for “solstice fires” at the spring and fall equinoxes at Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet.

    “These are open to other Natives residing in our community,” he said. These other attendees are often visitors from neighboring tribes such as the Narragansett, as well as those who married into the Wampanoag Nation.

    “I appreciate the clarity,” Dundas said. “I have no opposition to the motion at all.”

    The select board voted unanimously to approve the declaration. Later, Weeden told the Independent that the inclusion of other Native groups surprised him.

    “I don’t know if I would have specifically asked for that,” he said. “But I’m really honored and glad. I wouldn’t want to explain to anybody visiting my tribe that they can’t enjoy the benefits that my tribe does.”

    EXHIBITIONS

    Mimi Gross Reframes the Mayflower Story

    Her PAAM installation depicts the Pilgrims’ arrival from the Wampanoags’ point of view

    By

    “It’s historical; it’s interactive; you walk through it,” Mimi Gross says. She is describing how museum-goers will experience The Arrival, 1620, her site-specific installation that is opening on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Theatrical staging leads viewers through scenes representing the first contact between the indigenous people who farmed the Outer Cape for eons and the Pilgrims who were escaping religious persecution — and carrying muskets.

    Mimi Gross stands with some of the plywood figures of Wampanoag women that will be part of her PAAM installation, Arrival, 1620. (Photo Breon Dunigan)

    “You’ll walk through the gallery, passing the figures, and then, there’s the Mayflower, crashing from the wall,” Gross says. “The Wampanoag people were planting, cooking, and fishing, standing around, when, suddenly — this shock.”

    Gross, the daughter of sculptor Chaim Gross and Renee Gross, was a young girl when her family bought their hilltop home in Provincetown’s West End, which was built by painter George Elmer Browne, founder of the West End School of Art. Its spacious, windowed studio is now Mimi’s seasonal retreat. She spoke as the numerous life-size figures that she first sketched, made into maquettes, then shaped in plywood, and painted in her exuberant style were readied for their installation at PAAM, where Gross first exhibited a painting at age 16.

    A precocious artist while still a student at Bard College, Gross was invited to show in Provincetown’s legendary Sun Gallery, a mecca for painters working in a loosely gestural, figurative style. Considered risqué in its time, the Sun was censored by local officials for the nudes it included in an exhibit.

    “I loved the people who showed there,” Gross says. “I was just a teenager, and happy to be participating. It was the first gallery where I showed, in Provincetown or anywhere.” Red Grooms also showed at the Sun. They married, traveled together, and have a daughter, Saskia Grooms. Collaborators from 1960 to 1976, Gross and Grooms famously created Ruckus Manhattan, a circus-like installation dramatizing the hubbub of the times.

    A Wampanoag fighter created for Mimi Gross’s installation, Arrival, 1620. (Photo courtesy Mimi Gross)

    At age 80, Gross has a résumé that lists filmmaker, sculptor, painter, and educator, as well as set and costume designer for the Douglas Dunn dance troupe, for which Gross continues to explore movement and rhythm. She also creates low-relief group portraits that read as dimensional paintings. The Arrival, she says, is her most technically advanced, multi-dimensional piece.

    Gross is also a habitué of Herring Cove Beach. For as long as she can recall, she sketched there, with her father and with friends. “I recently did a lot of dimensional pieces, made of wood, based on those beach sketches,” she says. They were shown at the Brooklyn Museum as part of the exhibit “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland.” Gross arranged her almost two dozen multi-racial figures in congenial groups that filled 36 square feet.

    “Pieces for The Arrival are more sculptural,” Gross says. Some figures are five feet high and four feet wide. Attached to a base, they appear even taller and are painted on both sides. “These are a lot more varied than the work I did for the Coney Island show,” she says.

    The journey leading to The Arrival began three years ago, when Breon Dunigan, sculptor and member of PAAM’s exhibition committee, met Gross at Herring Cove. “It was late September, and Mimi was swimming,” Dunigan says. “I knew who she was. We have friends in common, but I didn’t really know her work.” Gross invited Dunigan to visit her studio that very afternoon.

    Dunigan was immediately smitten. She proposed a show of Gross’s work to PAAM, its exact nature undetermined. As 2020 loomed, Christine McCarthy, PAAM’s CEO, was looking for an exhibition marking the arrival of the Mayflower.

    A young Pilgrim with musket and ammo. (Photo courtesy Mimi Gross)

    “It was totally up to Mimi,” Dunigan says of the Mayflower idea. “I didn’t want her to do anything she wasn’t comfortable with. But I did think it would be amazing, and I was right.” Dunigan laughs. When it was time to collect the artwork from Gross’s Manhattan studio, she drove a large van to the city with her son, Liam Bailey, during a rainstorm. They assisted with wrapping the delicate cargo and transported it to the Cape.

    The finished pieces went to PAAM, and others, in various stages of completion, went to Gross’s hilltop workspace. Gross’s skill in portrait painting, and the historical research underpinning the installation, is everywhere evident: figures are individualized, assigned a personality. Dark-skinned Wampanoag men are painted in reds and yellows. Garments and accessories are never purely functional: a love of pattern and bright color is reflected in feathered headdresses, shields, and neck ornaments. Women till the land, their hair neatly braided and deerskin dresses fringed. A black-hatted Pilgrim, in knickers and buckled shoes, carries a musket. His smile is tentative, as if asking what comes next.

    McCarthy made her own pilgrimage to Gross’s studio. “Mimi’s narrative is crafted through the lens of supporting the Wampanoag people, challenging the history books, and bringing a new awareness to something that happened 400 years ago,” McCarthy says. “Each figure has its own personality, and seeing them in real life, as opposed to digital images, is astounding. The message delivered through the installation will go way beyond the actual artwork.”

    The daughter of an immigrant artist who made a home in Provincetown, Gross provides a complex, contemporary interpretation of the Outer Cape’s — and the country’s — foundational history. “These peaceful people had been living here for thousands of years, and along came others looking for their own freedom, who couldn’t have cared less about those here already,” Gross says, giving voice to a narrative, through dimension, color, and gesture, of a people whose descendants continue to be silenced.

    A model of the site-specific installation, Arrival, 1620, opening at PAAM on Friday. (Photo courtesy Mimi Gross)

    Culture Clash

    The event: “Mimi Gross: The Arrival, 1620,” a site-specific installation

    The time: Friday, Oct. 2, through Nov. 29; Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; time-slot reservations required at paam.org

    The place: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial St.

    The cost: $12.50; members free

     

    Reporting for this article was supported by a grant from the Provincetown Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Mass. Cultural Council.

     

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    Letters, September 17, 2020

    From Daniel Holt, Anne Stott, John Stossel, and Mac Gatch

    By

    Native American Stereotypes

    To the editor:
    People in Truro who are unhappy with the Massachusetts seal [“State Flag and Seal Question Is on Wellfleet, Truro Warrants,” Sept. 10, page A8] would do well to look a little closer to home and consider the problems with Truro’s official town seal.

    The Truro seal depicts a Native American standing on a beach, looking out at the bay, apparently oblivious to the European vessel sailing in the water behind him. His left hand holds a bow and arrow and his right hand rests on a corn plant. He wears a feathered headdress, what appear to be fringed leggings, and a cloth draped over one shoulder and wrapped around his torso. Behind him stand two tepees.

    What’s wrong with this image? Like the now-retired murals at the Provincetown Museum [“PMPM Exhibit Revises Story of First Encounters,” June 25], it incorporates and perpetuates stereotypes of Native Americans. Tepees are the traditional homes of Plains Indians, not Paomets, Nausets, or Wampanoags. Similarly, the headdress on the Truro seal is a war bonnet in the style of the Plains Indians, completely different from what a native inhabitant of Truro would have worn. The clothing is somewhat nondescript but also appears to be inaccurate. Even the bow is wrong.

    I have always loved the decision to place a Native American at the center of Truro’s seal and would never want to change that important choice. But it’s time to bring some accuracy to the image.

    Daniel Holt
    Truro and New York City

    Action, Not Just Words

    To the editor:
    I support Article 14 on Provincetown’s town warrant, which will ban single-use plastic bottles of noncarbonated, unflavored water.

    Between a pandemic and the resulting economic challenges, a contentious election, racial injustice, and the West Coast on fire, one might be excused for thinking that we shouldn’t have to talk about plastic bottles right now. But we do have to.

    The environmental damage our behavior does to the planet does not stop when other challenges arise. Single-use plastic water bottles compose more than half of all the plastic bottles used. We now know that only 28 percent are recycled, and we have all seen the trash cans on a midsummer day overflowing with plastic in the center of town.

    These bottles come from oil pulled from the ground, transported, and transformed into plastic in toxic processes. We consume the water (which we could get for free from a faucet) and throw the bottles in a blue can. Plastic lasts hundreds of years; the planet literally cannot contain our waste any longer.

    Thanks to Sustainable Practices in Brewster, the plastic water bottle ban is being considered at every town meeting on Cape Cod this year. Brewster, Wellfleet, and Falmouth have already approved it. We have a rare opportunity to take a huge step toward plastic reduction. We would be setting an example for millions of people each year who visit from around the world. They will see that we are not just saying we care about the planet; we are taking action.

    When I presented the plastic straw and plastic #6 bans in 2018, it was thrilling to see the town vote almost unanimously to reduce plastic in our community. In a time when so much is beyond our control, let’s embrace the positive changes we can make.

    Anne Stott
    Provincetown

    Disappointed

    To the editor:
    Reading your “Science at Risk” series about the Cape Cod National Seashore from this spring and summer, I was disappointed at how little I learned.

    I would have liked to learn who maintains the trails, how boundaries are determined, what erosion has been and what erosion plans are, what the policing issues include, what workers get paid, bonfire rules and problems, and so much more.

    Instead, I read about budget “cuts” even though one article included a table showing that the Seashore’s overall budget grew from $7.37 million to $7.86 million (from fiscal year 2018 to 2020).

    Only government bureaucrats and credulous reporters describe increases as “cuts.”

    John Stossel
    Wellfleet

    Editor’s note: As Sophie Ruehr reported in her series, since the early 2000s, the Seashore’s budget has remained flat while fixed costs have risen. Education and scientific research programs have been cut.

    We Got Cultcha

    To the editor:
    What other American regional weekly besides the Independent would have an article about the Metropolitan Opera streaming Werther [“Goethe’s Tortured Hero, Set to Massenet’s Music,” Sept. 10, page B4] — even one that admits the author doesn’t like French romanticism!

    Mac Gatch
    Wellfleet and New York City

    eastham currents

    Commemorating the ‘first encounter’

    By

    EASTHAM — Some 16 months before the 400th anniversary, plans are well under way to commemorate the Dec. 8, 1620 “first encounter” between Native Americans and European pilgrims. Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the celebration is an effort to bring the sailing “shallop” Elizabeth Tilley to Eastham for both display and tours.

    The vessel, a replica of ones used to transport people and goods from larger ships to the coast in the 17th century, is owned by the Pilgrim John Howland Society of Plymouth. But questions regarding the cost and feasibility of towing and mooring the shallop were raised at a meeting of the town’s 400 Commemoration Committee on July 29.

    While an appearance by the Elizabeth Tilley remains a possibility, a proposed bonfire has been definitively nixed by Eastham Fire Chief Kent Farrenkopf. The committee considered several alternatives, including a fire pit and a six-foot-tall burning pyramid, but no final decision was made.

    The committee also discussed six programs to be held in conjunction with the Eastham Public Library. Three are designed for general audiences, focusing on the events leading up to the first encounter, the encounter itself, and the memorial commemorating the meeting. Three additional programs will be open to all but feature subject matter tailored for immigrants, young adults, and artists.

    A letter had been sent to the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council seeking input for the event, but no response had been received. The 400 Commemoration Committee planned to follow up with a phone call.

    Affordable housing lottery

    A bump in affordable housing is one step closer to becoming a reality in Eastham. Completion of the Village at Nauset Green — “a brand-new family rental development” at 140 Brackett Road — isn’t scheduled until February 2020, but an initial batch of apartments will be made available this October. Hopeful tenants should submit a pre-application for the housing lottery to be held at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Orleans-Eastham Elks Lodge, 10 McKoy Road, Eastham. Those selected will then be eligible for the full application and interview process.

    Pre-applications must be sent by U.S. mail to Village at Nauset Green, P.O. Box 24855, Philadelphia, PA 19130 and must be received by Tuesday, Sept. 3 in order to qualify. Pick up a pre-application — in English, en español, or em português — at the Eastham Town Hall or at 140 Brackett Road, or download the forms online at villageatnausetgreen.com.

    Survey on Eastham cable service

    Do you have a strong opinion about your cable provider? Are there matters of local interest you wish were covered on television? Eastham’s Cable TV License Renewal Advisory Committee is all ears — electronically speaking. Take its online survey to give the powers that be your two cents on cable service in Eastham. The short questionnaire also asks how often you tune in to Lower Cape TV and what you’d like to see more of on your local access channels. Access the survey at surveymonkey.com/r/EasthamCable.

    Windmill is open once more

    As of Saturday, July 27, Cape Cod’s oldest and last working windmill is once again open to the public, although restoration of the exterior shingles will continue through the month of August. The town expects restoration to be fully completed in time for the annual Windmill Weekend — featuring a parade, craft show, and live music — on September 6-8. More information can be found at easthamwindmillweekend.org.

     

    © 2024 The Provincetown Independent, all rights reserved.

    terms of service