Wampanoag living
29.04.10
Sunday, May 2, 2010 12:26am It is not just the Peace Report which is inaccurate. All censuses fail at documenting marginalized elements in society, e.g. illegal Mexicans in today's census. When my ancestors left the Wampanoag reservation for mainstream America, they wanted to escape discrimination. The house that an ancestor purchased had a clause which said it couldn't be sold to Indians. The state could have taken back the house from him. So he blended in. At that time, America was trying to civilize the “savages” - we were even forbidden to speak our language. We remained closet Indians but we were always proud of our heritage. And then suddenly we find that the government says we aren't Indians. Worse, the Wampanoag Nation – which pronounces the word Wampanoag like the White man and not like traditionally - says we aren't Indians. Canadian natives had it just as bad. They could lose their Indian status in a number of ways, for e.g. if they attended college, they ceased to be
Source: Martha's Vineyard Magazine