Introduction: In this article, to celebrate November being National Native American Heritage Month, Melissa Davenport Berry focuses on the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s powwow held in 1929. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue to look at some of the history of the Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) with some AI enhanced photo features gathered from newspaper clips and archives.

The Wampanoag, the “People of the First Light,” are comprised of two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe located in Mashpee, Massachusetts; and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) located on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Their people have inhabited this land for 12,000 years.

1929 Powwow Gathering

In August 1929 thousands flocked to Mashpee to see the Wampanoag Indians and their neighboring tribes hold a powwow at their old stomping grounds.

These Indians primarily represented the Mashpee Tribe, while others came from Great Herring Pond, Watuppa Pond, Manomet, Nausett, Martha’s Vineyard, and Gay Head.

Relatives of past sachems performed ancestral rituals, drawing many visitors to witness the unfamiliar, mystical rites of a traditional Indian powwow and peace gathering.

In the collage below are: (left) Lorenzo T. Hammond, aka Chief Small Bear, superintendent of grounds for the powwow; (center) Rev. Leroy Cliford Perry, aka Ousamequin or Chief Yellow Feather, a Methodist clergyman, former pastor of the Gay Head Community Church, and chief sachem of the Wampanoag; (right) Princess Little Dove, named for a Wampanoag “princess Mary Hyanno,” who purportedly married early Plymouth settler Augustine Bearse, with Ambrose Asher Pells, aka Chief Rain-in-the-Face.

Another collage shows: (upper left) the Hotel Attaquin in Mashpee; (upper right) William Henry Simon/Simons, aka Chief Big Elk, on the left, and Ambrose Asher Pells, aka Chief Rain-in-the-Face; (lower left) Aunt Sarah Amos Pocknett on the left and Lezeta Barbar; and (lower right) Irving Lawton Oakley standing in the doorway of his Main Street, Mashpee, store.

This next collage shows: (upper left) William C. Oakley, aka Running Cloud, and a group of young people of Mashpee; (upper right) William James, aka Chief High Eagle; (lower left) Running Cloud in regalia; (lower right) the famous Indian church of Mashpee, built in 1664.

The Native American Old Photos Facebook group features a post with three Mashpee Wampanoag women, attendees at the 1929 powwow. From left to right: Dorothy Helme and Alma Helme, daughters of Robert G. Helme and Laura (Stevens) Helme; and Delscena Catherine Mills, daughter of Ferdinand Wilson Mills and Emma Genevieve (Oakley) Mills.

In this next photo, Chief Sunset, head of the Narragansett Tribe, places a string of beads around the neck of Chief Clearwater, who won the marathon race for Indians at Mashpee.

I found this newsclip about the election of a new chief taking place at the 1929 powwow. Harold Winfred Black (1900-1979), son of Thomas Alexander Black and Henrietta (Munroe) Black, was chosen.

This article reports:

Harold Black, 21 Shelby Street, a full-blooded American Indian, was elected chief of the Pequoit Tribe at the annual pow-wow at Mashpee, on Cape Cod, which ended last Tuesday night. Black is a native of the Wampanoag Tribe. He is employed as porter at the Capitol theater, a position he has held since before the theater became one of the chain of Publix theaters.

A concerted effort is being made to gather all the Indians of Massachusetts together next summer for the pow-wow to be held at Gay Head, Oak Bluffs, Chief Black declared. At the pow-wow, Chief Sachem [Leroy C.] Perry, head of all Indian tribes in New England, will develop his plans for requesting more land of the government at the reservations at Mashpee and Gay Head.

“Massachusetts has more Indians than any other state in the country,” Chief Black said yesterday, quoting the figures presented at the recent pow-wow by Chief Perry, “and we want the government to give us more support as the Indians of western states get.”

At the pow-wow next summer all Indians having a quart[er] of blood will be welcome. The amount of blood in their veins will be determined by certificates of their ancestry.

Chief Black lives in this city with his wife and two children. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. John Haines of the Wampanoag Tribe at Mashpee.

Harold was also a violinist and banjo player in the band Mamie Moffitt & Her 5 Jazz Hounds.

I found Harold Black in the 1930 census listed with his wife Mildred and his two sons Harold Jr. and Cedric. Also listed is a sister-in-law, Celia Bostic, born Celia Blanche Haines/Haynes, wife of Walter Andrew Louis Bostic.

In 1933 Harold and Mildred had a third child, a daughter Orgden Mildred Black.

Harold’s wife Mildred Mason Haines/Haynes (1903-1983) was born to John H. Haines/Haynes and Harriet Gardner (Whiting) Haines/Haynes.

All the children born to John and Harriet are descendants of Abel Skipper and James Mye including sons Clinton Mye Haynes (1894-1966), aka Chief Wildhorse, and three others who served in the U.S. Army in WW2: Ernest Rudolph Haynes (1892-1933), Stanley Earl Haynes (1907-1954), and John Henry Haynes (1920-1988).

Below is a photo of John in his uniform.

This next photo, entitled “Maiden Indians at Mashpee Powwow,” features some of the Haynes girls and others (from left to right): Hazel Haynes, Gertrude Haynes, Cecilia Haynes, Laura Helme, Wyoma Coombs, Evangaline Coombs, Lillian Hammond, and Harriet Haynes.

1938 Sunflowers

Pictured below are two G.O.P. workers at Mashpee wearing sunflowers in 1938. On the left is Bernard Harris Carter (1892-1977), son of Chester Burnett Carter and Virginia Elizabeth (Harris) Carter. On the right is Ambrose Asher Pells (1871-1951) aka Rain-in-the-Face, son of Silas Parker Pells and Anna (Mye) Pells (daughter of James Mye).

The town citizens who represented Republican voters wore Landon sunflowers in buttonholes and put them on the bumpers of automobiles and pasted them on the town hall wall. Sunflowers symbolize harvest, bounty, provision, courage, and connection to the sun/Creator in many Native American traditions.

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Note on the header image: Ousamequin, or “Massasoit” (Wampanoag term for “Great Sachem”) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 1)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 2)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 3)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 4)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 5)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 6)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 7)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 8)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 9)
• Photos from the Past: Wampanoag Tribes of Mashpee and Gay Head (Aquinnah) (part 10)