Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry gives more photos, history and genealogy about the two federally recognized Wampanoag Tribes. 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.

Part Four covered the familial lines of Captain Solomon Attaquin (1810-1895), son of Ezra Attaquin and Sarah “Sally” (Jones) Attaquin, and his wife Cynthia (Conet) Attaquin, daughter of John N. Conant/Conet and Phebe (Lindsley) Conant/Conet, both members of the Herring Pond Wampanoag community.

Below is a photo of Solomon’s daughter Melissa (Attaquin) Jones (1838-1877), who married Samuel Amos Jones, son of William Jones and Aisah (Amos) Jones.

Samuel Amos Jones was active in Mashpee town affairs. Below is the Annual Town Report from 1903 when Samuel served as tax collector.

Here is a photo of Solomon’s sister Martha Ann (Attaquin) Cooper, wife of Zaccheus Cooper, the son of Thomas Cooper and Susannah (Talknot) Cooper of Gay Head, Massachusetts.

Olivia Pocknett/Pognet (1850-1929), daughter of Elijah Pocknett and Phebe A. (Squib) Pocknett, on 10 June 1879 married Alfred H. Govan, son of James and Louisa Govan. The couple left descendants. Below is a photo of Olivia.

I found her obituary in the Boston Public Library Archives.

It reads:

Mashpee, June 22 – Word has been received of the death of Mrs. Olivia (Pocknett) Govan at her home in Boston Friday.

Mrs. Govan was the last of the family of Elijah and Phebe (Squibb) Pocknett. She was born in Mashpee and after her marriage left to make her home in Boston.

She is survived by two daughters and a son. Funeral services will be held at the Graham parlors in Boston at 1 P.M. Monday.

This next photo is labeled “Old Phebe Pognet,” most likely the mother of Olivia.

The photo below shows five men of the Wampanoag Tribe who assisted in the Indian last rites at the funeral for their beloved friend, Eben Quippish, Chief Red Jacket, a medicine man and chieftain of the Mission Church. He died on 7 January 1933. In this photo we see (left to right): Edmund B. Amos; Cyrus Edwards; Chief Rain in the Face (Ambrose Pells); Chief High Eagle (William L. James); Chief Red Shell (Clarence M. Wixon Sr.).

This photo caption reads:

Tom-toms will sound as bucks in colorful costumes with mourning headdress appeal to the Great Spirit according to historic ritual. Chief Red Shell read the eulogy, and the others carried the casket.

Chief Red Jacket was born in Mashpee to Joseph Quippish and Jemima (Pocknett) Quippish. He spent considerable time with “Buffalo Bill” in touring the United States and the world. When the Wampanoag Tribe was formed again, he was named to the important post of chief medicine man, which ranked him equal to the chief sachem, or leader, of the tribe.

In 1929, as one of the last traditional basketmakers of his generation, Quippish taught Mohegan folklorist Gladys Tantaquidgeon how to make an offering basket.

He left a sister, Mrs. Priscilla Pells of Hatchville, Massachusetts, and a first cousin, Edmund B. Amos, son of Lysander Z. Amos and Flora E. (Bearse) Amos, who served as town clerk of Mashpee.

Below is an image of Daniel Quippish/Queppish, grandfather of Eben Quippish, Chief Red Jacket. He was a member of the Mashpee community and Wampanoag tribal lands in Massachusetts. Daniel’s Island in South Mashpee is named after him. Daniel was the son of Ebenezer and Sarah Queppish.

Eben Quippish worked with fellow Mashpee Nelson D. Simmons in the 1910s and 1920s to keep alive various Wampanoag cultural traditions and organizations, culminating in the 1928 powwow meeting of the various Wampanoag branches.

Here is a photo of Nelson Drue Simmons (1885-1953), son of Isaac Simon/Simons and Ella Frances (Mingo) Simon/Simons. Nelson was part of the Class of 1925, the first indigenous person to graduate from Suffolk University Law School.

I found Nelson mentioned in a 1922 Arizona newspaper article.

This photo caption reads:

Nelson D. Simons [Simmons] is chief of the Pequot Indians, who once were dictators of the country from Massachusetts to Hudson Bay. He is a full-blooded Indian chieftain, and is a descendant of the great Sassacus, who led the Pequot Tribe against the early settlers. Mr. Simons is now in Boston pursuing a course of study at the Suffolk Law school.

Simmons also attended the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania from 12 November 1909 through 7 April 1914. You can view his student file here.

To be continued…

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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:

• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 1)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 2)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 3)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 4)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 5)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 6)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 7)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 9)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 12)
• 1928 Great Wampanoag Powwow (part 1)
• 1928 Great Wampanoag Powwow (part 2)
• Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in the Crocker Ledger Book (part 1)
• Photos from the Past: Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
• 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)