Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry focuses on Amelia Grace (Peters) Bingham, a former Elder of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe who preserved the history and traditions of her people. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

The Wamps

We are the four directions
We are East, West, North and South
We are Punkhorn Point, Popponesset Bay
We are the Mashpee River
We are the Flume that separates the pond from the ocean
We are the herring and the scup
And the venison and the rabbit
We are the scrub pine and scrub oak
We are the protectors of the land
We are the Mashpee Wampanoag

–Russell Peters, 1993

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.

My subject today is Amelia Grace (Peters) Bingham (1923-2021), a former Elder of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe who preserved the history and tradition of her people. She was the Turtle Clan Mother “Seaweed.” She was the great granddaughter of Rev. Joseph “Blind Joe” Amos (1806-1869) and Abigail (Wickham) Amos (1804-1853).

According to her obituary, in addition to her civic duties Amelia was a talented, renowned artist specializing in interior design. Her work as an interior decorator for the New Seabury Model Homes was featured in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, highlighting her creative expertise and flare for color seen in many Cape Cod homes.

She was the founding director of the Mashpee Historical Commission and campaigned to preserve several historic buildings including the Parsonage, the Avant homestead, the One Room Schoolhouse, and the Old Indian Meetinghouse. She spearheaded efforts to restore the Meetinghouse for community use and the Avant house, where she established the Mashpee Wampanoag Museum (also becoming the Founding Director).

Amelia was the eldest of eight children born to Mashpee Selectman Steven Amos Peters Sr. and Clara Jane (Miles) Peters. (A photo of the children can be found at the end of this story.)

Here is a photo of Steven Amos “Happy” Peters Sr. (1897-1954), son of Charles Holmes Peters and Cordelia “Amelia” Babcock (Amos) Peters.

The poem at the beginning of this article was written by Amelia’s brother Russell M. Peters Sr. (1929-2002), known as “Fast Turtle,” author of The Wampanoags of Mashpee, and former Wampanoag chief and president of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council.

Another sibling is former spiritual leader and supreme medicine man for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, John A. Peters (1930-1997) aka “Slow Turtle – Cjegktoonuppa.” He was also a police officer for the Mashpee Police Department.

Amelia married Lt. Col. George Gulian Bingham Jr. (1917-2000), son of George Bingham and Ruth (Gould) Bingham, and the couple had eight children.

I found an article on George published in the Sturgis Public Library archives, entitled “Former Cantabrigian Earns Higher Spurs in U.S. Army,” that provides some early history on his career as a military man and how he met Amelia:

The meteoric rise of Lieutenant Colonel George G. “Dewey” Bingham, formerly of Cambridge, but at present military science teacher R.O.T.C. at Virginia State College, would be one of the most interesting true stories for a movie or play.

Lt. Col. Bingham, who recently received the promotion, is one of the youngest men to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel and is to be highly commended. We knew this soldier of fame when he was a stripling in the Mass. National Guard, 372nd Infantry, and also had the pleasure of working with him in the playgrounds in the city.

He was first, last, and always a soldier, a devoted son to his parents and lastly a gentleman.

During the early 40s, a youngster with a West Point carriage and the ambition to rise to greater heights, [he] married the beautiful and talented Amelia Peters, daughter of the late Steven and Mrs. Clara Peters of Mashpee, Mass.

Today Mrs. Amelia Bingham is as beautiful as ever despite the fact she is the happy mother of eight children.

To Lt. Col. Bingham my sincere congratulations and may you continue to advance in the armed services of our country; and to Mrs. Bingham may you continue to be a source of inspiration to your husband.

To Mrs. Bingham, your mother, the early training you gave your son has borne forth good fruit and you can be both proud and happy.

Below is a photo of Amelia and George’s gravestone located in the Mashpee Town Cemetery which features the couple’s photos.

In 1938 at age 15 Amelia made headlines across the country. Her father sought scholarships and entrance for her and her 13-year-old brother Steven A. Peters Jr. because the laws by which Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded in 1769 stipulated that Indians should be educated.

Here is a photo of 15-year-old Amelia published in the Lowell Sun with the headline “Dartmouth Maid?”

As it turned out, Amelia was not accepted into Dartmouth College because in 1938 it was all-male, not becoming coeducational until 1972.

Below is a photo of Amelia (center) with her brother Steven A. Jr. (left) and their mother Mrs. Steven A. Peters (right). Their mother was born Clara J. Miles, daughter of Oscar Columbus Miles and Amanda C. (Hill) Miles, and she married Steven Amos Peters Sr. on 22 February 1922.

My next story will cover more of Dartmouth and the Peters, which provides some very interesting history.

Below is a photo of the children of Selectman Steven Amos Peters Sr. and his wife Clara, courtesy of Mashpee 125th Anniversary: A Pictorial History by Rosemary H. Burns, edited by Ann Whitlow. Many of the Peters family have served Mashpee in various positions.

In this photo we see (from left to right): Anne, Randy, John, Russell, Muriel, Clara, Steven, and Amelia.

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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. [052825]

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)