Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on the Wampanoag Tribe, focusing on Chief Yellow Feather. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today my subject is 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 “People of the First Light” Tribe.

In 1931 Leroy visited the Mount Hope Monument, dedicated to King Philip. The area, now Bristol, Rhode Island, was former Wampanoag land.

The inscription on the monument reads:

“In the Miery Swamp, 100 feet W.S.W. from this spring, according to tradition, King Philip fell, August 12, 1676, O.S. This stone placed by the R.I. Historical Society. December, 1877.”

According to sources, Leroy’s father Commodore Perry was an African American Civil War veteran, and his mother Rachel M. Crank was a Wampanoag who was a direct descendant of Massasoit. I cannot confirm this claim, but I have provided some genealogy research at the end of this article.

Here are some news clips from GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives that I found on Leroy.

Here is a photo from 1923 of Leroy in full regalia.

In 1926 Leroy’s niece, Pearl Viola Thomas (1906-1954), married Clarence Augustinius Gustafson (1904-1975). Their ceremony was performed at the home of Perry in the tradition of his ancestors.

This photo caption reads:

The bride and groom are shown seated. The bride was Miss Pearl Viola Thomas of this city, a niece of Rev. Leroy C. Perry, Chief Yellow Feather, sachem of the Algonquins. The bridegroom is Clearence A. Gustafson of Swansea, Mass. In the picture, left to right standing, are: Rev. Leroy C. Perry; Frank Nichols or Chief Grey Eagle; Philip Peckham or Chief Night Hawk; Edward Michael or Chief Sunset; William Wilcox or Chief Pine Tree.

As leader of his people, Leroy felt strongly about personal autonomy. He wanted his people to advance in their spiritual journey and their vocation.

In this newspaper article he made his message clear: descendants of American Indians in New England do not intend to ask the government for more reservation land.

Apparently Chief Harold Black had informed the press that Leroy would be appealing to Washington for land in Mashpee, but Perry set the record straight.

This article reports:

“I am interested only in unifying my people and assisting them in their educational, religious, and industrial development,” the leader stated. “To leave Indians on a reservation dependent on the government would make them lazy and result in the development of a fraternal spirit. And such a spirit spells death to the intellectual advancement,” he said.

Here are two more photographs featuring Leroy Perry.

Leroy appears in this group photo taken 13 December 1923 at the meeting of the Council of the New England Tribes of the Algonquin Nation in Providence, Rhode Island.

This photo shows nine leaders (though five are obscured) from a powwow at the Narragansett Indian Church grounds in Charlestown, Rhode Island, in the 1930s. From left we see: Night Hawk (Phillip H. Peckham, Narragansett Chief Sachem); Alfred Caesar Augustus Perry; Ousamequin (Leroy Perry, Wampanoag Chief Sachem), in the middle of the photo; and Running Deer (far right).

Genealogy Records

Some sources have Leroy C. Perry born in Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island, in 1874. However, official birth records reveal Leroy C. Perry, a twin son born to Rachel Crank on 19 November1875 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Records show his mother married Commodore Perry on 8 November 1875 in Fall River.

Rachel Crank is listed in the 1870 census with her parents Thomas and Julia (Simpson) Crank. By 1849 Leroy’s family, which included Perry, Simpson, and Crank, held land on the Fall River Reservation. See Fall River Indian Reservation.

Rachel was 20 when she married Commodore Perry, age 31. The record lists him as the son of Spark Perry. It was Rachel’s first marriage and Commodore Perry’s third. Commodore Perry died in Fall River on 19 August 1893.

Leroy married Sarah/Susan Brown Collins and had a daughter Nada Beatrice Perry (who married and left descendants), and a son Earl Clifton Perry (who married Ida Emma May Smith).

Leroy married 2nd Susie Frances Gladding and had one daughter Hattie, who married John W. Myers.

A wife Cynthia is mentioned in his obituary. He died on 26 June 1960. The 1950 census has Perry living in Oaks Bluff with a domestic Cynthia C. Enos, but I do not know if they married. More research is needed.

Leroy’s brother Theodore A. M. Perry married Amanda May Johnson on 20 December 1905.

Some of his ancestors on his maternal side came from the West Indies.

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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 Article:

• Remembering Mashpee Wampanoag Chief Red Jacket