Monomoyick Walks
Celebrating the First People’s Legacy
to the Greater Pleasant Bay Community
Please note that this very popular walk series is full, but we are accepting names for a waiting list. Kindly email hctevents@gmail.com with a subject line of “Monomoyick Walk waiting list” and include your name, phone, mailing address and number of guests. If space opens up, we’ll give you a call. Thank you for your understanding.
Background:
Sponsored by the local land trusts in Chatham, Harwich, and Orleans, and the Native Land Conservancy, 12th generation Cape Codder Todd Kelley and native Wampanoag Marcus Hendricks will lead a fascinating series of interpretive walks describing the natural landscapes of three specific locations within the Monomoyick Homeland. They will explore the historic stories that transpired on each of these lands at the time of European first contact. And they will consider the lives of the First People and how dramatically their lives and the land itself were influenced and altered during this brief window of time in the seventeenth century.
The land trusts in each of the three towns preserve natural lands within their communities while the Native Land Conservancy preserves natural lands across eastern Massachusetts. Formed just last year, the Native Land Conservancy is the first native-led land trust established east of the Mississippi River.
Cost: $15.00 for the series (if you join one or all three walks, it’s a one-time fee of $15.00)
Advance registration and payment are required. Space is limited.
Please email hctevents@gmail.com to join the waiting list.
Individual walk descriptions:
Saturday, March 28, 10:00am – 12:00pm. West Chatham
Samuel de Champlain at Seaquanset 1606
Walk the barrier beach of Harding’s Beach at Ragged Neck and learn about Champlain’s arrival to Stage Harbor in 1606. Consider the story of how this area, known to the Monomoyicks as Seaquanset, became identified as Port Fortune which historically translates as “Place of Mishappenstance”. Also learn how the seasonal lives of the First People at Seaquanset earned this body of water the name Stage Harbor.
Saturday, April 4, 10:00am – 12:00pm. East Harwich
Tisquantum and Bradford at Monomoit Bay 1622
Explore the land once known as Captain Jeethro’s farm and visit the feasting site overlook that Squanto and Bradford likely visited when they came into Pleasant Bay to negotiate for corn in 1622. Learn how this area was the seat of the greater Monomoyick Homeland and how it held onto this ancient legacy up through the last unbroken blood-line of Hosey Stephen (d. 1800) and her husband Micah Rafe (d. 1816).
Saturday, April 11, 10:00am – 11:30am. South Orleans
Pompmo and the Legend of Paw Wah Pond 1643
Walk the short trail at Paw Wah Point and learn how this area became known as Portanimicut just after the Nauset Purchase of 1643. We will discuss the historic and social significance of Portanimicut as it emerged as the last native community stronghold east of the Bass River. Intertwined in this story is the life of Pompmo and the “Legend of Paw Wah’s Pond”, through which, we will consider the First People’s perspective on relationship and responsibility to the land and all creatures that live upon it.