Week 2: Native Origins (Environment and Green Spaces)

The Massachusetts state flag is ridden with obscenities. What can perhaps be initially read as a much-deserved tribute to the original, rightful owners of this land is much more of an insult, given the harsh realities of the history between the Massachusett and the English settlers who ravaged their territory and people. Indeed, the two share the visage of a Massachusett, bearing a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. In both, the arrow is angled downward as an emblem of peace. The Massachusetts state flag carries this message a step further with the message "Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem"—"By the Sword We Seek Peace, but Peace Only Under Liberty." For it is true that the English brandished swords against the natives—but to describe what was done as “peace” or “liberty” for the indigenous is truly loathsome. The natives were forcibly converted to Puritanism and stripped of all their ways of life—one could hardly describe this as “liberty.” And those who refused were readily killed—one could scarcely call this “peace.”

Further, while the two flags bear the same figure, the background in which the Massachusett resides is vastly different. While the Massachusett flag bears a colorful landscape, the Massachusetts state flag shows only a white star indicating Massachusetts as one of the original thirteen states. Thus, while the Massachusett choose to celebrate their land and the life they were able to draw from it, the Massachusetts state—just as its original English settlers—choose to view the land as valuable only for its deeds and claim to ownership.

Some of the most central issues that underpin the Massachusett’s website are mass death (via gruesome plagues and killings alike), land seizure, and forced relocation / assimilation. Beginning with the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the English settlers of Massachusetts arrived with the mandate to claim “New England, America, and everything in it.” They were ordered to and intent on reducing or converting to submission the indigenous people. What followed thereafter fell neatly in accordance with this mandate. A murderous campaign was waged against the Neponsets, who by 1650 vastly outnumbered and outgunned the indigenous population; it is thus that the Massachusett were cheated out of their lands at Neponset and forced over to Ponkakpoag, without access to their planting fields, quarries, and the ocean. At Ponkakpoag, the Massachusett were forcibly converted to Puritan dress, culture, and moral code. Even then, after stripping the Massachusett of much of their territory, the English were not happy. The indigenous then underwent two brutal internments and were left with little of their land, culture, and dignity.

It has been long since the initial English colonizers arrived and long since the Puritans fell and yet little trace of native culture and ways of life remain in Cambridge. To rectify this—and to memorialize the first occupants of this land—I think small exhibits should be erected around the city showcasing bits and pieces of life as it was before our colonists ravaged it. Miniature wetus and winter long houses could be highlighted, as well as quarry stone tools and weapons, and pieces of native dress and diet, alongside detailed explanations of each. They should be in centrally located spaces—right in the center of Harvard Yard, and near the cemetery, and the like. They should disrupt the very New England spaces and structures we see today, so as to force us to reckon with what we’ve papered over. I imagine it breathing new life into tribal practices and customs—after the Puritans endeavored to deafen them.

Bibliography

Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. "Our History." Accessed September 10, 2024. https://massachusetttribe.org/our-history.