The Narragansett Dawn, which Red Wing published and edited. This piece appeared in the June 1935 issue of the magazine.]]> The Mashpee Enterprise, to which she was a frequent contributor. The year is unknown. The article exemplifies the continuing efforts of Avant and other Wampanoag writers to tell history from their tribal perspectives.]]> Siobhan Senier]]> The Narragansett Dawn, which Red Wing edited and published between 1935 and 1936. This piece comes from Red Wing's files for the magazine; it seems not to have been published]]> “In 1789 Mashpee women Amy Simon and Mary Sunkoson complained to the overseers that they were being denied necessities that were supposed to be supplied through their common fund.” A year prior, the Mashpee had lost their independence and in turn were under scrutiny from the “governor-appointed board of over seers.” (Schrems 2).This meant to the natives that they were not able to get as many resources and necessities as they used to. Instead they were monitored and controlled by the colonist in the area. One year later, in 1790, Mary Sunkoson died; this led to the protests and depositions of Sarah Keetoh, Hannah Babcock, and Reverend Gideon Hawley. Gideon expressed that Mary had been ill and unable to receive treatment or help due to these restrictions on herbal medicines. Instead, she was supposed to pray to God. Keetoh and Babcock had a serious problem with the way their people were being governed and these depositions prove that native women had an active role in their tribal society as well as in the literary world of the eighteenth century.

In the Wampanoag tribe, women played a very important role that went far beyond the stereotypical colonial women that was soon adopted. Wampanoag native women brought in on average 75% of the food consumed and one of their most well known and loved dishes is called “Three Sisters Rice”, a dish which combines all of their most abundant and important crops; rice, corn, beans, and squash. The native spirituality had many different aspects but centered around the idea of one Mother Earth. The most plentiful and cherished crops; corn, beans, and squash, were examples of how Mother Earth takes care of the human race. The native culture cherished the female body and felt a strong bond between themselves and Mother Earth. “The land was used and shared; it was not owned.” (Dresser 45). They viewed Mother Earth as everywhere around them and understood that as land, she was not property but instead meant for survival. “Women were the souls of the councils, the arbiters of peace and war, and in whom all real authority was vested.” (Leacock 265). For them, Mother Earth had given them the ability to take the lives of plants and animals to sustain their own survival but only because humans are able to respect the sacrifice these other living organisms make for us and understand how it nourishes our bodies, she was the one spiritual leader.

Native Wampanoag people understood and loved the female figure just as the ancient Greeks had understood the importance of the woman’s body and worshiped its spirituality. European colonist however, had implemented a society where a woman was only for making children, making clothing, and staying within the household; very much an object that men could buy and own—inadvertently and helplessly reliant on her working husband. Just as this idea had spread across Europe and other nations in Central America and South America, when the colonist arrived to New England they started to infiltrate the native’s beliefs simply by not acknowledging women in roles of authority. In order to save their land, Wampanoag men would learn how to speak and write in English. The men primarily did this because women were not allowed, and women were not allowed because colonists did not acknowledge women in any type of authority. Slowly the balance between men and women started to shift. Eventually, as children of this time grew up with their mothers at home and their fathers at school, church, and working in the fields, this way of life became inherited until it was eventually the only way of life natives knew.

The inheritance of land was passed down through the mother lineage, and in Land deposition #35 from the Native Writings in New England, the Wampanoag Sachem leaves his land to two women; Ales Sessetom and Keziah Sessestom. Not only does this Sachem swear in the name of God, but also the deed is written in English. “During the colonial period, male authority was being encouraged by Euro-Americans in their political and military dealings with Native Americans at the same time as Indian women were becoming dependent in individual households on wage-earning and trading husbands” (Leacock 264). By adopting Christianity and English literacy, the Wampanoag people were trying to save their land in any way possible. Of course, the colonist would neither accept this deed as legitimate regardless of how many witnesses signed at the bottom nor would they ever allow a woman, let alone a native woman, to own land. Until these documents were found and transcribed, to the common public it seemed that women played absolutely no authoritative role in native literacy or society. Experience Mayhew, a colonist and missionary who worked alongside the Native Wampanoags, understood the women and children’s role in their tribal society. Instead of comparing women to the subservient role that men play to god, he instead wrote about their struggles with colonization and how they had once been respected. Experience was also the Reverend who signed off on the Land deed dated March 14, 1689 - who grants permission for the two women to own land.

The idea that native women were weak and unreliable as human beings is completely false. Weetamoo served as a Sachem to the Wampanoag tribe during King Philips War and was remembered and worshiped for her strength, beauty, and severe confederacy. She was not some weak housewife who depended on her husband. Instead she was an active member of society who was entrusted with some of the most vital assessments for her people. Awashonks was another Wampanoag woman Sachem and ruled at a time when tensions between Colonist and Natives were about to break out into King Philips War, which is noted as one of the most violent periods of warfare. Clearly if women were able to rule over entire tribes and own land, then the oppression that eventually took over the Americas and other countries did not originate from within. Instead, it was learned and instigated by Colonization and Christianity. Overall it is clear that Wampanoag women were taking a stand and fighting for their land just as the men were, in any way possible!

]]> Keetoh, Sarah
Babcock, Hannah
Mayhew, Experience
]]> Katherine Garret’s “Dying Warning” would appear at first glance to be a testament to her life and her conversion to Christianity, though closer examination raises many questions. Garret was a Pequot Indian servant in the home of Reverend William Worthington, accused of committing the murder of an infant believed to be her own in the fall of 1737. After the guilty verdict was read at her trial in Saybrook, Connecticut, Garret was shocked and became extremely emotional, as she thought that she would be pardoned. In Native culture at the time, infanticide was considered a form of late abortion, however, Garret was put before a jury of white colonialists who did not share the same cultural practices and values. She was granted six months in prison in the hopes that she would turn her life around and see the error of her behavior.

Garret was visited often by townspeople, and was even allowed to be released from custody to participate in Christian gatherings after her proclaimed conversion to Christianity. The decision to convert was quite common for Indians facing death, and may have even been a failed attempt at receiving a pardon from the Government, as Garret had been in a Christian home since the age of fourteen without showing any signs of assimilating to the culture of her captors.

The format of Katherine Garret’s “Dying Warning” is consistent with the genre of Indian deathbed literature, as well as criminal biography; two forms that were popularized due to the era of the Great Awakening, and was used as evidence to prove how effective the reformation of Native Americans was. However, Garret broke from the approved format by using strong language and images to illustrate her feelings about her impending execution. The language was not outright enough to be edited from the document, which was distributed by Revered Eliphalet Adams, who spent a great deal of time with Garret during her incarceration and delivered the sermon at her execution, and both documents published by Timothy Green.

In the opening sentence, Garret uses the word “justice” to directly reference the injustice of what has happened to her; she was placed before a jury of white men, despite the lack of evidence directly linking her to the murder, and sentenced to death, though the act she was thought to have committed was most likely done in accordance with Pequot tribal traditions. Garret was forcefully separated from her culture at the young age but remained faithful to the Pequots, as is noted in her dress and resistance of conversion to Christianity. It should be noted that the name of the suspected father to the child was never named in the trial, sermon, character account, or dying warning. She calls out to “the Justice of the Court who has Sentenced me to die this Death”, which she stated prior was to be a “Violent Death”, as a late appeal to the emotional in the hopes that she may be released. Garret spends the first half of the text in describing how she came to her Conversion in prison, and thanking those who showed her kindness and brought her books to read, other than the Bible. Garret speaks about her past as a sinner, “a sinner by Nature, also guilty of many Actual Transgressions, Particularly of Pride and Lying, as well as of the Sin of destroying the Fruit of my own Body”, although she does not openly say that she committed murder, further evidence that she saw the supposed infanticide as a form of abortion. Garret recognizes that she “destroyed the Fruit”, purposefully not using any word to call to mind a human child, and takes responsibility in the words “my own Body”.

The second section of the warning is quite typical- urging children to behave and listen to their parents, though Garret does use natural images from Native spiritual traditions in order to understand the harsh punishments of the Christian Bible; “For the Eye that Mocks at his Father and despiseth to Obey his Mother, the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out, and the Young Eagles shall eat it”. In the “Anonymous Character Account” that is believed to have been written by Adams, as it was included in the pamphlet of his sermon, there is a reference to Garret having been with in the home of the Reverend Worthington since “childhood”, but she had not been assimilated prior to her incarceration. In her use of traditional Native ideas, Garret again points to her true culture.

The third section is a complete break from the traditional form, calling out to servants and slaves “Either Whites or Blacks, be Obedient to your Masters & Mistresses” but “Above all Fear God; fear to Sin against Him: He is our Great Master”. By combining slaves, regardless of their color, into one group and emphasizing that God is the true Master, Garret makes the ownership position of master on Earth a trivial one, as “Parents and Masters…You must also give an Account to God how you carry it to them”. Everyone reports to the same Master after death, regardless of their societal position in life.

Works Cited

Fickes, Michael L. “`They Could Not Endure That Yoke’: The Captivity of Pequot Women and Children After the War of 1637”,

Boston, Patience. “A Faithful Narrative of the Wicked Life andRemarkable Conversion of Patience Boston Alias Samson; Who Was Executed at York, in the County of York, July 24th. 1735. for the Murder of Benjamin Trot of Falmouth in Casco Bay, a Child of About Eight Years of Age, Whom She Drowned in a Well.”, 1738.

Adams, Eliphalet. “A Sermon Preached on the Occasion of the Execution of Katherine Garret, an Indian-servant (who Was Condemned for the Murder of Her Spurious Child) on May 3d 1738. To Which Is Added Some Short Account of Her Behavior After Her Condemnation.” Timothy Green, 1738. Early American Imprints. Garret, Katherine. “Dying Warning of Katherine Garret”, New London, Connecticut, May 3, 1738.

Lauber, Almon Wheeler, and The Faculty of Political Science Columbi. Indian Slavery in Colonial Times Within the Present Limits of the United States. BiblioBazaar, 2010.

Salisbury, Neal. “Indians and Colonists in Southern New England After the Pequot War.” The Pequots in Southern New England: The Fall and Rise of an American Indian Nation, 198:81–95. The Cilvilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

Schorb, Jodi. “Seeing Other Wise.” Early Native Literacies in New England: a Documentary and Critical Anthology, 148–161. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.

Carocci, Max. “Written Out of History: Contemporary Native American Narratives of Enslavement," June 2009.

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Fellow – Native Americans ——

In numbers there is force, for good or evil. Together we stand, divided we fall. The Native American has fell to his present state because of lack of unity, ambition & education.

So 1000’s have left the rank & file of Indianhood and proceeded to live, as Jew & Gentile. But he has not dragged his brother, cousin or family along with him, as did the Jew and the Italian.

These Jews did not loose their religion or way of life; but improved upon it. Let us do likewise; for the Native American has given more to this present civilization, than it ever gave back to him.

This civilization does not belong to the white man,—it belongs to all races who have fought, worked & struggled to advance it. Education, medical science, mining of ores, conservation of natural resources, inventions of modern equipment, building of high structures, every field of endeavor, our race and all other races have had a part in them.

Let’s go back a 1000 years before the Arabs had zero, the Indians had found zero. They had the new calculation which they are teaching in the schools to-day. Before Rome ever built the great Apian Way, of which history speaks, the Natives of South America built a great 4 lane highway. The whole Roman road could be place into one lane of this road, which is still being used, and yet history never mentioned it.

Before the Spanish arrived the Natives had refined gold, had gold filled teeth & tooth brushes.

The first League of Nations for Peace was formed by the Iroquois. For 100 years before the Revolutionary War, New England, New York, Del, Penn, Maryland and the Virginians were under the protection of this League of Nations for Peace. And when the 13 little colonies fought for independence, from the old world, they never would have won, if it had not been for our forefathers.

And after the war, they formed their government after the government of the League of Nations of the Iroquois.

Please don’t think the white man gave to the world, reading, writing, and arithmatic,—that came first from the dark man of Africa, who also gave first use of rubber and coffee.

Doctors & pharmatists to-day use the same herbs, plants and minerals, for the same cures, for which my ancestors used them. Of course to-day, they have developed them into pills, powders & syrups. The pale face was wise. He took from every other race, that which was good and developed it for his own benefit.

While our forefathers were pushed westward, herded on to reservations; in most cases the barron & useless lands. For generations we have been stailmated.

Let us today, learn our history, and take our credit; hold on to our Indianhood and grab from every other race, that which is good for OUR benefit.

Let us get into government, education, professions and skilled labors. Advance our arts, crafts and languages. Remember the faith of our fathers.

Let us unity, both Native Men and Women,—rise up and take for our coming generations all that we need for a better life for all.

Let us use our God-given talents for the up-lift of our race. Let us not waste them on civilized vices.

Let us climb above them. let us get into the “fields that need cultivation.” Let us create more schools for bi-cultural education for Indian youth. Let us write our own history for the future. We must have more Indian doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, business men & women, machanics for our benefit. We need more Indian cultural centers in every community & state.

We must have more Indian children centers managed by Indians. We must have good strong hardworking, far-reaching Indian Organizations in all communities, but all co-operating with each other and helping one another.

We must work to create an Indian Bureau by Indians and for Indians; we must learn manipulate government, and learn to write proposals to get money for needed programs and projects.

We must learn how to put pressure on our officials to gain their support. We must exert ourselves, not only for our sakes but for our children & their children.

I believe the native Women’s Council have made a good start along these lines; and hope all Native men will harken to them and put their shoulders to the tasks your women have so nobley begun.

Use the little we have left and the Great Spirit will again smile on his red children and give them dominion of greater things

Princess Red Wing has spoken

I thank you.

Cowunckinus

]]> Transcription by Ashlee Thomas]]> ]]>