Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe

The Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe is one of several cultural heritage organizations of individuals who identify as descendants of the Wampanoag people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Multiple nonprofit organizations were formed to represent the Seaconke Wampanoag.[1][2]

Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe[1]
and Seaconke Wampanoag Inc.[2]
Named afterSeekonk, Massachusetts (named for a Narragansett sachem[3]), Wampanoag people
Formation1997[2]
Founded atCranston, Rhode Island[2]
DissolvedApril 18, 2018 (2018-04-18)[1]
Typenonprofit organization[1]
EIN 05-0503360[4],
EIN 04-3345716[2]
PurposeSeaconke Wampanoag Tribe–Wampanoag Nation: Ethnic/Immigrant Services (P84);[4] Seaconke Wampanoag: A11: Arts, Culture and Humanities Single Organization Support[2]
HeadquartersProvidence, Rhode Island
Location
Official language
English
Revenue (2020)
$-2,105[2]
Expenses (2020)$9.281[2]
Websitewww.seaconkewampanoag.org

The Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe is not state-recognized. In 1997, the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs issued a letter "reaffirming the Recognition of the Seaconke Wampanoag people."[5] The Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs lacks the authority to grant state-recognition to unrecognized Indian groups, as recognition is outside of the scope of the Commission as detailed in Executive Order 126.[6] Although currently headquartered in Rhode Island, the group's historical homeland consists of an area of northern Rhode Island and around the Seekonk area of Massachusetts. [7]

Wilfred "Eagle Heart" Greene (1937–2016), an early leader of this group, identified as being a descendant of Ousamequin[8] (Wampanoag, c. 1581–1661), more commonly known as Massasoit. The group "claims to consist of descendants of Massasoit's band."[9] The group also identifies as being descendants of Annawan,[10] a Wampanoag leader who died in 1676.[11]

Lois "Lulu" Viera Chaffee (1941–2021) of Seekonk was also a founding member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe.[12]

Name

Seaconke is spelled in many different ways and is the name of a town, Seekonk, Massachusetts, and the Seekonk River,[3] near Providence, Rhode Island. The placename comes from the name of a 17th-century Narragansett sachem (leader).[3] The Wampanoag are an Algonquian language-speaking Native American tribe in New England.

Nonprofit organizations

In 1997, the Seaconke Wampanoag organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Cranston, Rhode Island.[2] Michael Markley was the secretary in 2020, and Robert Harris was treasurer in 2021.[2] The group's assets were $36,836 in 2020.[2]

In 1998, the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe–Wampanoag Nation organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[1] based in Warwick, Rhode Island.[4] Wilfred Green was the agent. In 1998, Wilfred W. Greene III was president, and Stasia Constantino served as director.[1] The nonprofit status was revoked first in 2012 and again in 2018.[1]

Land

In Greene v. Rhode Island (2003), Wilfred W. Greene sued Rhode Island and the towns of Cumberland and Woonsocket in U.S. District Court. He claimed 34-square miles of land near the Blackstone River; however, the case was dismissed.[13][14]

In 2008, Patrick and Gail Conley donated a 6.7-acre lot in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to the organization, in the care of Wilfred Green.[15]The land, part of the Peterson/Puritan, Inc. site, had hazardous waste and was designated as superfund site by the EPA.[16][17]

Petition for federal recognition

Wilfred Green sent a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition as a Native American tribe on behalf of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, then based in Greenwich, Rhode Island, in 1998.[18] However, the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe never submitted a completed petition for federal recognition.[19]

Proposed state-recognition

Rhode Island House Bill 7470, an act that "recognizes the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe as a Native American tribe, was introduced on February 11, 2022. Since March 1, 2022, the bill has been "held for further study" by committee.[20]

Genetic analysis

In 2005, researchers from the Genographic Project analyzed genetic variation among members of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts[21][22] and Rhode Island.[23] Research revealed "that the majority of their mtDNA haplotypes belongs to West Eurasian and African lineages, thus reflecting the extent of their contacts and interactions with people of European and African descent. On the paternal side, Y-chromosome analysis identified a range of Native American, West Eurasian, and African haplogroups in the population, and also surprisingly revealed the presence of a paternal lineage that appears at its highest frequencies in New Guinea and Melanesia."[22]

The human geneticist Bryan Sykes (1947–2020) wrote, "On the matrilineal side, all of the mDNA lineages are of either European or African origin, while the patrilineal Y chromosomes show a range of Native American, European, and African lineages plus one surprise from New Guinea." He continued that "genealogical reconstruction showed that the single Native American Y chromosome was most likely introduced into the tribe by a Cherokee incomer several generations back." He wrote further: "In contrast, the complete absence of Native American mDNA among the Seaconke Wampanoag came as a great surprise to me, given the usual direction of intermarriage between African and European American incomers and Native American women."[23] Jenny Reardon and Kim TallBear echo these findings: "The Seaconke Wampanoag who were sampled largely trace to European and African populations. Indeed, they were shown to have no 'maternal Native American lineages and only one 'Native American' paternal haplotype in an individual with known Cherokee male ancestry...."[21]

Activities

The Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe host an annual powwow in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.[24] They have hosted their powwow since 2016.[10]

Professional boxer Kali Reis "KO Mequinonoag" is a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag and identifies her mother as being "the medicine woman of our Seaconke Wampanoag tribe."[25]

References
  1. "Seaconke Wampanpoag Tribe–Wampanoag Nation". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  2. "Seaconke Wampanoag". Cause IQ. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  3. Douglas-Lithgow, R. A. (2001). Native American Place Names of Rhode Island. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books. pp. 40–41. ISBN 9781557095435.
  4. "Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe-Wompanoag Nation". GuideStar. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  5. https://www.rilegislature.gov/Special/comdoc/House%20Judiciary/02-23-2021-H5385-From%20Representative%20Vella-Wilkinson.pdf
  6. "MA Executive Order 126".
  7. https://semspub.epa.gov/work/01/289816.pdf
  8. "Seaconke Wampanoag Chief, Indian activist and humanitarian dies at 78". Warwick Beacon. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  9. Waldman, Carl (2014). Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York: Checkmark Books. p. 311. ISBN 9781438110103.
  10. "Seaconke Wampanoag Holds 17th Annual Pow Wow". Reporter Today. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  11. Lawton, Cassie M.; Bial, Raymond (2016). The People and Culture of the Wampanoag. New York: Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 100. ISBN 9781502618993.
  12. Tripp, William W. (2 April 2022). "Founding Member of Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Lois "Lulu" Chaffee, Dies at 79". GoLocalProv. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  13. "Greene v. Rhode Island, 289 F. Supp. 2d 5 (D.R.I. 2003)". Justia US Law. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  14. Doherty, Craig A.; Doherty, Katherine M. (2008). Northeast Indians. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. p. 153. ISBN 9780816059683.
  15. Sullivan, Michele M. "Quit Claim Deed of Gift". US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  16. Owens III, James T. (14 April 2008). "Notice of Potential Liability and Request for Information" (PDF). Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  17. "Peterson/Puritan, Inc., Lincoln/Cumberland, RI". Superfund Site. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  18. "List of Petitioners By State" (PDF). 12 November 2013. p. 42. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  19. "Office of Federal Acknowledgment". U.S. Department of Indian Affairs. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  20. "BH 7470". FastDemocracy. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  21. Reardon, Jenny; TallBear, Kim (April 2012). ""Your DNA Is Our History": Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property". Current Anthropology. 53 (S5). doi:10.1086/662629. S2CID 141590148.
  22. Zhadanov, Sergey (August 2010). "Genetic heritage and native identity of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 142 (4): 578–89. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21281. PMID 20229500. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  23. Sykes, Bryan (2012). DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America. New York: Liveright. pp. 280–81. ISBN 9780871404763.
  24. "Seakonke Wampanoag Tribe Annual Pow-Wow". Native American Trails Project. University of Massachusetts. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  25. "Kali Reis". WBAN. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
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