Mass Humanities Awards the Indigenous Peoples Network an Expand Massachusetts Stories Grant

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The Indigenous Peoples Network has been selected as a grantee by the Expand Massachusetts Stories Initiative of the Massachusetts Humanities Foundation. The grant will fund “Black and Red: The Dilemma of African American-Indigenous Identity in Massachusetts,” a 30-minute film will explore the racial identity of African American-Indigenous members of the Pocasset Wampanoag of the Pokanoket Nation. It was among 42 grantees for cultural projects that include exhibits, documentaries, oral histories and public events. The film will be presented to community and educational members on the campus of Nichols College in Dudley, MA in fall 2024, with opportunity for public discussion. The project will be sponsored by the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust.

Impressed with Mass Humanities’ commitment to an accurate and inclusive telling of Massachusetts history, Chief George Spring Buffalo a.k.a. Sequan Pijaki,-Yellow Feather, says “Indigenous people come in many shades,” and encourages all ethnicities to “educate themselves on what indigenous community you come from – don’t accept being put into a box because of your skin color.” The Expand Massachusetts Stories initiative offers up to $20,000 for projects that collect, interpret and share narratives about the commonwealth, with an emphasis on the voices and experiences that have gone unrecognized, or have been excluded from public conversation. Since its founding in 1974, Mass Humanities, a non-profit based in Northampton, has provided millions of dollars in support of thousands of humanities projects across the Commonwealth.

PPLT Community
PPLT Community
Chief George
Chief George
PPLT golf fundraiser
PPLT golf fundraiser

 

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Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust to partner with NRCS to help New England farmers and communities

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $70 million in partnerships that will improve outreach to underserved producers and communities to expand access to conservation assistance and career opportunities. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced the selection of 139 projects that encourage participation in NRCS programs, especially in underserved communities and among urban and small-scale producers. Projects will extend outreach to producers who are beginning, limited resource, socially disadvantaged, and veterans, and will highlight opportunities for students to pursue careers in agriculture, natural resources and related sciences.

The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust program will focus on underserved producers and communities in New England. Objectives include conducting outreach and needs assessments, facilitating partnerships between NRCS and producers, helping producers improve operations through conservation and climate smart practices, and educating high school students about conservation and career opportunities.

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Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust to partner with BankNewport for Indigenous Food Sovereignty program

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BankNewport has awarded a grant to the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust to support the Indigenous Roots Forever Food Sovereignty Program. The program is led by Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe and Musquant Nompashim Netas, leader of the Ninigret Nehantic Nehaganset Clan.

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Eastern Medicine Singers bring Indigenous music to the forefront at Newport Folk Festival

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Daryl Jamieson and the Eastern Medicine Singers in full regalia

By Olivia Ebertz, Public Radio

On Friday, a Woonsocket and Providence-based Indigenous drum group helped kick off the Newport Folk Festival. The Eastern Medicine Singers aim to bring cultural healing and representation to audiences.

It was hot, humid and sunny at the 2023 Newport Folk Festival last Friday. To try to keep cool, most festival attendees wore as little clothing as possible. But at half past high noon on the festival mainstage the Eastern Medicine Singers, an inter-Tribal drum group from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, wore long deerskin pants trimmed with beads and fringe, cherry red ribbon shirts, feathered headdresses and face paint.

Bandleader and Woonsocket resident Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson is Pocasset Wampanoag from the Pokanoket Nation. He said repping traditional regalia from the region was worth the sweat, especially for the mostly white audiences in Newport.

“A lot of people expect to see a Native from like out West, so I think it’s important that we specify that this is an Eastern culture. This is our style of dress,” Jamieson said.

All that regalia is handmade by regional artisans.

“George Thomas, he’s Pequot, and he makes a lot of the accessories for us and the head dresses,” he said. “These ribbon shirts that we have, made by our good friend Birdie up in New Hampshire. And we all make our own different leggings.”

And equally important for showing Eastern Indigenous culture is the singing, which is all done in Algonquin, a language with just a few thousand native speakers. The band members all hail from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, making the music a refreshing burst of hyper-local flavor for festival goers.

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Indigenous Peoples Network receives Grow Grant from the Grassroots Fund

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The Grassroots Fund has awarded the Indigenous Peoples Network a 2023 Grow Grant. The funding will be used to support the Indigenous Roots Forever Food Sovereignty Program, led by Musquant Nompashim Netas, leader of the Ninigret Nehantick Nahaganset Clan.

The New England Grassroots Environment Fund, Inc, (Grassroots Fund) was founded in 1996 as a funder’s collaborative, with a mission to energize and nurture long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and environmentally sustainable communities throughout the six New England states. With an emphasis on those who have often been marginalized, Grassroots Fund empowers individuals, groups and organizations working across a broad range of environmental and social justice issues.

“The Grassroots Fund has been a steady supporter of the Indigenous People in this region,” says Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Pokanoket Tribe and co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples Network. “We are grateful for their partnership.”

Indigenous Peoples Network selected for Grassroots Fund Cohort

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The Grassroots Fund has selected the Indigenous Peoples Network (IPN) to be part of the 2023-2024 Food System Resilience Cohort. Initiatives will focus on the intersection of equity, food justice, and community development and will support a movement of food system leaders across the region through networking, shared learning, and coalition building.

The New England Grassroots Environment Fund, Inc, (Grassroots Fund) was founded in 1996 as a funder’s collaborative, with a mission to energize and nurture long-term civic engagement in local initiatives that create and maintain healthy, just, safe and environmentally sustainable communities throughout the six New England states. With an emphasis on those who have often been marginalized, Grassroots Fund empowers individuals, groups and organizations working across a broad range of environmental and social justice issues.

“The Grassroots Fund has been a steady supporter of the Indigenous People in this region,” says Chief Sequan Pijaki, Chairman of the Pocasset Pokanoket Tribe and co-founder of IPN. “We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to building a more equitable food system together.”

Musquant Nompashim Netas, leader of the Ninigret Nehantick Nahaganset Clan and IPN’s Indigenous Roots Forever Food Access Program, understands that this work goes beyond food security. “Food brings people together. Food strengthens communities. It’s a different kind of medicine.”

Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust Receives Food and Farm Communications Fund Core Grant for Second Consecutive Year

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The Food and Farm Communications Fund has awarded a Core Grant to the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) to support strategic communications development. One of twenty organizations chosen throughout the country, the grant allows PPLT to increase content creation and social media presence in support of its Indigenous food access program and land repatriation projects in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Esperanza Pallana, Executive Director of the fund said, “We are proud to continue our support of PPLT in 2023. They represent a critical narrative of a movement across the nation to reclaim ancestral land for regenerative agriculture and traditional land-based spiritual practices.”

Since 2012, the Food and Farm Communications Fund has awarded $5 million to grass-roots food and agricultural organizations that emphasize environmentally sustainable, and indigenous practices for use in the battle against climate change. Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust is proud to be among them.

“We are grateful for our partnership with the Food and Farm Communications Fund,” said Chief George Spring Buffalo, Executive Director of the Land Trust. “They have really helped us build our communications capacity. PPLT was formed with the intent of capturing back remnants of the Pocasset Purchase and we now steward historical lands in Tiverton. Our trust also provides an opportunity to unite different tribal communities, clans and Indigenous people back to our traditional ways of growing food and providing access to healthy medicine.”

Quaker Community Shows Historic Support for New England Tribes

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At the Southeast Quarterly Meeting in Providence on March 19, 2023, the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, acknowledged that Indigenous Nations in New England were forced to give up large parts of their territory, and that the land on which the gathering occurred was the homeland of many Indigenous nations. Facilitated by the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT), the meeting, attended by tribal chiefs of the Pocasset, Chappaquiddick, Nipmuc and Narragansett, was an historic first step toward supporting tribes, according to Chris Richards, Director of Programming and Development, PPLT.

“Our meeting was meaningful, but we still have work to do,” said Chief George Spring Buffalo. “They let us take the lead in how to build the relationship; we’re going to collaborate and we’re grateful that they’re reaching out to the Indigenous population.” Discussions are ongoing about the next steps. Rebecca Leuchak, Presiding Clerk of the New England Yearly Meeting of the Quakers, introduced the assembly: “We recognize the irreducible and ongoing relationship Indigenous people have with their traditional territories; the honoring of this relationship and the speaking of it to all, becomes meaningful when it is the basis for building relationships.”

Indigenous Peoples Network Receives Island Foundation Environmental Grant

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“The Island Foundation was among the first non-profit foundations to support the Indigenous Peoples Network five years ago and we want to thank them for believing in us,” says Chief George Spring Buffalo about the 2023 award for $25,000.

The funds will support repatriation efforts of ancestral lands in Tiverton, RI and facilitate the expansion of the Indigenous Roots Forever food access program in Washington County, RI. The produce will assist with the family budgets, and will be considered “healthy medicine,” according to Chief George. The goal, says the Chief, “is to introduce tribal members and other disadvantaged folks back to healthy eating and to introduce the next generation to the concept of land.”

The Island Foundation awards Environmental Grants to a variety of initiatives in Southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, including those that support working landscapes (sustainable agriculture and community-based fisheries); help local conservation organizations build capacity; and promote environmental justice.

Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust receives Rhode Island Foundation ARPA Nonprofit Support Grant

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The Rhode Island Foundation has awarded $8.3 million to more than 90 nonprofits working on food insecurity, housing instability and homelessness prevention, and the behavioral health needs of Rhode Islanders.

State leaders funded the Foundation’s ARPA Nonprofit Support Program using $20 million from the state’s $1.1 billion share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation for COVID-19 recovery. Governor Dan McKee, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio joined the Foundation to unveil the program last month.

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