Chapter Five

To begin, I have to thank Past Master Randall Pollard of Union Lodge #4, for his information, correcting my third installment. Andrew Bush was not an attorney and Edwin B. Jordain was not a mason. Elders are a true blessing, with wisdom that flows like the wind. Both the wind and wisdom are often taken for granted, but can be a welcomed breeze of relief. The ability to listen and process is the basis of any oral traditionalists work; seconded only by the art of conversation. For some reason, when many people think of native folks listening to their elders, they get this romantic image of a person sitting at a fire in the woods, listening to the wisdom of a stoic faced, monotone voiced saige with Corinthian Leatehr skin. In reality, it’s really just a part of everyday conversation, and the leather skin only applies to those who smoked for years.

This past week was the Mashpee powwow, despite a little controversy, it was a wonderful time. This was my first powwow in a couple of years as I was in graduate school up in Vermont for the last three powwows. It was also my first powwow in regalia in about 3 years. I only got to wear it the last day of powwow as my cousin who was making it fell behind on a bunch of projects. What I’ve always loved about powwow is the fact that it’s a homecoming for Mashpee Wampanoags scattered all across the world, and a chance to connect with all of these folks… and listen to their tales. Sometimes these tales can seem kind of random and even pointless at the time, but will suddenly have a great deal of meaning and can even provide you with greater insight of a situation you’re facing.

Back to that day in April 2001, at the lodge, awaiting the arrival of the Investigation Committee chair and members, Brother Jibreel arrived. Another connection that Brother Jibreel and I have is that we are both members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Along with a winding history of the lodge, and the various personalities associated with it, Jibreel took me on a tour of the building, that culminated with the soon-to-be completed ritual room. Here, I had the pleasure of meeting Warley Williams, a talented, master carpenter and member of the lodge who was finishing the construction on the lodge meeting room upstairs. Our conversation, all be it brief, was a very honest and insightful discussions about the principles and inner-dynamics of brotherhood in general, and the lodge in particular. One by one I began to meet brothers of the lodge, who seemed to be just passing by in the evening, each sharing some information that would eventually make a great deal of sense. Not just as a future brother of the lodge, but as a New Bedford resident; which at the time, I had no idea that I would soon become…

I have a bad habit of starting stories from the middle, as for the last several installments of this tale; I have vacillated between the present and 2001. My story as a Wampanoag traveling from Mashpee to New Bedford actually goes back to 1995, a chance meeting of a youth program director, who brought me here to do some improv theater workshops… ah, that’s the next installment.

Chapter Four

My mind is focused on mentors and the concept of rites of passage. In today’s society, some would say that we as men of color lack rites of passage. I would beg to differ. Being people of color in this contradiction riddled society, our daily lives are a type of rites of passage. Having dreams and goal, and being able to reach them is a rites of passage, and mentors are a key to this rite. It’s good to have mentors and elders who take you under their wing; an act of kindness that should never be taken for granted or discounted. This brings me to the other day, I found a note stuck on my car window. Finding notes in my car window or care packages of information, courtesy of Past Master John “J.C.” Cole in my mail slot, or other brothers stopping in to check on me have become a welcomed part of my experiences in New Bedford. This particular note was from Randall (Randy) Pollard, a Past Master of Union Lodge #4, respected elder in the Wampanoag community, and fellow historian. His note informed me that there was an error in my last article, but as of this writing we have not been able to connect, so the error shall have to go uncorrected until that conversation happens.

I first met Randy in my early teens at my Aunt Shirley’s house in Mashpee. Randy and Aunt Shirley (by marriage) are cousins. A few years later, it was Randy’s son Tony (better known in the native community as ‘Nanapashemet’). I was doing research at the time to find out if Wampanoags had a version of the ‘Hyoka’ or “Medicine Clown” as found among native peoples in the west. Nanapashemet directed me towards the writings of E Winslow, whose journals from the Plymouth colony contained many observations and references to Wampanoag life in the 1600’s. Winslow’s writings often reference “tricksters,” Wampanoags who delighted in annoying and victimizing the colonists. Apparently our clown practice was suppressed by the Puritan church and considered demonic, since clowns were considered half human and half spirit. As more Wampanoags embraced Christianity, the practice of the clowns was even more underground, continued as humor and pranks. Thanks to Jessie Little Doe, the principle scholar and teacher of the Wampanoag language, I learned that the term or this branch of medicine was ‘Ahanaeenun’ or ‘Laughter Keeper’.

Jumping back to April of 2001; the first time that I sat in the Prince Hall Temple parking lot, waiting for the members of the investigating committee who were going to interview me before the lodge voted on my application. Although I was told to be there at 5pm sharp, except for the teachers from West End Day Nursery and a stream of parents coming to pick up their little ones, the lodge chair hadn’t made it there yet. As I waited, a trucked pulled into the lot and out popped a familiar looking gentleman. It was Randy; who didn’t recognize me right off (I was a bigger and had a whole lot more hair then the last time we had seen each other), but was curious about the “Mashpee Wampanoag” vanity plate on the front of my van. Randy didn’t know that I as there to be interviewed, but gave me a quick history of the building. He had been instrumental in the design and construction of the temple. It would be at the subsequent meeting, when the lodge voted on my application that he would find out why I was there, and apparently disclosed the fact that my grandfather had been a member.

That would prove to be an interesting evening, as I waited to be interviewed, Jibreel showed up to wait with me. Over the next hour, I ended up meeting most of the brother’s in the lodge who for one reason or another happened past the lodge. Having had experiences with my college fraternity, I began to wonder if this was all part of the interview and to this day I’m not really sure. That’s the funny thing about rites of passage; most of the time you only realize that you’ve experienced them when you reflect back on an experience.