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People of the Land: The Wampanoag

This exhibit was produced in collaboration with Plimoth Plantation and modern day Wampanoag and shows how the people that inhabited this area lived.

Artifacts which were recovered from archaeological excavations as well as objects which have been produced for the exhibit show how materials, food, and vessels would have been made and used.

The theme comes from a statement made by Nanepashemet (1954-1995) describing the Wampanoag tribe's philosophy... "We have lived with this land for thousands of generations - fishing in the waters, planting, and harvesting crops, hunting the four-legged and winged beings and giving respect and thanks for each and every thing taken for our use. We were originally taught to use many resources, remembering to use them with care, respect, and with a mind towards preserving some for the seven generations of unborn, and not to waste anything."

When the Pil­grims first stepped upon the shores of Cape Cod Bay in the cold, for­bid­ding Novem­ber of 1620, they found not a New World, but an old one — an ancient land­scape that bore the traces of 10,000 years of human endeav­or. Fields, gar­dens, vil­lages and well-worn paths had been etched indeli­bly into a mosa­ic of envi­ron­ments that in 1620 defined Cape Cod.

– Secrets in the Sand: the Archaeology of Cape Cod by Dr. Fred Dunford and Greg O'Brien