Most of Plimouth Towne and Plimouth Plantation are a celebration
of the Pilgrims, viewing American history as starting with the Mayflower.
That, if course, is not the case. The Wampanoag had flourished from Cape
Cod to Goucester for 12,000 years. They farmed, fished, hunted and fought
with their rivals. They built summer villages near the shore and winter
villages in the mountains. They built dugout canoes and paddled them to
Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and the smaller islands. They used nets to
trap fish in the shallows and spears to kill whales out on Massachusetts
Bay. They domesticated the tomato, pumpkin, squash and carrot. By the
arrival of the Pilgrims the Wampanoag were using raised gardens and fish
for fertilizer, storing seeds, and inventing farm tools. They were a very
proud and creative people without whose help the Pilgrims would not have
survived.
Today, this history is preserved in Wampanoa, an authentic Wampanoag
village adjacent to Plimouth Plantation. The centerpiece of Wampanoa is
Hobamok's Homesite, which allows visitors to see history through the eyes
of one family. There is also the Wampanoag Educational Center, where families,
student groups and other visitors can learn Wampanoag skills and see them
practiced. While Wampanoa is considered a living history museum, these
are not actors. The tribe is not extinct. Members still live here, and
every portrayer in Wampanoa is an authentic full blooded Wampanoag passing
down his or her cultural heritage as it has been passed down to them through
the generations.
Hollywood has given us the dominant image of Native Amereicans as living
in teepees, riding horses across the open plains and hunting buffalo.
That was not the Wampanoag lifestyle. They built long houses with interlocking
frameworks and bark coverings, hiked through the dense forest, and farmed.
Theirs was a woodland coastal culture, and it was complex enough you could
spend several days here just studying its various aspects. There are many
programs set up to allow you to do just that. This is not the only living
history museum portraying the Native Americans, there being others in
Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Oklahoma. But this is the best.
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