Join the National Park Service for a conversation with Faries Gray, Sagamore (War Chief) of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag.
Ten thousand years ago, as the great sheets of ice covering North America began to recede, the Massachusett were here.
When the first Europeans arrived in the late 16th century, bringing with them disease, war, and a hunger for more and more land, millions of indigenous people were killed, and more were displaced to the point that many believe there are no indigenous people left in the Boston area.
Nothing could be farther from the truth as Faries Gray, Sagamore of the Massachusett, shares his experiences in educating the non-indigenous community that "We are still here."
About Faries:
Faries Gray is the Sagamore (War Chief) of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, as well as one of the Massachusett tribal historians. For the last 20 years, Faries has worked with multiple cities, towns, schools, colleges, and universities to educate them about the Massachusett Tribe during the early years of colonization.
Presently Faries is working with all the historic tribes within the Commonwealth to lobby for schools and our representatives to ban the use of Indigenous mascots in all public schools in the Commonwealth. Faries works part time for the NITHPO office of the MedicineMan for the Narragansett Tribe. This work includes identifying ceremonial landscapes in the effort to prevent these landscapes from being developed.