STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) - Rachel Sayet grew up walking the hills of Mohegan and hearing the stories of her great aunt, Mohegan tribal icon Gladys Tantaquidgeon - but never in summer.
A nation lives in its culture, language and stories, Sayet, who wrote her master’s degree thesis on sovereignty and literature in the Aquinnah Wampanoag Nation, told about 30 people recently at the Woolworth Library & Research Center in Stonington.
For centuries, Native American identity was shunned and discouraged by European settlers and their descendants. But now, New England Native American tribes are working to restore that heritage.
Sayet said she is taking the reins from her famous late great aunt in researching the oral story traditions of New England to ensure they survive into the future. Sayet presented highlights of her 140-page Harvard University master’s thesis “Moshup’s Continuance: Sovereignty and the Literature of the Land in the Aquinnah Wampanoag Nation.”
Sayet, who also is library assistant for the Mohegan tribe, was the guest speaker at the Stonington Historical Society’s program “A Giant Still Lives in New England.” Society members made Native American or early colonial-style refreshments for the reception that followed, including bread pudding from a Mohegan recipe and pumpkin muffins.
The stories centered on Moshup, the giant spirit of many New England tribes, and Granny, the leader of the Makiawisug, the “Little People” who inhabit the woodlands throughout the region.
Sayet said her great aunts Gladys and Ruth and great uncle, Harold Tantaquidgeon would take her for walks and tell her stories about these spirits. They would leave little baskets of gifts - corn and tobacco - for the Little People.
But she was told, you don’t talk about them in summer. During the summer, spirits are more active, and they don’t like it when people talk about them. Bad things might happen to you then, she said, “like children being kidnapped.”
In November, that prohibition has passed, and Sayet felt free to describe how their stories are closely tied to the land in ways many New Englanders are unaware.
Moshup the Giant, according to the Aquinnnah Wampanoags of Martha’s Vineyard, created that island when he walked across Vineyard Sound and grew weary. His foot dragged, creating a trench that the water engulfed, making the island rise. Moshup loved the new cliffs he created in the area that became known as Gay Head. He caught whales with his bare hands and smashed them against the rocks before cooking them on a great fire.
The cliffs remained stained with the colors from his activity, Sayet said - red from the whale’s blood, yellow from the whale oil and black from the charcoal of Moshup’s fire.
In 2001, the Aquinnah Wampanoags reclaimed the traditional name Aquinnah for Moshup’s old stomping ground, and now there is even a Moshup’s Beach, an important part of the sovereignty of the tribe, Sayet said. She displayed a photo of Gladys Tantaquidgeon on Moshup’s Beach.
The stories don’t end with the creation of Martha’s Vineyard. Gayhead Light was built to protect ships from the deadly submerged rocks off the edge of Aquinnah. Settlers named them Devil’s Bridge, but the Aquinnah know them as Moshup’s Bridge.
In one story, Moshup supposedly wanted to create a bridge to Cuttyhunk Island across the Sound. But he was interrupted when he was bitten by a giant crab and turned and went home, leaving the bridge unfinished. Another story says an old woman objected to the work and deceived Moshup, who only would work at night, by shining a light into the henhouse causing the rooster to crow and Moshup to think dawn was coming.
Moshup the Giant was married to Granny, leader of the Little People, forever connecting the opposites to each other, Sayet said. Likewise, Moshup was king of the sea, while Granny led the people of the land.
Sayet said the stories always changed over time and by different storytellers. That too is part of the tradition, but the basics must remain the same.
For example, one Iroquois tradition says the Earth floats through space on the back of a great turtle.
“The stories may change, but the Earth never leaves the turtle’s back, and the turtle never walks away,” Sayet said.
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