The Indian Church, oldest house of worship on Cape Cod, is a rare
landmark; likewise the Indian burial ground, whose oldest gravestone
marks the resting place of Chief Popmonnett, who died in 1770 at the
age of 51. The fame of historic Hotel Attaquin, a whaling skipper’s
enterprise, is such that someone, in 1910, filched the register which
bore the signatures of Daniel Webster, Joseph Jefferson, Charles Dana
Gibson, Grover Cleveland, John Drew and Finley Peter Dunne.
Two men survive in Mashpee who still speak the Wampanoag
tongue--Ambrose Pells and William James. One or the other intones the
primitive language over the grave when a Mashpee resident of Indian
descent is given to the earth.
In 1711, the Rev. Daniel Williams of London left a fund in charge of
Harvard University for the religious education of Indians. Mashpee
became the beneficiary of this largesse. Richard Bourne taught the
Indians here to govern themselves; they were authorized to hold their
own courts, try criminals and pass judgment. Further, Bourne caused a
law to be invoked whereby “No land could be bought by or sold to any
white person without the consent of all the Indians, not even with the
consent of the General Court.”
A Provincetown preacher, one Mr. Stone, appeared before the Mashpees
long ago and, in his sermon, laid particular stress on the evils of
alcohol. One of the Indians was asked how he liked the sermon. He
answered:
“Mr. Stone is one very good preacher, but he preach too much about rum.
Indian think nothing about it; but when he tells how Indian love rum,
and how much they drink, then I think how good it is, and think no more
’bout the sermon, my mouth waters all the time so much for rum.”