Protestors gathered at Martha's Vineyard Airport and in Aquinnah as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the Island Tuesday for a meeting with a federal tribal advisory committee.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s Health and Human Services Secretary, visited the Vineyard Tuesday and was met by more than 100 protesters en route to meet with a federal tribal advisory committee.
Mr. Kennedy landed at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport at 12:30 p.m. and his motorcade headed down-Island before arriving in Aquinnah at about 3 p.m. The secretary was on the Island to meet with 17 delegates of the Department of health and Human Services Secretary Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC) for their annual meeting. The event was being hosted by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and this was the first time it was held on-Island.
As Mr. Kennedy left the airport, dozens of protesters crowded the entrance carrying signs saying “We Trust Science.” Along State Road leading up to Aquinnah, some homeowners put similar signs out at the end of their driveways.
James Moreis joins the protest in Aquinnah.
James Moreis joins the protest in Aquinnah.
In Aquinnah, Mr. Kennedy’s two-SUV brigade honked at about 100 protesters spilling into the State Road and lower Moshup Trail intersection in Aquinnah while booing and shaking signs.
Among the protestors were members of the Aquinnah tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Chappaquiddick. One tribal member played a drum while others sang and carried a sign stating “You’re On Native Land.”
The tribal advisory committee is set up to ensure tribal leaders have contact with department officials. Nyssa Duarte, the Aquinnah tribe’s nurse, stood with protestors Tuesday and was concerned about what Mr. Kennedy’s visit could mean for her community.
“He spreads misinformation,” she said. “He’s anti-science. He’s anti-medicine.”
Mr. Kennedy was sworn in as the secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department in February and is tasked with overseeing several different divisions, including the National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
He is a controversial figure for his stance on vaccines and spreading medical advice that often goes against established scientific evidence. On Monday, he stood beside President Donald Trump as they announced the move to approve a chemotherapy drug to alleviate symptoms of autism, despite little evidence, and warned pregnant women from taking acetaminophen, claiming a link to autism in children, according to national reports.
Ms. Duarte also wanted to decry Aquinnah tribal council chairwoman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais for not including the tribe’s health department, or the tribal community, in her decision to host Mr. Kennedy on their homelands.
Protestors gather as Aquinnah police chief Randhi Belain looks on.
Protestors gather as Aquinnah police chief Randhi Belain looks on.
“[The chairwoman] doesn’t really have the credentials herself to be speaking on public health, science, medicine [and] all of those things,” Ms. Duarte said. “So to not include people in our tribe who do work in that field or have the expertise to speak on it is just more disturbing.”
Ms. Duarte said she’s concerned the secretary’s stance on vaccines could deter tribal members from seeking the care they need.
“I don’t want to see people who need to protect their families not come in because of misinformation,” she said.
The Aquinnah protest was organized by Julianne Vanderhoop, a member of the Aquinnah select board and Aquinnah tribal elder, alongside Mitzi Pratt, who has had a hand in pulling together a number of other protests and community gatherings in town.
Ms. Vanderhoop said the Island and Aquinnah are a microcosm of the rest of the nation. She said she’s concerned Mr. Kennedy is taking away vaccines from those who need it, and hoped having him on-Island would highlight the concerns of Vineyarders.
“I hope that our council will understand what we’re saying here today and stand-up for it with stern words…” Ms. Vanderhoop said. “We feel unsafe and we need them to help us.”
Ms. Pratt was appalled at past moves of the government to gut services and said the community needs to stand up and resist. She said the solidarity between tribal members and non-Native residents, like herself, is heartwarming.
Protestors also gathered at the airport for when the secretary landed.
Protestors also gathered at the airport for when the secretary landed.
“We’re on Native land here,” Ms. Pratt said. “It is impossible to live here, whether you’re tribal or not, and not be aware all the time [of] the injustice that had taken place for so long in our country.”
“My hope is that the breakdown of everything that’s happening now enables us to build up and really embody the Bill of Rights in the Constitution that never fully applied to everyone,” she said.
Beverly Wright, a former chairwoman of the Aquinnah tribe, carried a sign saying “Alpha-Gal For Truth.” Ms. Wright said she was not attending the protest to condemn Mr. Kennedy’s visit to the Island, since the secretary of the HHS visits a tribal nation each year for STAC’s annual meeting.
“I don’t have a problem with him coming to do what the department does,” Ms. Wright said. “I have a problem with what he’s putting out there… It gets my tribal members and everybody else worried.”
Ms. Wright stood beside her friend Berta Welch, an Aquinnah tribal elder known for her contemporary wampum jewelry. She said she was protesting because Health and Human Services is not looking out for tribal communities.
Ms. Welch said she’s concerned about access to the Covid-19 vaccine. In August, the FDA restricted Covid-19 vaccines to adults ages 65 and older, along with kids and adults with at least one medical condition that puts them at risk of severe illness.
Beverly Wright, far right, carries an "Alpha-gal for truth" sign.
Beverly Wright, far right, carries an "Alpha-gal for truth" sign.
“We’re traditionally intergenerational families and it doesn’t make sense just to have a few people in the household vaccinated with others not,” Ms. Welch said. “The way to protect everybody is that everybody has the same access.”
Linda Vadasz, a West Tisbury resident, held a sign saying “my friend died of COVID-19. Where are the vaccines?”
Ms. Vadasz said her close friend, 90-year-old Myra Stark, died from the disease on Sept. 8. Though Ms. Stark had gotten the Covid-19 vaccine in years past, Ms. Vadasz said it pains her to hear the nation’s health secretary spread misinformation others may believe.
“It makes me so angry and sad at the same time because we all deserve to have the facts, not fiction,” she said.
She said she hopes Mr. Kennedy will read her sign and know his actions have consequences.
“I hope he leaves with the knowledge that many people on this Island, where his family has lived for a couple of generations, also have disowned him and I think he needs to own up to his own ignorance,” she said.
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