Beside the Museum of Fine Art staircase in Boston rests a shimmering statue of Julia Marden holding an eagle feather fan triumphantly above her head.
“Hopefully this whole experience will open people’s eyes,” said author Linda Coombs. “This history needs to be told.”
Last week, six former students, now elders of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), gathered in the Aquinnah town hall to talk about the history of the Gay Head School and the impact it had on their lives.
A six-foot long cape covered with gray turkey feathers sits triumphantly inside a glass box at the Aquinnah Cultural Center. It may be the first of its kind to be created in over 400 years.
Historian and Wampanoag tribal elder Linda Coombs recently published Colonization and the Wampanoag Story. On Monday, she spoke at Aquinnah town hall about her book and her career.
It's been 402 years since English religious pilgrims settled in Plymouth at the native Wampanoag town of Patuxet.