Tribal Member Has Deep Sense of Place
By IAN FEIN
Durwood (Woody) Vanderhoop knows all too well the encroaching
pressures imposed on the average Vineyard resident - like a lack
of affordable housing, eroding environmental resources and a loss of
cultural traditions.
They are the same things his ancestors in the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay
Head (Aquinnah) have been struggling with for the last 350 years.
"It's exactly what happened to my people when the rules
started changing with the arrival of the first colonists out
here," said Mr. Vanderhoop, an elected member of the tribal
governing council. "I'm not in any way looking for sympathy,
or anything like that. But trying to maintain a sense of place and
culture - those are things we've been dealing with for a
long time."
The Wampanoags trace their existence back 10,000 years on the
Vineyard - which they called Noepe - but by the 1800s only
three tribal communities were left: in Gay Head, Chappaquiddick, and
Christiantown. The remaining tribal members eventually settled in
Aquinnah, and, roughly 20 years ago, became the only federally
recognized tribe in the commonwealth.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/08/04/content/woody_vanderhoop_sm.jpg" "It took a real sacrifice for my people to remain here,"
Mr. Vanderhoop said last week, sitting in the sun on the deck of tribal
headquarters off Black Brook Road. "I try to think about what it
would have been like for them, because this can be a really tough place
to live."
But despite the constant changes and challenges, Mr. Vanderhoop and
his fellow tribal members have not given up. He expressed faith in the
future of both the tribe and Island.
"It's always going to be hard. But I hope that with
careful planning and a lot of thought and dedication, we will be able to
make a good living out here for ourselves, and for the generations to
come," he said.
"That's what the Island Plan is all about."
A two-year planning effort launched by the Martha's Vineyard
Commission, the Island Plan will attempt to draft a blueprint for the
future of the Vineyard based on feedback from the community. The
commission will hold its second public forum on the plan at the Tisbury
Senior Center on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Mr. Vanderhoop recently rejoined the 19-member steering committee
for the Island Plan and, in many ways, is the perfect person to be
involved in the effort. Born and raised in Aquinnah, he was graduated
from Dartmouth College and later moved back to the Island to work for
the tribe.
Now 31, he holds the title of tribal planner - where he does
on a smaller scale every day what the commission is hoping to accomplish
Islandwide.
Mr. Vanderhoop said he spends most of his time thinking about what
he wants the Island to look like for the next generation of Wampanoags
and other Vineyard residents.
"One of my sisters is getting married and having a child, and
I don't know what her fate may be," said Mr. Vanderhoop,
whose piercing blue eyes bring an added level of gravity to his
carefully measured speech. "It's something I wonder about
every day. It's a burden I carry and take very seriously."
Just as some people say the Island is a microcosm of the rest of the
country, the tribe can serve as a microcosm for the Vineyard, Mr.
Vanderhoop said. And, in terms of planning for the future, the tribe
appears to be a few steps ahead of the pack.
Its development patterns, which fit many of the smart growth
principles embraced by the commission, could almost serve as a model for
the Islandwide planning efforts. Of the tribe's roughly 480 acres,
less than 100 are identified as developable.
Completed more than 10 years ago, the tribal housing development was
the first family affordable housing project on the Island. And Mr.
Vanderhoop said the tribe in a 1993 master plan decided to protect from
development certain areas within the Common Lands that contained
important natural resources - like blueberries, cranberries, and
beach plum.
The tribal headquarters was also one of the first commercial
buildings on the Island to incorporate green design techniques, and the
tribe has recently begun the permitting process to consider installation
of a wind turbine on tribal lands.
Mr. Vanderhoop said his people have learned to adapt to changes both
across the Island and in the larger world. But he stressed that any one
group cannot work in isolation, and that the many governments on the
Vineyard must work to assist one another. Partnering together, for
instance, he believes the town and tribe could make Aquinnah the first
energy-independent community in the nation.
"Many of us are very set on where one thing ends the other
begins; we're very provincial at times," Mr. Vanderhoop
said. "We need to look past the minor differences we might have,
and look instead at interesting new ideas and solutions to some of the
many problems that we share," he continued.
"If we're putting together a plan for the Island, we
ought to be looking at these partnerships as a way to effect some
change," he said. "Because if you can't share your
vision and needs, you will have difficulty accomplishing much of
anything."
Along with an ability to adapt, it is also vital to maintain a sense
of culture, history and tradition, Mr. Vanderhoop said. Younger tribal
members are now working to relearn the Wampanoag language, and to retain
knowledge of tribal songs and oral traditions, as well as of the
Island's natural resources.
Mr. Vanderhoop said he is particularly distressed by the demise of
the fishing stocks around the Vineyard - a primary means by which
Wampanoags sustained themselves for thousands of years.
"It's a big deal, when you're wishing to pass on
knowledge to the next generation, but there are no fish left," he
said, noting that as a child roughly 90 per cent of his meals came
straight out of Island waters. "When you sit down and listen to
some of the stories told by my father, grandfather and other elders, you
really have to be concerned."
Started a little over three years ago, the Wampanoag Aquinnah
Shellfish hatchery, if successful over the long term, could provide
steady employment and food while also helping restore the ecology of
Menemsha Pond. And Mr. Vanderhoop said that fishing and hunting, as well
as picking berries, are all ways to foster a spiritual connection with
the land.
"Part of our view is that people and land are pretty much one
and the same," Mr. Vanderhoop said. "We're of this
land, and our people who have passed on have gone back to it."
It is important to retain members who have grown up within the tribe
- just as it is important across the Island to keep young Vineyard
residents - because they are the ones who can cultivate the
culture. Many of the newer people coming to the Island today do not
share the same traditional values, Mr. Vanderhoop said.
"I'm not the first to say it, but there are people now
who, as soon as they move in, they put up a new fence. And as you look
around the Island today, and don't know many of our neighbors, you
should recognize that as a signal that some things are about to
change," he said. "I hate to dismiss a whole group of people
out of hand, but I really hope the people who come here take the time to
pay attention and learn why and how the locals live - and maybe
take a cue from that and try to help preserve the things that are
important."
Affordable housing is the biggest issue he faces as the tribal
planner, and was instrumental in his own ability to stay on the
Vineyard. His name in 2001 was one of the first drawn from a hat in a
lottery for residential homesites.
"I'm very fortunate, and very blessed with that
opportunity. And I have felt firsthand how programs like that can affect
people's lives," Mr. Vanderhoop said. "If you
don't have prospects for ever being established here, then any
motivation for staying around is minimal."
He tries to bring a perspective of and appreciation for the past to
the planning process currently underway.
"I've had a certain amount of values instilled in me
from the elders of our tribe, which I try to keep with me," he
said. "Our ancestors came here and looked upon the land and
decided this was a place they were going to make a living. I try to
think why," he continued.
"And I'm really humbled sometimes when I look out at the
cliffs, or just even around the town from up high," Mr. Vanderhoop
said. "To me it's the most beautiful place in the
world."
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