Tribal leadership maintains it has aboriginal rights to any dead whales that beach along the shores of Noepe — the Wampanoag name for Martha’s Vineyard. Retaining that right has remained a priority for members, who have traditionally made use of whale meat, fat, bones and baleen.
The Wampanoag Tribe will receive the remaining skeleton of a dead juvenile humpback whale that washed up on Squibnocket Beach on Monday.
Matthew (Cully) Vanderhoop, natural resource director for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), said the skeleton will be put on exhibit at some future date in the tribe’s planned cultural center. He and a large team of scientists and volunteers spent much of yesterday cutting up the carcass and removing it from the beach.
Its scientific name is Codium fragile, but for many beachcombers across the Island the invasive macroalgae goes by a more ominous title: dead man’s fingers.
The race for the tribal council at-large seat for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) will go to a run-off this weekend after November’s election resulted in a tie.
Wampum jewelry, children’s art, pottery, headwear, and handicrafts filled Aquinnah town hall this weekend for the 4th Annual Aquinnah Artisans Holiday Fair.
Golf courses dominated the discussion following a lecture on the role of environmental mediation in resolving public policy and site disputes last Tuesday evening. Held at the Wakeman Center in Vineyard Haven, the lecture was sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, The Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration together awarded the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) more than $170,000 in grants this month.
Tucked between dense foliage on a lot not far from town hall, the apartments will serve as the first phase of a larger plan to revitalize the town center with a new playground and “food forest” of indigenous edible plants.
