Aquinnah History

1998

May 8, 1998

It is Official: It's Aquinnah

The Vineyard Gazette
Aquinnah History
Aquinnah
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head

One week after the bill was laid on his desk, acting Gov. Paul Cellucci yesterday signed into law the change that has been awaited by the Island’s smallest town since almost a year ago. The governor’s signature made it official.

The town of Gay Head is no more; long live the town of Aquinnah.

1989

July 21, 1989

Historic Transfer of Indian Lands Signed

W.C. Platt
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
Aquinnah History
The town of Gay Head signed the deed conveying the ancestral Wampanoag Indian Common Lands to the federal government yesterday, ending a protracted legal struggle for the tribe with quiet agreement.
 
The face of the Gay Head Cliffs, the Herring Creek and the cranberry bogs will be under the control of the Wampanoag Tribal Council of Gay Head Inc. as the representative of the Gay Head Wampanoag Tribe.
 

1967

June 16, 1967

Gay Head School Out for Summer and for Good

Edith Blake
Aquinnah History
Aquinnah
Schools
High on a windy promontory at the end of the Island stands the Gay Head School. It is a one-room school with all the traditional trimmings, from flag to red paint, that one-room schools are supposed to have. Outside there is a playground and a pond, and inside there are actually two rooms, but one is used as a kitchen-storeroom-catch-all sort of place and the other is a classroom.
 
For the past eleven years, Mrs. James Manning has been the teacher at the school, teaching kindergarten through the fourth grade to a varying number of children.
 

1966

August 2, 1966

Island Is Special, Secretary Udall Says at Gay Head

Peter S. McGhee
Gay Head Cliffs
Conservation
Aquinnah History
In a friendly but eloquent mixture of encouragement, advice and warning to the whole Island, Secretary of the Interior Steward L. Udall formally dedicated the colorful clay cliffs of Gay Head as a National Landmark on Saturday afternoon.
 

1937

February 26, 1937

When Gay Head Was Still Just a District

Vineyard Gazette
Wampanoag history
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
Aquinnah History
A collection of old documents dating far back in the last century has been unearthed in the old Jeffers house at Gay Head by Lorenzo D. Jeffers, the present owner of the estate of his ancestors. These documents consist of letters, ledgers, bills and notations kept by Thomas Jeffers, grandfather of the present owner.
 

1918

July 18, 1918

Governor Visits the Town and Presents Shield of Honor

Vineyard Gazette
Presidents
Calvin Coolidge
Aquinnah History

Saturday last was a big day in the annals of Martha’s Vineyard when Governor McCall, in the presence of a gathering of many hundreds of citizens of this and other States, presented to the town of Gay Head the Shield of Honor, which has been well-styled “the most coveted of New England’s patriotic honors.”

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