Today is a time of celebrating for you … but it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People … The Pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape Cod four days before they had robbed the graves of my ancestors, and stolen their corn, wheat, and beans … Massasoit, the great leader of the Wampanoag, knew these facts; yet he and his People welcomed and befriended the settlers … little know that … before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoags … and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them … Although our way of life is almost gone and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts … What has happened cannot be changed, but today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important.
Frank James, Wampanoag (First Nation), Massachusetts
