Save the Herring! Redesigning the Herring Runs using TEK.

There’s a movement happening in Indian Country: Tribal governments are passing laws declaring that Nature has legal rights. The Mashpee Wampanoag are concerned with water quality and the Herring; a vulnerable species still relied upon for sustenance. Fish ladders built by the state are impeding them from spawning in their ancestral mating ponds and the population is suffering. Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members still actively exercise aboriginal hunting, gathering, fishing and harvesting rights never to have been compromised to this day. As a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, woman, mother environmental ambassador, outdoorswoman, farmer, artist and author; I am actively using my ancestral homelands as inspiration to build a better future for my children and the next seven generations. Growing up in Mashpee and now raising my children and operating a small business in Mashpee, I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to take care of and improve the place I love so much. As the owner of the Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery and founder of the Wampanoag Art Academy Inc., it is my mission to use traditional indigenous art as a tool for innovative and creative solutions within our local community and economy.    I continue to use the current opportunities I am given to offer others a platform and give voice to the issues that are relevant to us as indigenous people inhabiting lands that are constantly under attack by development and harmful environmental policies.

The specific problem at hand is the structural design of the 3 herring runs located in Mashpee and that the Herring face a crisis of migration as their traditional migratory routes through certain rivers and streams leading to their mating ponds are significantly and unnecessarily obstructed by man-made “runs”, which are artificial structures used to facilitate the Herring's natural migration and intend to enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps.  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts failed to consult the Mashpee Wampanoag on the design, installation, construction and ongoing improvements of the fish ladders.  The tribe and its members continue to monitor the Herring throughout each season and finds that the population has declined by approximately 95% as of 2023 creating a state of emergency.  The role of the Wampanoag Art Academy Inc. and the Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery is to facilitate and coordinate design ideas from indigenous artists, partnering organizations and architectural design firms specializing in using state of the art technology, naturally inspired and aesthetically designed concepts rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge that do not obstruct nature but rather enhance its natural intended design while creating a flourishing habitat for the air, water and land beings.  

The solution in simple terms is to destroy the 3 standing herring runs in Mashpee and rebuild new ones. The fish ladders built by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including, but not limited to the fish ladders located at Mashpee, Santuit, and Quashnet, are not suitable natural replacements for the former free-running fish ladders previously located on certain streams and rivers on which the Herring rely.  The solution to the redesign of the runs lies within the Traditional Ecological Knowledge ("TEK") of the longstanding stewardship of herring by eastern woodland indigenous peoples.  Through TEK, practice, experience, and relationships with nature the Mashpee Wampanoag has an important role in defending, healing, and proposing a new concept plan.  The Wampanoag Art Academy Inc. will research concepts and gather a team to propose at least 3 new fish run designs to present to the Tribe, town of Mashpee and State of Massachusetts.  This will be the first time in Massachusetts history that a tribal group proposing a design concept that will be used and shared state-wide for the sole purpose of advancing aboriginal hunting and fishing rights as well as promoting the Rights of Nature.  

The solution serves the Herring population and benefits the livelihood of individual Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members lives!  The Herring are critical to the livelihood of the Tribe and have a very important role in balancing the natural ecosystem and without a thriving Herring population, tribal citizens are denied their right to a sustainable livelihood selling, trading, or harvesting Herring for personal use.  The Herring are essential to the economic security, health and safety of the tribe because without a thriving Herring population, the tribe’s aboriginal hunting, fishing, and gathering rights are violated.  

We take our stewardship seriously, and  have never abdicated our sacred responsibilities of the natural resources of our historical homelands and governance of natural resources on our Reservation and tribal lands.  This issue is so close to the heart, that this is the first time the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has declared a state of emergency for a sentient being and is passing a Rights of Nature law within tribal government.  

The process and solution will impact Indian country and serve as an example for other tribes to advocate for the legal personhood of their sacred plant and animal beings, but also create tangible, structural solutions for the progress of us all.  

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is located on cape cod and is comprised of about three thousand members.  The community inhabits our original homelands and have never been relocated.  Our aboriginal hunting, fishing, gathering and foraging rights are strongly exercised by tribal members and the herring fish play a major role in that. 

This project will benefit the Mashpee Wampanoag community and the indigenous artists affiliated with the Wampanoag Art Academy and Wampanoag Trading Post and Gallery.  If funding is granted, and a concept design is created and implemented then other tribal communities in Massachusetts can use the process as a best practices model and begin the conversations about restructuring the herring and fish runs in other parts of Massachusetts as well.  

I am a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member and taking the lead on this solution as an extension of the work I have been doing on the Rights of Nature for my tribe.  The Mashpee Rights of Nature Initiative began in 2022 with inter-tribal forums sponsored by the Bioneers Indigeneity program where I serve as the Tribal Governance lead.  These sessions were so successful, tribal members are now feeling extremely motivated to assume jurisdiction over the herring runs and declare legal guardianship of the Herring through tribal law. 

I have been a seed steward of various species of corn since 2018 and specifically the Wampanoag Corn called King Philip Corn for the last 3 years. I love corn, dream of corn, wrote a book about corn and speak on her behalf as much as I possibly can. I often educate folks on the three sisters but lately am speaking more about what could be considered the 4th sister- Herring.  When the fish start running in the spring, our tribe has many herring festivals to kick off the new year.  I also start gathering the herring for smoking, salting, freezing and most importantly to fertilize my corn mounds.  Without her to nourish the soil, the corn harvests would not be as successful as they have been. So the impact that our efforts have on the fish also affect the cultural and ritual components of our tribal society. 

I am a tribal member and I live in the tribal community.  I know our issues best and am serving first hand in the drafting of resolutions, the writing of grants, the coordination of youth, artists, tribal departments and outside organizations to simply and lovingly save the herring and making lasting thoughtful change in my community.  Educationally speaking, I have a masters degree in sustainable development with a focus on public policy.  I grew up in an artist household with a mother that was an artist and art teacher for over 20 years here in the Mashpee School system.  I don't know if I'm the "right" person to do this, but I am the only person doing this.  With funding, coordination and time, all things will come together and even if I fail, someone will come along and try again and that is all that matters.  This effort is a process.  Changing the minds of the collective while educating non-natives on the importance of the rights of nature, rights of herring, tribal law, tribal art and traditional ecological knowledge is a process!  This has to be done in a inclusive and participatory way utilizing all tribal member input and the energy of the youth coupled with the wisdom of the elders.  

I am a solver in my own right and MIT is located in Massachusetts in our homelands and has the funds to help the indigenous population that is completely underserved and underrepresented within the institution.  I think the tribe and MIT can have a long standing relationship and MIT can help elevate our traditional ecological knowledge to a place where it can be implemented in modern times.  

A mashpee Wampanoag Tribal member