A Wampanoag linguist visiting Bermuda for the upcoming Native Bermuda Festival, said she felt an instant sense of kinship with many St. David’s Islanders.

Jessie (Little Doe) Baird a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag of Mashpee, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was in Bermuda to give a lecture at St. David’s Night held last Friday in the Berkeley Institute auditorium. The lecture kicked off the bi-annual festival to be held this weekend at the St. David’s Cricket Club Grounds organised by the St. David’s Island Historical Society Indian Committee.

“Another woman in our tribe originally told me about the folks down this way,” said Mrs. Baird. “When we had our homecoming powwow this summer I met Brinky (St. Clair (Brinky) Tucker of St. David’s) and a bunch of other folks from this way. We hung out with them at my cousin’s house. The Bermudians we met were a lot like us. A contingent of folks from our area went to Bermuda. When they came back they said ‘you have to go there; everybody at home has a twin down there’.”

Mrs. Baird spoke to The Royal Gazette only a day after arriving in Bermuda with her husband Jason, but she said she could already see for herself similarities between St. David’s Islanders and native people at home.

“Looking at people, the few that came around Brinky’s house, they resembled some families around home — maybe not Wampanoag or Mashpee, but maybe Pequot or Narragansett families.

“The way people interact and talk about their families is similar. I feel that I can now discuss something with Brinky that is a personal family issue that I wouldn’t discuss in mixed company. He would get it, and have a similar story about his family.”

She said another likeness was the way that St. David’s Islanders all have nicknames.

“Everybody in St. David’s has nicknames, and everybody at home has nicknames,” she said. “I don’t even know half of my elders’ real names. Back in my town there are people named Streaker and Weasel, Punk and Shriz. Sometimes you get a nickname which is your parent’s name, which I find infuriating. I get called Little Loretta a lot, after my mom.”

Mrs. Baird co-chairs the W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak Language Reclamation Project which was started in 1993 as a collaboration between tribes in the Wampanoag nation. In 1996 Mrs. Baird worked on the project as part of a Masters degree in linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“I taught myself to speak the language,” said Mrs. Baird who is a former social worker and the mother of five children. “While I was teaching myself linguistics and myself to speak, I was teaching our communities at the same time. We haven’t had any speakers in six generations. Our two-year-old, Mae Alice, is the first native speaker. My husband and I decided early on that we would raise her to speak the language.”

W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak was one of the first Native American languages to be written down. Many W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak documents still exist including wills, family papers and letters to the Massachusetts government from the 1700s, pleading with lawmakers to keep white settlers from taking their land. The first Bible printed in the New World was a W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak translation of the King James Bible printed in 1663.

Since getting her Masters degree in 2000, Mrs. Baird has been teaching the language to her community full-time.

“I have had over 100 students,” she said. “I would say there are about five or six people that can carry on a conversation. Now it is common to hear people greet each other in W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak. It is common in Mashpee to have our tribal meetings and socials opened with prayer. We are hearing again sounds that belong to us.”

She said since she has been in Bermuda, she has been asked if she would bring the Wampanoag language back to St. David’s Islanders.

“I don’t think people understand that in the Algonquin language family itself there were 33 languages with dialects within those,” she said. “W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak is just one of those with an island and mainland dialect. If I was to serve everyone here for any language that was possibly theirs it would entail learning six or seven different languages and dialects.”

But she said she was willing to ask the language committee at home if it was alright to teach St. David’s Islanders some W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak. When Mrs. Baird teaches, the classes are usually only open to those who would have spoken the language naturally.

“The committee is willing to have other native people come to our classes, so it would probably be fine,” she said. “I would come and do W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak, but it would be W|0xf4|pan|0xe2|ak and maybe it would be Pequot. I am in the middle of reconstructing Pequot and teaching it in Connecticut. So, it is a possibility.”

She said all across the country Native Americans were attempting to reclaim lost languages and cultural practices. In many parts of the United States at different points in history it was illegal for Native Americans to speak their language. Language and culture was also decimated by the forcible removal of Native American children to white, often religious-oriented boarding schools in the United States and Canada. This happened right up until recent times. Mr. and Mrs. Baird were staying with St. Clair (Brinky) Tucker, one of the founders of the St. David’s Island Indian Committee, a subset of the St. David’s Island Historical Society.

“Prior to forming the committee we (a group of St. David’s Islanders) did our genealogy, and did a lot of research in the archives to make sure we were on the right course,” said Mr. Tucker. “Many people have always referred to St. David’s Islanders as Mohawks. Mohawks never came to Bermuda. However, the Wampanoag and Pequot, Narragansett, Caribes did come to Bermuda. They were brought here against their will. They were sold in St. George’s. There is a lot of evidence of what took place. Some of it is not pleasant. If you go searching you will find it in the archives.”

Most of the Native American slaves lived and worked in St. David’s although some were sent to other parts of the Island to work. Until recently, being a St. David’s Islander held a stigma.

“Before it was only discussed around the kitchen table because of the ridicule,” said Mr. Tucker. “There was name calling and teasing because of our culture and ancestry. Some of the girls were spit on. St. David’s Islanders used to fight when they were called names.”

Mr. Tucker said for this reason many people chose to remain in St. David’s, fishing and farming, for most of their lives.

“My mother was a born and bred St. David’s Islander,” he said. “She was always extremely proud of being so. From a young child I was told around the kitchen table about our heritage, and what I should be like and act like, despite the distractions of St. David’s.”

He said the work of the St. David’s Island Indian Committee has helped to raise community pride in St. David’s.

“People are extremely proud now to be a St. David’s Islander,” he said. “So much so that at our first Native Bermuda festival in 2002, a lot of the elders got very emotional.”

Mr. Tucker said the Native Bermuda Festival gets bigger and better all the time. This year it will be attended by 80 Native Americans, many of them drummers, dancers and singers.

“We have made lifelong friends,” said Mr. Tucker. “There are about 18 Native Americans who are staying in private homes. In some cases they have discovered distant relatives.

“Events like this are definitely healing. We want to be taught things. Since 2002, we stick our chest out and speak with our own accent. There are some words that St. David’s Islanders use that people in other parts of the Island don’t use. We cut words in half and say funny things.”

There will be a spiritual ceremony to recognise ancestors tomorrow, and the Native Bermuda Festival will be on June 23 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will include arts and crafts, historical displays, Native American song, dance, drumming along with performances by Bermuda’s own Warwick Gombeys. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children.