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By SEAN GONSALVES
STAFF WRITER
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/solemnwampanoag11.htm
MASHPEE - It has been almost three years since excavators unearthed an unmarked 18th century Indian burial ground as they began digging a foundation on the last buildable lot in the Little Neck Bay Village section of New Seabury.
Yesterday, after a traditional Wampanoag ceremony, the Mashpee Wampanoag descendants of those laid to rest on the Mizzenmast Lane property reburied the skeletal remains that were dug up by the excavators.
The quarter-acre lot, which developer Steve Berish sold to a land preservation trust for $200,000, will be filled and converted into a memorial park.
Accompanied by two Massachusetts Historical Commission archeologists, executive director of the state's Commission on Indian Affairs Jim Peters arrived at the site a little before 10 a.m. with three cardboard boxes. Inside the boxes were dozens of plastic storage bags containing the fragmented remains of nine unknown Wampanoag.
Mashpee Wampanoag Chief Vernon Lopez lit a shell full of sage and, with a feather, waved the cleansing smoke over the 15 tribal members who came to help rebury their ancestors.
Jim Peters, who is the son of the late John "Slow Turtle" Peters, a well-known Wampanoag medicine man and first executive director of the state's Commission on Indian Affairs, spread a gray blanket on the ground near one of the graves.
He took the plastic bags out of the boxes, each one tagged with numbers identifying which remains came from which grave. Before carefully placing the bags on the blanket, he opened the bags to expose the remains to the sage now being feather-fanned into the bags by Chief Lopez.
Peters' sister, Ramona Peters, a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council member, led the ceremony with a prayer circle, asking for the Creator's forgiveness for disturbing the burial ground, which the Wampanoag consider to be sacred land.
She offered thanks to Steve Berish, who worked with the tribe and state officials to sell the land to the Boston-based Trust for Public Land. Berish did not attend the ceremony.
Ramona Peters also gave a brief eulogy for each of the nine unnamed Indians reburied yesterday. Before the sparse, fragmented remains were covered with dirt, Peters shared what details forensic archeologists turned up about the lives of those buried there.
"At this gravesite," Peters said, "was a woman. We don't know her name but the archeologists say she was between 45 and 55 when she was buried. She had big soulful eyes and arthritis."
Although several of the graves were those of children, most were the graves of adults ranging in age from 35 to 55. Also buried with the remains were the coffin fragments that hadn't completely decomposed.
After excavators unearthed two skulls in August 1999, state police were called in to investigate. Detectives quickly determined that the Mizzenmast lot was not a crime scene, but an Indian burial ground. Seventeen graves were identified by state archeologists, nine of which were disturbed by the digging.
State archeologists say the burial ground was a private family cemetery on the property of Roseanna Jonas, who owned 60 acres of land in the area before it became part of New Seabury, one of the Cape's premier private seaside resort communities.
Jonas' great-great-grandson Richardson Jonas attended yesterday's ceremony with his wife and daughter.
Jonas, who lives in Cotuit, said he remembers going down to Little Neck Bay with his father. "My father had a memory like an elephant but he never mentioned this. I don't think he knew," he said.
What his father could remember, Jonas said, was that up until the early 20th century only about six Wampanoag families lived in the area. Jonas speculates that the graves are those of his family and probably several other tribal members who lived nearby.
"It's been a long time," he said. "I'm thankful to Mr. Berish and the state and I'm happy that these people can finally rest in peace."
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