November 20, 2015
Mashpee, MA
Leadership
from the four Wampanoag tribal communities (including the Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe, the Aquinnah Wampanoag, the Assonet Band, and the Herring Pond
Wampanoag) served by the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project today
released a statement decrying the many cultural, historical, and linguistic
inaccuracies in the National Geographic’s (Nat Geo) production “Saints &
Strangers,” the latest "true story" about American Thanksgiving that aired this past weekend.
The Wôpanâak Language Reclamation
Project (WLRP) was originally approached last spring by Nat Geo
producers seeking the assistance of our linguists in developing Wôpanâak language content for “Saints and
Strangers” scripts. Producers also sought to develop contracts with local Wampanoag
cultural experts and historians, and with Wôpanâak
language teachers to provide dialogue coaching for cast members. Wôpanâak language is the language
spoken in this region of Cape Cod, and during the historical period addressed
in “Saints & Strangers.”
“I spent
hours consulting with the writers before any of the script was created,” said
Jessie Little Doe Baird, WLRP co-founder and linguistic director. Baird also
serves as vice chair of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and worked hard to convey
to Nat Geo writers and producers the importance of de-mythologizing the “false Thanksgiving
narrative commonly portrayed in American history.”
WLRP member and advisor Linda Coombs, Aquinnah
Wampanoag, who directs the Aquinnah Wampanoag Cultural Center on Martha’s
Vineyard also spent long hours working with Baird to review and comment on the problematic
draft scripts for the benefit of the Nat Geo production team.
Indeed, WLRP’s longstanding policy requires that material submitted for translation into Wôpanâak
language must be vetted for historical and cultural accuracy by the Wampanoag
community, so that the language will not be misused or appropriated into an
improper context by non-Wampanoag people.
WLRP’s linguists, board of directors, and voting student members of the
WLRP language committee initially expressed support for a collaboration with
Nat Geo producers.
Unfortunately, when Baird began reviewing grossly historically inaccurate and offensive script content,
Nat Geo not only refused to correct these misrepresentations, they also
proposed contracts denying WLRP the opportunity to only provide translations for
historically and culturally accurate content. It was at this point that WLRP declined to move forward with providing
translations, dialogue coaching, or cultural expertise to the production,
despite having already invested many hours providing historically true and culturally
accurate information to Nat Geo’s writers.
WLRP’s leadership has not yet viewed
“Saints & Strangers,” so we cannot comment on the final cut; however, the
language ultimately used in the series, Western Abenaki, is not indigenous to Cape Cod or to eastern Massachusetts, and
the shoddy material and culture on display in clips released by Nat Geo are poorly
conceived reproductions of 17th century Wampanoag regalia and
ceremonial practices.
While Western Abenaki is indeed a
sister language to Wôpanâak, Wampanoag people would never purport to tell
Abenaki history in our own language. The languages are distinctive and
separate. The Abenaki and Wôpanâak languages exhibit many
grammatical differences, so it is unfortunate that Nat Geo’s
translator spuriously represents Western Abenaki as a “sophisticated
amalgamation” of New England’s indigenous languages. Not only are these
statements patently false, but Algonquian language community leaders regularly
communicate and meet with one another to discuss our language work and how we
can collaborate and support one another – most recently this past spring at an
Algonquian language gathering in Maine.
Additionally Wôpanâak language teachers, students, and linguists urge Abenaki people
and speakers to sternly address their translator who has, in exchange for
financial remuneration, misrepresented his own language as a substitute
for Wôpanâak, in order to promote Nat Geo’s inaccurate and harmful portrayal of
Wampanoag history.
For
More Information Contact: info@wlrp.org or
Linda
Coombs, WLRP Immersion School Founding Trustee
and
Director, Aquinnah Wampanoag Cultural Center, acc@wampanoagtribe.net.
