Seaconke Wampanoag Holds 17th Annual POW WOW

Native people have been coming as far as Canada to join in the annual gathering of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe. The members of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe have been holding their annual POW WOW in Rehoboth since 1996. The past 10 years they have been bringing the sounds and sights that once were common in New England to the Red Way Plain on Route 44.

The members of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe are the decedents of the Tribe of Anawan. Rehoboth, Seekonk and Swansea hold a long forgotten rich history that lead to the expansion of the colonies spread across the New England, Swansea was the flash point and Seekonk was beginning site of the King Philip’s War.

King Philip was the name the colonist gave to Metacoment who was the son of Masasoit the old Chief of the Wamponag Indian nation. Masasoit and the Wamponag Indians were the Indians that greeted the Pilgrims when they arrived on the shores of Plymouth. Over the next 50 years the two cultures coexisted in peace and understanding. When Masasoit and Miles Standish died the agreements of the past faded away and the colonist encroached on the lands of the natives and persecuted them for it.

Metacoment lead an attack on the colonist in Seekonk, Swansea and Rehoboth with the goal of eradicating the lands of the Wamponag of the greedy lying colonist. Metacoment was killed in 1675 by a turncoat Indian and old Anawan, the War Chief to Wasaoit was later captured at the sight of Anawan’s Rock in Rehoboth the following year bring the end of the King Philip wars and the Wampanoag tribes as they once were. Members of the tribe were killed, sold into slavery or sold to the local and used a household servants. Those that were kept as household servants were told never to speak of the past or practice the ways of past resulting in the culture and traditions of Wampanoag being silenced. A piece of history never taught or learned in your history class.

Today the descendents of those survivors are still discovering the ways of the past and the truth of what happen to their ancestors. Each year the Seaconke Tribe holds there POW WOW just before the seasonal change. A POW WOW is an event where native people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor Native American culture and traditions. POW WOWs can be a time to honor and thank the Creator for the lands harvest or honor the season for a being kind to the people. Native drummers and singer come and sing songs in the native language and dancer dance traditional and non-traditional dancers honoring the elders, warriors or re-enact a hunt.

History is made every day and discovered every day. For the Seaconke they continue to discover and make history.