History is Alive at Wainer Woods

Can you tell me a little bit about your family history in Westport? 

We as Native Americans have always been here for 12,000, some say 15,000 years. We are the Dartmouth Indians of the 1861 Earle report. All of area of Westport, New Bedford and all of Dartmouth were once all considered Dartmouth. The Pocasset Wampanoag of Pokanoket Nation’s village on the Wattupa Reservation was established in 1709 officially but occupied since 1705 through land removal. This has always been our territory, we were just moved to a sliver of our total lands. 

Fifty of my Cuffe/Wainer relatives lived on that reservation in the 1700’s and 1800’s. We married other Native Americans from those who remained from other tribes of the area. So yeah we’ve been here a while. Despite 99% of our population being wiped out and we never left. That’s why the land is so special to me and people need to know that.

So what attracted them to Westport? 

I think the location and proximity of New Bedford, which was Dartmouth. Westport and New Bedford once all called Dartmouth. I think that the river connecting to the ocean was very, very attractive to them. It was a means of being sea captains for those who came from a long line of sea captains.

What background were they coming from? 

Michael Wainer was one of the Martha's Vineyard black whaling captains. They considered him black, even though he was Native American.  He came off of the sea as a captain and then became a farmer.  In the 17th and 18th century, instead of having a bank, they would buy land and put their money into the land. Buy land and build ships and then sell it to other family members. At one point in time the family had eight farms in total in Westport and Dartmouth.

Were they doing other businesses on those properties?

Yes, I would think. There were probably many agricultural business opportunities on those other farm properties as the industrial sector grew, so did families and goods were needed. The Captain’s original name was Micah Quaben. He grew up in and around  what is now called The Elizabeth Islands and Buzzards Bay. He started a sea captain and whaler. Whaling was hard dangerous work and required long stretches away for home, so he traded in his sea legs for land and became a farmer. He was a renaissance Man. He reinvented himself because he understood the changing times. Cordwainer and the tanning is was what turned to for a living. I think that’s where the name Wainer came from, Micah the cordwainer probably became Micheal Wainer. 

Along side my grandmother, together they owned and ran what is now Davoll’s store. The Captain was also a carpenter and ship builder. He partnered with my Uncle Paul Cuffe to build ships that sailed the oceans of the world. Exporting goods from here and then importing other goods from Europe, Africa and The Caribbean to sell here and in New Bedford. Captain Paul Cuffe’s store was located right near the site of the Whaling Museum in New Bedford.

Do you think he had a good perspective on business that was happening in the whole area?

I think he was a visionary, and I think that he understood what was coming. He was a businessman as well as a community leader. He and Paul Cuffe teamed up to do numerous “first”  things for community building: for instance putting up half the money for the FRIENDS meeting house here in Westport  and opening a grist mill.

Did they meet through doing business together? 

Mary Wainer was my grandmother, Mary Wainer Slocum, Paul Cuffe’s older sister. So that's how they came together, Michael Wainer and Paul Cuffe were were brother in laws and hey went into business together. Michael Wainer was already established and Paul joined him. They had a very good business acumen, so they managed to build an empire.

They set  themselves up at the Head of Westport,  correct? 

Yes, to do the shipping business and to build ships. Michael Wainer was a ship builder and a captain. He went into that and through that, along with his other enterprises. So it was initially a family connection that sparked the business, but as time passed they started buying pieces of property all over the Dartmouth area.

Can you tell me about the grist mill?

They had a Bush mill, which is for grinding grain. (Often a bustling center of the community) 

Were they hired to grind other people's grain?

They had the shipbuilding business and they were farmers simultaneously. I imagine people brought their grain to be ground.  The family were mariners and agricultural simultaneously. Paul was out on the sea whaling and procuring items from Africa and the Caribbean. He had a store right where the New Bedford Whaling Museum is.  That's where Paul Cuffe’s store was. He used to import tropical foods and a variety of goods from Africa.  I imagine fruits and seeds, wood, spices, etc. Any number of things that were popular at that time. There were certain lineaments, leaves and specialized items that were procured that weren't native to this place, but were brought here and utilized.

Can you give me an idea of Michael Wainer and Paul Cuffe’s accomplishments? 

 I'm going to give  a bit of time to each one because this is a very long story. 

I think if we go with the community, they were abolitionists. They were about getting and and having equal rights for all people. Paul Cuffe and Michael Wainer petitioned the state House legislature for the right to vote.  The argument was the very thing that we were in a war with Britain over: taxation without representation.

At the time only rich white landowners that were able to vote. But my family, being Native American black and owning a considerable amount of land, they were expected to pay taxes but not to vote. So there was a petition…

It wasn't taken up by the House right then and there. But two or three years later, everybody in the state was allowed to vote whether they were a man or woman or a minority.

That was passed. I think their case spearheaded the argument. Paul Cuffe was able to afford a lawyer. His business partner was William Roche, Junior.  William Roche Senior was a senator. That may have helped.

He was as I mentioned an import / export merchant. He hired a lot of people in the community, sailors of color, and provided a means for them. One of the things he used to do when somebody was lost at sea was he would buy the deed to the house and give it to the widow and the children. So a lot of people in Westport, their changed generational wealth is directly related to my family and that was something that he was about.

Can you speak a bit about the history of the Native population here in Massachusetts?

There was the yellow fever outbreak, which wiped out 90% of the Native population in Massachusetts. Even before colonial settlement began in the immediate area, the Massachuset population had been greatly reduced by warfare with their northeastern neighbors. The tribe was decimated by a pestilence in 1617; a smallpox epidemic in 1633 wiped out most remaining members of the tribe, including the chief.

Paul Cuffe built a yellow fever clinic to help out. He also built the first school that was integrated because his kids weren't allowed to be educated. And, you know, back then, people of color weren't allowed to read or write. That's why today I wear a shirt with my grandfather's signature cut out imprinted on it.

How was Paul Cuffe educated?

My grandmother taught her husband Cuffe Slocum his African name. Cuffe Slocum, Pauls father raised his family on Cuttyhunk and later moved the family to Dartmouth and Westport. He was from the Ashanti tribe. She taught him how to read and write along with Paul and my other aunts and uncles.  She knew even back then in the 1700s how important it was that her family, her children, learned how to read and write English because of what she had seen with the treaties. People signed treaties and did not understand they were giving up so much.

Just before the Revolutionary War, Cuffe Slocum bought a 125 acre farm as a slave and moved his family off of Cuttyhunk, where Paul learned to sail and navigate. Later as a teenager he smuggled food out to help the starving people on the islands, going to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and all the islands. He was brilliant and as a young man Cuffe started sailing during the blockades during the revolutionary war to help out the inhabitants on the Elizabeth Islands.

I think he was about 14 and he would go at night, which is very, very dark. He had to deal with the British and pirates and people from other tribes.

At that point in time do you think they were the richest people of color in America? 

He was regarded as the richest person of color in America at that time. 

Quakers at that time pretty much controlled all business in this region, correct? 

Yes. So that was a unique situation because people of color weren't allowed to formally be Quakers, but he was accepted and they practiced because it aligned with Cuffe Slocums, Ashanti way of life. There were a lot of similarities which is why they gravitated to Quakerism.

Being connected with the Quakers and being the first person of color to go up and be able to stand up and speak at the front of the the congregation was significant.  But he also made friends easily and he had connections from New York, Philadelphia, and even over in England.  His connection with the Quakers in England allowed him to be summoned by the abolitionist powers that be over there that wanted to settle Sierra Leone and Liberia. He played an intricate part in that. They asked him to come over there, basically assess what's needed and and help out with that process. The initial repatriation in Sierra Leone was more towards the end of his life.

That was late 1700’s and early 1800’s. I think he brought 39 people over to Sierra Leone and brought a sawmill and a gristmill there so that they could establish and make make a life for themselves. He was the first to do the repatriation.  It's believed that he was the first to do it successfully and in conjunction with the English. He was summoned to do that work with them.

During the war of 1812, his ship got seized by the British  when there was a blockade. That's when Cuffe went to visit the president  of the United States and had a meeting with him. Paul was the first person of color to meet with a sitting president. I think it was Monroe or Madison. He met with him to get his ship released. This means that he had significant stature and pull because people of color weren't even allowed to walk in the front door at the White House and had never had been into the Oval Office or had a formal meeting with the president.

I would like to pivot to the Wainer Woods farm, which is the 50 acre remaining property which was purchased in 1799, which you’ve just started rehabbing. Can you just tell me something about the history of that farm for the last couple of centuries and what's been happening there?

So the Drift Road farm is the homestead of Michael Wainer.

It was a farm that was originally 125 acres and went from Westport River all the way over to Main Road before highway Route 88 was put in. It was a portion of the original 80,000 acres that were given to the Mayflower descendants by the Massasoit. The King gave 80,000 acres to to 36 European settlers, roughly 2000 acres a piece. The the joke in the family is that we had to buy back our own land, but we have been buying recorded and deeded land since before the country was even started. So the acquisition of this land is special because it's where my grandfather lived. Paul Cuffe built boats and walked that land along with Michael Wainer. It’s an intricate part of Westport because it's believed that that this is where the first integrated schoolhouse was built in America. It was along the laneway which allowed everybody: rich, poor, black, white, Indian, to learn if they wanted education.  They were able to be educated.

That was the first integrated school? From what I understand the story was that he asked people in the town if they wanted to contribute to build the school but ended up financing it himself. 

He understood how important education was and wanted his own children to get an education. He asked for the public's help and couldn't wait around. He built the school with his own money and hired his own teacher. He educated poor kids and kids that weren't able to attend public schooling and those that were on the farm.

Do you know anything about the generations after Cuffe and Wainer? 

Well let’s see. We have a very, very big family. Cousins and family members used to live on the original parcel of land and over the years it's always been a gathering place, basically since the 1700s when my grandfather used to have the Quakers over for dinner.

Throughout the years it's always been a gathering place, even into the early 1900’s and through the 1950s.

In the fifties, of course, with Jim Crow laws and discrimination the family was into the A.M.E. Church.  We weren't allowed to attend gatherings at Lincoln Park, so my great grandmother and grandfather used to bring amusement rides up to Wainer Woods and have the church gathering there.

That was in the fifties.  Moving forward into the sixties and seventies the guys used to come home from Vietnam. Wainer Woods was the first place they would stop when they came in on a boat into Newport.  They would stop there before they went on to wherever they went but would be up there for a day or two.  And then the word would get around. The next thing you know, you have like 50 or 70 people up there. And and they are there for the whole weekend.

Since we had a farm,  food wasn't a problem. And if you know farmers, you have good food and you have good friends. It's always been a gathering spot right up until about the early eighties or mid eighties. 

So who was the last one? Who were the last people to actually farm it?

I would say my Uncle Toy Toy, who was a Korean War vet, and that was probably in the eighties because we were hay farmers then and had livestock. We had geese, ducks, chickens, goats, horses and cows. I think probably 85 or 86 was probably the last real years of farming because everybody else grew up on the farm and went to college. They moved away and they didn't want to do the farm life.

What do you think explains why the farm was abandoned?

The American story kind of died there. You know, you push education and the importance of getting a degree in education, and then nobody comes back and helps out on the farm. So it kind of went by the wayside. My intent is to get back some of what was lost and rediscover some of that to share with others.

I would like people to come to know and learn Native American history and culture. My families history. For people who don't know, we've always been here in this area.  My family are 225 year plus residents of the town of Westport. We're celebrating the 225th year of owning Wainer Woods.  I think it's important that people know and realize that. 

Why do you think people don't realize that? 

Well, I think part of it is education, because nobody was taught anything about our culture. Another part is that we have a lot of people who are new to Westport and may have come from other parts.  When I say new, I'm talking about the last 50 years, maybe of the last two generations. People just aren't aware.

What are your plans at Wainer Woods and how do you want to develop it? What kind of programming will you offer? 

I am Pocasset Wampanoag Chief Two Running Elk and will focus on the Wampanoag Nation. We want to be in the community, with the community and for the community.  We want to be able to teach cultural education and  Native American culture.

I would like to teach farming culture, conservation, and educate about the woods and wetlands. We have all three of those ecological systems on the land. And I want to be able to show and have art , nature studies and programs for people who want to get out into the woods so they can experience these different ecological systems.

Can you give me a little preview?

There will be a food forest and agroforestry, including medicinal plants. We’ll have healing plants in a botanical garden as well as a traditional farm. A goal is to teach people how to grow and harvest the native plants and learn how to recognize and use them.

I will establish several forest foraging paths where people can identify plants right off the path and learn how to use them. It's important that people know that food is medicine and food is there to harvest. There are a lot of medicinal plants that can help naturally counteract some of the things that we experience and keep us regulated  that existed before modern medicine.

I believe medicinal plants are becoming more popular now, and people can use them to stay healthy.

Do you want to talk about who you're partnering with and how things are going to unroll?

So right now I work with the Pocasset Land Trust, which is an entity of the tribe but is separate from the tribe.  I work with them to  find grant money and funding through different programs. I work with the USDA and the DCR, the Department of Conservation for Massachusetts.  We are a registered farm, and we're trying to get it back to its natural state.

Our focus is conservation. These are our immediate partners, and of course we have the support of the tribe. We wanted to have it done this year, but our land is ecologically important to the herring downstream.  We have the wetlands and the vernal pools which provide oxygen to the brook and the fish. We have to kind of hold off until we clear the invasive species , which we all know is a lot of work. We are setting up a schedule, but I’m looking at probably a year from now realistically.  We will be able to have gatherings and an event field.

Events will include fairs, classes, agro forestry, camping with family and friends because we have space which will include a nice safe camping environment.

Can you tell me a bit about your background? Where did you grow up,  what have you been doing  for the past few decades and how did you come to be the person who's leading this project?

I grew up in Boston and am the fire marshal in Boston. I've been there for,  I'm going to give up my age, but I'm in my 35th year . I came to be the person who is running this project because the ancestors told me, “We need you here.”

I was ready to retire and get out of town. I just wanted to be a beach bum, but my plans got changed and switched around  and here we are in the woods. My cousins and I own the property and I represent them as an LLC manager, our land steward and a conservationist. 

I am also a program leader with the Pocasset Land Trust. 

I'm here because I love it and I think there is a need for this type of space because of just how much polarity there is. People don't know and realize that the land where they stand is sacred land. Land acknowledgments are popping up here and there, but it’s important that people understand and know and respect that the land that they stand on is Native land.

It's been Native land for 12,000 years. We are we are still here!  We’re not like the dinosaurs. People seem to think that we have gone by the wayside , but we are still here! We are. We look like me, We look like you.

Just like any nation, we have many different looking people. And not just us, but you to an extent. When you say it seems like there's a lot of mixture, it seems like the most purely American thing.  That's what an American is.

Right? I mean, look at America. If you take a picture of Times Square and say, okay, point out an American, certainly someone will point out somebody European. They'll see somebody of my skin tone and say that I'm African, which is further from the truth. I think there needs to be that understanding that we as Eastern Woodland Indians, the Abenaki up in Maine all the way to the Seminole in Florida look like me.  That's not something that's known. Some of us are from my shade all the way to our European shade. But we've always been one nation and it's only when the Colonialists came in that they had a caste system that put people of color at the bottom. I mean, I am at the very bottom, I'm the bottom in the very bottom as black and as native American, we are at the bottom of the caste system.  And the lighter you are, the whiter you are, the better you are. But, you know, we have had intermarriages for hundreds of years and you marry and you love who you love. How you come out looking sometimes is a mixture of all of them.