Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe mourns loss of housing director, elder

Tuesday, January 4, 2011  

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts is mourning the loss of two active members.

Alice Lopez, 49, the tribe's housing director, died unexpectedly on Sunday. Laurie "Cal" Green, 91, the tribe's former historian, died Wednesday.

Lopez was active in tribal issues all of her life. She was a lead singer in the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers and was a beading artist.

Green was an elder who served on the tribe's board of directors and judiciary committee. He served in World War II.

"He was a very important link to the past," Jim Peters, a tribal member who serves as executive director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, told The Cape Cod Times. "Many of us didn't know a lot of the things that had happened in the '30s and '40s."

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Year begins sadly for Mashpee Wampanoag (The Cape Cod Times 1/4)