Peter d'Errico: 'Mashpee Nine' documents Wampanoag struggle

The story begins with a July 29, 1976, midnight police raid, SWAT style, on a camp for Mashpee children at the site of a recreated 17th century Wampanoag village. The drummers—some in tents for the night, others talking around the fire—were set upon, handcuffed and arrested by police in riot gear with dogs. The police destroyed the camp and damaged village structures and gardens.

Mashpee Nine tells the story within the larger context of Wampanoag existence in what people today call "Cape Cod"—from first contact with the English boat people, through the intervening centuries, to the events and aftermath of a police raid.

The Mashpee Wampanoag still live in their homelands—nearly four centuries after the boat people arrived and began the Christian colonial assault on the northeast coast of Turtle Island. This fact becomes a central lesson in "Mashpee Nine."