Nauset Middle School Staff And Students Join Wampanoag Tribe In Celebrating Wetu, Garden

ORLEANS – The Nauset region is steeped in Native history going back hundreds of years. For staff and students at Nauset Regional Middle School, there’s now a physical reminder of that history on campus.

 Opposite the middle school’s track, a traditional Wampanoag wetu sits in a fenced-in area. Surrounding it, a Three Sisters Garden bears produce in keeping with the rich history of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. The wetu, made of a cedar frame and a tree bark covering and open on one end, serves as an outdoor learning space for students in the school’s exploratory education program. The garden, meanwhile, is tended by students in the school’s greenhouse course.

 This is what Susannah Remillard envisioned two years ago when she approached the middle school’s principal, Peter Cohen, about creating an outdoor classroom that can bring students closer to the area’s Indigenous history.

 “I’d been dreaming about doing this for more than two years,” said Remillard, who leads the earthkeepers course for seventh graders and changemakers course for eighth grade students. “But Nauset created the space and the support for this kind of teaching to happen. It just really speaks to how willing this community is to support a great idea that honors the long history of Nauset. To me, that’s deep and rich learning. You can’t do that anywhere but the place where the history happened.”

 Last Friday, a ceremony was held outside the wetu and garden to celebrate the completion of the outdoor learning space. Staff and students joined members of several local organizations who donated time and funding for the project along with members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

 “A lot of kids who’ve grown up on Cape Cod just say ‘Oh, yeah. This is just home,’” said Cohen. “They don’t think about how unique this place is and its history. Anything we can do to keep that alive, to connect kids back to that history, I think is really important.”

 Darius Coombs, the cultural outreach coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Education Department, oversaw the construction of the wetu. Work began in the spring and was completed in mid summer. 

 Coombs estimated he has built 50 or 60 wetus for schools and other organizations, but noted that the Tribe does not build the sacred structures for just anyone. He said it was the trust and respect that Remillard had earned from the Tribe that led him to agree to building the structure on school property.

 “This is not work for myself,” he told students. “This is like an honor. This is something special. I love doing this right here.”

 Ubaid Govan, another Tribal member who helped build the wetu, called the structure a “standing testament of time.”

 “It’s a reminder that our people are still here, we’re still thriving, carrying on our traditional and cultural ways,” he said.

 During the ceremony, eighth grade students who took Remillard’s earthkeepers class last year took turns reciting the Native Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address. Students will take Remillard’s changemakers class this year. 

Another student, Sydlleeanis Gonzalez Matos, spoke in acknowledgement of the land’s ties to the Wampanoag people.

 “We are grateful that we get to learn the culture and history of where we live,” she said. “I pledge to honor the Wampanoag land we all call home.”

 Students have been making use of the wetu since the start of the school year.

 “They love what we do in the wetu,” Remillard said. “They love being outside. The stories we can tell in the space and the games that we can play in the space, and just the fact that you’re automatically in community in the space because you’re in a circle. This space sets itself up for the kind of teaching that includes everyone.”

 Students in Rand Burkert’s greenhouse class worked to create the Three Sisters Garden with the guidance of Carol Wynn, a Tribal elder. Wynn’s participation in the project was funded through a grant from the Orleans Conservation Trust.

 “They have a space where they can really breathe,” Burkert said of the garden. “They can breathe in the history and do a lot of experiential learning out here.”

 Friday’s ceremony concluded with a performance by Brian Weeden, chair of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council, and the Eastern Suns Drum Circle. Following the ceremony, guests and attendees took time to observe the wetu and garden, while Coombs took the time to talk with students.

 “Having them collaborate with the Wampanoag Tribe to see this come to life, to get our kids to interact with it, it’s pretty special,” Cohen said.