UMass Amherst Libraries and College of Humanities and Fine Arts Host “Wampanoag History: Fiction or Nonfiction? Book Discussion with Linda Coombs”

The UMass Amherst Libraries and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts will host “Wampanoag History: Fiction or Nonfiction? Book Discussion with Linda Coombs” on Monday, November 25, 5-7 p.m. The event will take place in-person in the Integrated Learning Center, Room S240, as well as virtually on Zoom and livestreamed on YouTube. Registration is free and open to the public for all three attendance options; attendees should note that the in-person and Zoom options are the only ways to participate in the Q&A portion.

About Colonization and the Wampanoag Story

Until now, you’ve only heard one side of the story: the “discovery” of America told by Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists. Here’s the true story of America from the Indigenous perspective.

When you think about the beginning of the American story, what comes to mind? Three ships in 1492, or perhaps buckled hats and shoes stepping off of the Mayflower, ready to start a new country. But the truth is, Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists didn’t arrive to a vast, empty land ready to be developed. They arrived to find people and communities living in harmony with the land they had inhabited for thousands of years, and they quickly disrupted everything they saw.

From its “discovery” by Europeans to the first Thanksgiving, the story of America’s earliest days has been carefully misrepresented. Told from the perspective of the New England Indigenous Nations that these outsiders found when they arrived, this is the true story of how America as we know it today began.

About the Author

Linda Coombs (Aquinnah Wampanoag) is an author and historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah, and lives in the Wampanoag community of Mashpee on Cape Cod, MA. Coombs began her museum career in an internship at the Boston Children’s Museum, and later working there in the Native American Program.  She and her colleague Paulla Dove Jennings (Narragansett) wrote children’s books for a museum series highlighting aspects of southern New England tribal cultures. Coombs also worked for 30 years in the Wampanoag Indigenous Program (WIP) of Plimoth Plantation, including 15 years as WIP’s Associate Director; and 9 years at the Aquinnah Cultural Center.  Presently she does independent museum consulting and cultural presentations.