Why is one of the last sacred lands of the Wampanoag people being sacrificed for yet another corporate development in Plymouth, Massachusetts?
Before English settlement in the 1600s, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Wampanoag people lived in approximately 67 villages across their ancestral territory, which spanned southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. Today, only about 4,000 to 5,000 Wampanoag remain, primarily in Massachusetts.
Plymouth is home to the world-renowned Plimoth Patuxet Museums, which proudly recreates a 17th-century English settlement alongside a growing exhibit dedicated to the Patuxet Wampanoag homesite. While this museum honors history in a controlled, curated environment, just 14 miles away, history itself is being erased.
The land in question, 71 Hedges Pond Road, was owned by the nonprofit Plymouth Foundation but has now been sold to a major development company. This wooded parcel, known as the Great Lot, is set to be transformed into yet another strip mall and warehouse – the kind of soulless commercial sprawl that has consumed much of southeastern Massachusetts.
According to the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Council, this land falls within the historical boundaries of the Great Lot and may contain significant cultural and historical artifacts, potentially including a burial site. If this is true, the consequences of this development are not just environmental but profoundly moral.
How can the Plimoth Patuxet Museums be praised for recreating a Wampanoag homesite while, just down the road, an actual Wampanoag site – possibly containing the graves of their ancestors – is about to be bulldozed for corporate profit?
When will we recognize that history cannot simply be confined to museums while the land it belongs to is systematically destroyed? Must every remnant of cultural and natural history be relegated to a small, curated space, surrounded by an endless sea of suburban sprawl?
My husband and I attended a dinner at Plimoth Patuxet Museums this year, as we do annually. The evening focused on the cooperation and generosity of the Wampanoag people toward the early settlers. And yet, today, we witness another betrayal: their land, their history, and their voices being ignored in favor of commercial gain. Is this really how we choose to repay them?
Cedarville residents, environmental advocates, scientists, and – most importantly – members of the Wampanoag and other Indigenous tribes have called for a pause on the building permit until a full archaeological study is conducted. This is not a radical request – it is the bare minimum of respect we owe to the original stewards of this land.
But why stop at a pause? In the spirit of the very cooperation we celebrate each Thanksgiving, why not reverse this decision entirely? Preserving this land would be a powerful and lasting legacy for Plymouth – one that respects history rather than erasing it under yet another concrete slab.
The choice is ours. Will we continue down this destructive path, or will we finally listen?
– Lori Bradley