Indigenous Peoples' Day 2023

The White House  

Did You Know?

At the 2021 Annual Town Meeting, the Nantucket community voted in favor of a citizen warrant article to “adopt Indigenous Peoples’ Day locally in place of Columbus Day holiday.” The article was “a non-binding directive.” 

Did You Know: You Say Indigenous/Wampanoag Words Regularly?

“Their language, changed in pronunciation but still recognizable as theirs, is in our mouths a dozen times a day in familiar island names, many ending in t: ‘Sconset, Madaket, Quidnet, Wannacomet, Miacomet. More of them used to have the t: Coatue was once Coatuet and Capaum was Capamet. Eighty-six place names can be found in Nantucket deeds and wills, and a third of these remain in everyday use…”

(Karttunen, 2005, p.17).  

Did You Know: Tom Nevers was Wampanoag?

“He was actually Tom Never, a member of the Nantucket Wampanoag Never family. According to tradition, Tom Never kept watch for whales from a station on the high point on Nantucket’s southeast corner that bears his name: Tom Never’s Head. Nearby are Tom Never’s Swamp and Tom Never’s Pond… The earliest documented member of the Never family is Jack Never, who appeared in court in 1677... 

All that remains of this family are the three place names. At the time of World War I, when developers first sought to attract buyers to that part of the island, the apostrophe was still in place. The sign on the train depot where potential investors disembarked read, “Tom Never’s Head.” Now the thoroughly developed area is simply called Tom Nevers.” 

Who was Tom Nevers?