Mashpee is a town located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts has been the home of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe for approximately 12,000 years. The Mashpee Wampanoag are one of the original sixty-nine tribes that belonged to the Wampanoag Nation. Originally, the Marshpee (later called Mashpee) Tribe was under the oversight of English missionaries for nearly 200 years. The reservation period in Mashpee officially began in 1677 and restricted the freedom of the Mashpee Wampanoag people until 1868. From that time up until around 1975 the tribal people were in control of the Mashpee town government, were active business owners and the predominant town residents. As town and federal politics dramatically changed over the years, the tribe maintained its autonomy as a non-profit organization until 2007 when federal recognition was finally granted after a 30-year legal land suit.
Economically the tribe has adapted and maintained a number of different survival methods besides hunting, fishing, and planting. During the 17th and 18th centuries tribesmen were involved in the fur, rope, timber, and sassafras trade. Then in the 19th and early 20th centuries they engaged in the whaling industry, sailing the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Indian Oceans.
Born in Yarmouth, Massachusetts around 1741, Alexander Queppish was a member of the Mashpee Indian community. He married Sarah David in 1767 and had at least one daughter, Alice. After Sarah's death in 1774, Queppish enlisted in Captain Daniel Whiting's Company of Colonel Jonathan Brewer's 13th Massachusetts Regiment. He fought at Bunker Hill, his unit being positioned in an open field on the left side of the redoubt.
Reuben Cogenhew was a Mashpee tribal leader. In response to continued colonial encroachments on their land without redress, the Mashpee selected him to carry an appeal to the King in 1760. His passage to England was a series of misfortunes. He was brought to the West Indies but the vessel was shipwrecked at Hispaniola and later rescued by a British ship of war only to be impressed by the captain. However, when he eventually reached London, his petition to Royal authorities was successful.
John Twining was an Indian man whose body was found in Harwich, Massachusetts on December 11, 1749. Petition of Seth Winslow, 749.12.11.00.