An open latter to Governor Patrick and Senators Kennedy and Kerry:
Gentlemen: I want to draw your attention to a school committee forum that was convened here in Natick last Wednesday evening on May 7th. The topic of discussion was the reconsideration of the mascot name "Redmen," which for half a century has served to rally the sports teams of our town.
Last year, our school committee voted to retire the Redmen name for a number of reasons, but popular sentiment arose against the decision and a non-binding referendum confirmed the desire of many of our residents to revisit the matter.
Debate was spirited and heartfelt and at the end of the evening I think the School Committee had gained some new perspective on a topic that already has been discussed at length. In June they will render a decision as to how they intend to proceed.
Let me explain more: As time wore on it became apparent that few of us in the room, other than a handful of Nipmuc and Wampanoag guests, had more than a casual familiarity with the early history of our town when Natick was an Indian Village.
An example of that can be seen in a remark by one speaker that "outsiders" were responsible for stirring up controversy around the Redman mascot name, while another declared forthrightly that "Natick is a Nipmuc place; always was; always will be."
Such comments, although apparently enigmatic, suggest the events that occurred hereabouts in the last half of the 17th century, most long forgotten, could do with some re-examination, both in our town and throughout the state.
But to return to the proceedings in Natick the other night: What was really going on, of course, was a debate about honor, human dignity and history. At the same time, one might ask whether sports tradition or larger human events should define our town.
As the evening wore on it became apparent to me, as it might have to other observers, that history - the kind of broad, inclusive, widely discussed history that can be called definitive - was largely missing from the Joseph A. Keefe Auditorium of the Wilson Middle School in Natick.
Why is that history so important at this point in the midst of a debate over a mascot name in a small New England town? Because while little known or considered in relation to such momentous events as the American Revolution or the Civil War, the participants in King Philip's War - Colonial, Praying Indian and Philip's forces - exerted a distinct and significant influence on the evolution of the American experience. The Colonial genesis is well-known, but who were these "others" and what was the meaning of their victories and defeats?
Should we leave them resigned to the place our ancestors sent them - oblivion? Or look once again and consider that they might stand in the vanguard of those who mounted a passionate, violent defense on behalf of Native American culture and society? To the amazement of many, some of their descendants were in the room the other night.
And what of the Praying Indians, who bound themselves to "a Christian way of life," and a defense of the United Colonies? I believe it can be said that effort contributed to the creation of the American experience as formatively as the Patriot effort to forge a new nation - an effort, by the way, in which descendents of the Praying Indians participated exactly a century after the close of King Philip's War.
Sirs, I call upon you to reach out to your colleagues in state, federal and municipal government and undertake the formation of a Truth Commission, if only to begin to remove the shroud of time that covers the honor and human dignity of a small band of intrepid people, hidden beneath a mascot name.
I would also ask that with local authorities you consider the creation of a Natick Indian National Monument or National Historic Site, a John Eliot Trail and other national monuments to mark the signal events in King Philip's War, including the Great Swamp Massacre.
I ask all this of you for reasons too numerous to expand upon here, but for one other that went unnoted in Natick the other evening. It was not remarked upon, but among those with especially acute perceptions, one might have caught a glimpse of ghosts beginning to emerge from among the shadows.
But whose loss and ghosts? Such questions must be answered and put to rest.
Sincerely yours,
Peter Golden, Natick
