Burying the Future -- Literally or should I say Figuratively

It’s getting harder and harder to find out who is actually opposing Cape Wind. But the bigger question is why?
We’ve been through the NIMBYs, which unfortunately include the Kennedys who apparently prefer that we carry out the creative new energy developments they so advocate just as long as they can’t see a sliver of silver in the ocean. And they have plenty of like-minded neighbors.
Then we have the self-important towns of the Cape, who literally tried to cut the cable before the cable was even laid. “Over my dead body will we deliver electric power to the entire Cape in my little town.” Fortunately the Federal government did remind the good old folks that electric transmission was Federal turf.
And now we have the Wampanoag Tribe, specifically the 91 people, per the 2000 census, who occupy the Aquinnah Reservation at Gay Head on the Vineyard. I have no issue with preserving cultural history. I want to make it very clear that I do not pretend to know the intricacies of Wampanoag culture. I know a bit of their history, gleaned primarily from their own website. They have every reason, just as I do if I had a reason, to oppose far offshore wind turbines.
But the last time I checked, the Wampanoag’s’ most important cultural desire was a casino. But that was before their tribal leader, the infamous Glenn Marshall, who failed to inform his tribe that he had been convicted of rape and fabricated his military record BEFORE he subsequently was sent to Federal prison for his actions while tribal leader for tax fraud, wire fraud, campaign law violations, you name it. But they still own sacred land in Middleborough—can you see the ocean from there?
The Wampanoag’s do not want windmills because, according to the release from the U.S. National Park Service, who concurred with the tribe and overturned a previous federal ruling allowing the windmills, a) Nantucket Sound was home to the Man-Giant Maushop and the Sea Woman Squant; b) there may be artifacts dating back 11,000 years ago when glaciation created a land plateau; and c) Nantucket Sound unto itself is a sacred place to the tribe.
• Let’s look at these for a moment. Maushop is not unlike Paul Bunyon. According to the Wampanoag website, he created the Elizabeth Islands by flinging sand from the ocean; he caught whales with his bare hands; and he could, in one step, go from Nantucket to Martha’s Vineyard. Bunyon operated out west but I think we put some windmills there.

a. Not that it matters I guess, but NO artifacts have actually been found. There are isolated areas of buried brush and forest where the sea came in but nobody has found a human artifact and certainly not one of the Wampanoag Tribe. Of course, the Park Service glosses over this nicely by saying such findings are “possible.” Wow, that opens up some territory. In fact, the Park Service stated that it was not customary to place entire bodies of water under cultural protection, especially so when the tribe and the Service have not completed the study of how the Sound defines the entire Wampanoag cultural area. Hey, it’s only Nantucket Sound. Oh, by the way, there was no Wampanoag tribe 11,000 years ago. According to their own website, they date themselves as an organized group to about 4,000 years ago. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the famous single tooth discovered at the “Rich Site” in Barnstable County several years ago could only be described as a “Paleo-Indian.” That means something that came before an Indian.

• I find Nantucket Sound sacred as well. There are no actual accounts of the Wampanoag tribes conducting any types of ceremonies with regard to specific times in the cycle of the seas. Of course, they cite Maushop, the Giant Man, and Squant, his Sea Woman lover who controlled all the winds and waves in the world, as evidence of sacred attachment.

There are estimated to be 2,000 Wampanoag’s alive today, but the vast majority are of mixed tribal ancestry. Of the 2,000, 1,200 live in Mashpee and the remainder lives in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. And the 91 members at Aquinnah who are managing, for whatever reason, to keep those oil tankers coming right across the ocean. Maybe we can barter—the casino for the windmills.

Boston would be a strange city if the 4/5 of it that are landfill were never filled. Not much room.