Wampanoag Sacred Sites & Rituals Threatened
The Wampanoag of Massachusetts are known as the People of the First Light because of their sacred rituals that require an unobstructed view of the sunrise. These rituals are performed at secret sacred sites at key dates such as summer and winter solstices.
A proposed off-shore wind farm is proposed several miles off of Nantucket Sound and the Wampanoag are protesting the proposal as interfering with tribal religion. The development project calls for 130 wind turbines, each over 400 feet in height. The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag claim the turbines will block their view of the sunrise and interfere with their ancestral burials on Horsehoe Shoal.
The Wampanoag are hoping to get Nantucket Sound listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Such a designation would come with new regulations preserving views of the sun rising over the Nantucket Sound horizon thus assuring the continuance of their sacred practices.
You can read more about this in the San Francisco Chronicle article “Tribes Upset Over Wind Turbines.