The National Park Service has pledged to work with
Native Americans on plans for Harbor Islands national park.
The master plan for the new park, due in November 1999, will be
formulated after researching which tribes used the islands historically,
the National Park Service officials promised.

The research will include a focus on the internment of Native Americans
in camps on the islands in the 1600's at the time of King Philip's War.
Native Americans taken prisoner during the war
were held on Deer Island, among others.
Even members of friendly tribes who had converted to Christianity,
were eventually confined on the islands, when the colonists
suspended the civil liberties of all tribal people.

In a meeting at the Chickatawbut Hill Education Center,
representatives of the National Park Service, said that they
had budgeted an unspecified amount of money for the research.
"We'd like to work together with you on it," program manager Beccy Joseph
told representatives of several tribes, including the
Wampanoag, Penobscot, Mehigan, Mohegan and Delaware.

Burial sites an issue

The tribal representatives are part of an alliance
called the Muhheconnew National Confederacy,
a centuries-old alliance revived to protect sites,
especially burial grounds of importance to Native Americans.
Many are also involved in the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee
on Deer Island, which aims to protect Harbor Islands sites
of importance to tribes historically connected to the region.

Gary McCann, a consultant to the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee,
said that the tribe appreciates the efforts that
the National Park Service has pledged to make.
Edith Andrews of the Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head,
said that she hopes early discussions like this will lead to permanent
protection for Native American burial grounds on the Harbor Islands.

"We had a lot of 'praying Indians', on the side of the English,
who were nonetheless herded together into concentration camps,
mainly on Deer Island," Andrews said.
She said that the Wampanoags want to identify camp sites and burial places
and ensure that burial places are protected and respected forever.

New policy praised

One of the saddest things, said Sam Sapiel,
coordinator of the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee on Deer Island,
is that the tribes themselves are unaware of their history.
To remedy ignorance, the new National Park could include
Native American museums, a Deer Island memorial to genocide victims,
a book- store and a shop offering Indian made crafts.

"This is history-making," said Linda Poolaw, an official of the Delaware tribe.
This is the first time that we've ever been consulted on something like this,"
she told National Park Service officials.
She praised their policy of consulting with Native Americans
affected by federal projects commenting,
"I wish you had consultation services 300 years ago."

The War that never was, but still is!