The Town of Aquinnah was known as Gay Head before the year of 1998. It is a unique town in that it is the only community in Massachusetts that continues to have substantial Indian presence in the 20th century, and also has just recently become celebrated as a center of Wampanoag culture. The Indian residents are proud of their traditions. Aquinnah is located on Martha’s Vineyard in Dukes County. The population is approximately 500 people. It is known best for its beautiful clay cliffs and quiet natural serenity, which continues to be less common in the heavily populated northeastern United States.
Aquinnah is an island 20 miles long and 10 miles wide just five miles south of the southwest tip of Cape Cod. It is bordered by Chilmark on the east and the Atlantic Ocean on the north, west, and south.
The clay cliffs/beach is one of the few nude beaches left in the United States. In Aquinnah there is a magnificent display of varicolored clay cliffs in strange formations that spill down to the sea on the border of the town.
These cliffs marked the homeward leg of Gay Head’s Indian and Yankee fishermen and whalers in which European settlers learned from their Indian neighbors the skills needed for coast-wise whaling. Aquinnahers maintained a shore fishing fleet. They were very prominent in whaling.
Most of their fishing and whaling was done in small boats close to shore, however, they also sailed with whalers of the Nantucket and New Bedford fleets.
The cliffs in Aquinnah have also been a source of clay for pottery and of myriads of fossils that prove the variety of animal and marine life in earlier days of the island.
This town’s history started very early, as early as 1602, when Bartholomew Gosnold sailed into Aquinnah and traded for furs with the Indians. Gosnold sailed back to England with a boat full of beaver, muskrat, sassafras and cedar. The town was already named an Indian reservation when it was incorporated in 1870, and had established a maritime economy.
The natives of Aquinnah tell a mythic story about how they arrived on Martha’s Vineyard. They say they floated on an ice flow from the far North. Whichever way they arrived, their history has been very different from that of mainland tribes.
Other Indian communities experienced massacres and bloodshed during King Philip’s War and many settlers abandoned their towns as a result of the threat or the reality of Indian attack. In Aquinnah, white settlers armed their Indian neighbors and made them the sentries and guards to warn of possible attacking tribes. The Indians of Aquinnah carried out their responsibilities faithfully. There was very little if any damage done in the town during those turbulent times.
Transportation:
Ferry service is the vital link to and from the island. Ferry service is provided year-round by the Wood’s Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. Principal highways are State road and the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road. There is no freight or passenger rail service on Martha’s Vineyard.
Aquinnah is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority, which provides paratransit services to the elderly and disabled, primarily through Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands. Island Transport provides fixed route bus service to other towns on the island during the tourist season.
Taxicabs are an important part of the island’s public transportation system.
Education:
Aquinnah is served by public schools which are:
• Chilmark Elementary School and Up-Island Regional School in West Tisbury (elementary and middle school age students)
• Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in Oak Bluffs serves the entire island’s high school population.
The school has a longstanding rivalry with Nantucket High School.
This article is FREE to publish with the resource box.
© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved
Written by: Connie Limon. For more information about the history of, living, working and visiting Massachusetts, visit http://smalldogs2.com/VisitingMassachusetts For a variety of FREE reprint articles and a special section of articles on U.S. History and the Kennedy Family, visit http://www.camelotarticles.com
Tags: Gay Head Massachusetts, indian reservation, Wampanoag culture
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