Red Hawk Singers and Dancers (Photo courtesy Ruth White Hawk Gonzales)
Today, Nov. 29, the Lex250 Commission would like to recognize Native American Heritage Day by acknowledging the communities that preceded the settlers of both the Town of Lexington and the surrounding region. Lexington sits on the unceded land of the Massachusett Tribe, the tribe of Indigenous peoples from whom the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has taken its name, and the surrounding region inhabited by the Wampanoag, Nipmuc, Natick, Muncee, and Abenaki people.
We believe that the only way to celebrate the rich diversity and history of Lexington, as well as the story of our nation’s independence, is to also acknowledge and respect the communities that are the original stewards of this land.
We pay our respects to the ancestors of the Massachusetts tribe and surrounding communities and extend our acknowledgments to descendants who still inhabit historical tribe territories to this day.