Liberated Lens film night: MASHPEE NINE

Mashpee Nine: The Beat Goes On is a story of injustice, outrage, activism, and vindication that emboldened cultural pride and integrity for the Wampanoag in Mashpee, Massachusetts nearly 40 years ago.

The story begins with a July 29, 1976, midnight police raid, SWAT style, on a camp for Mashpee children at the site of a recreated 17th century Wampanoag village. The drummers—some in tents for the night, others talking around the fire—were set upon, handcuffed and arrested by police in riot gear with dogs. The police destroyed the camp and damaged village structures and gardens.

Relevant in terms of national attention drawn to abuses by law enforcement today, this story was in danger of fading into distant memory. Documentarians Paula Peters and Talia Landry are determined to revive this story in the cultural and political context of Wampanoag existence in what people today call “Cape Cod”—from first contact with the English boat people, through the intervening centuries, to the events and aftermath of a police raid.

Discussion with Hartman Deetz of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe will follow the film.

Free snacks and popcorn!