YARMOUTH – Plans will go before Yarmouth town meeting voters this spring to fund improvements to a Native American burial site on Long Pond.
The article, which was approved unanimously by the Community Preservation Committee to be placed on the town meeting warrant, would allow $50,000 in CPA funds to restore the area which includes a cairn – a memorial made out of a tower of rocks.
The site was erected in the early 1800s after the remains were moved to the location off Indian Memorial Drive from the Bass River.
“That cairn has fallen into disrepair over the last 150 years and it was given to the town with the understanding that we would try to maintain it,” said Pat Armstrong, the Yarmouth recreation director. “We’re now looking to do that.”
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will be consulted on the elements of the restoration design. Armstrong said the town would be open to possible modifications.
If the article is approved, the tribe would also have a presence while the improvements are made to the land.
“The Wampanoag’s will be sending a representative from their historic division to make sure we don’t disturb the land,” Armstrong said.
The Pawkunnawkuts which inhabited Yarmouth were a branch of the Wampanoag Indians.
The memorial also includes the engraving: “On this slope lie buried the last native Indians of Yarmouth.”
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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