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Nelson D. Simons

Nelson Drue Simons (also known as Wabum Annug (Morning Star) and Chief Morning Star and Nelson D. Simon)[1] (1885-1953) was a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe chief from 1916 to 1928 and government official who was also the first known Native American graduate of Suffolk University Law School in Boston.[2]

Nelson D. Simons, featured as a "Pequot" chief and descendant of Sassacus, while describing his enrollment at Suffolk Law in Boston in 1921

Early life and education at Carisle

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Nelson Drue Simons was born on November 23, 1885[3] to Isaac Simon, a seaman,[4] whaler,[5] and farmer[6] and Ella Frances Mingo Simon of Mashpee, Massachusetts, and Nelson had at least five siblings (including Edward, Lily, Zepheniah, Ellen, and Eva).[7] In addition to his Wampanoag heritage, Simons was also of at least partial Pequot ancestry and was purportedly a descendant of Sassacus.[8] From 1896 to 1904 he attended the Mashpee Public Schools.[9] After his father's death in 1905 Nelson Simons and his siblings attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Simons attended Carlisle from 1909 to 1914 and was president of Carlisle YMCA, a Lieutenant of the school's Company B, and attended the Second Presbyterian Church.[10] and published articles in the Carlisle Arrow.[11] Simons provided written testimony to Congress supporting the YMCA at Carlisle.[12] At Carlisle Simons trained in plumbing and pipe fitting.[13]

Leadership at Mashpee, Suffolk Law School and career

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After graduation, Simons returned to Mashpee, Massachusetts and succeeded his maternal great-uncle Watson F. Hammond as town clerk in 1915 and as tribal chief the upon his uncle's death the following year.[9] From 1914[13] to at least 1917 he reported his occupation as "cranberrying,"[3] but by 1920 Simons was working as a plumber.[14] He also had a small farm with a cow and requested a Carlisle student to work for him during the summer of 1915.[13] Simons was leader of the Mashpee tribe from approximately 1916 through the 1920s and helped lead a cultural revival there working closely with Eben Quippish, another tribal leader, and Simons re-dedicated the Old Indian Meeting House in 1922.[15] Simons also served as Mashpee's tax collector, and he was appointed postmaster after petitioning for U.S. Mail service in Mashpee. He matriculated at Suffolk University Law School in Boston in 1921 and graduated in 1925. At Suffolk he published an article in the 1921 Suffolk Register entitled, "Possibilities of Spare Moments."[16] Simons was also a poet and published at least one poem in 1922 about Mashpee.[17] Simon's sister Lillian, also was a published poet.[18] As a tribal leader in 1928, Simons helped unite the Mashpee, Herring Pond, and Gay Head communities with their first joint powwow.[19] Simons purportedly left Mashpee around 1929, and his cousin, Lorenzo Tandy Hammond, became the tribal leader, and for the rest of his life Simons lived around Cambridge, Massachusetts working various jobs, including as a chaffeur, carpenter and janitor[20] until his death in 1953.[21] He was never married according to the 1950 U.S. Census.

References

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  1. ^ Mashpee 02649, The People, The Buildings and the Story of Mashpee Postal Service, Joanne M. Ferragamo (1993)
  2. ^ "Article about Suffolk University Law School's first Native American graduate, Nelson D. Simons (JD 1925) in the Suffolk Law Register, Vol. 4, no. 3". Digital Commonwealth, Massachusetts Collections Online. Archived from the original on 2022-06-29.
  3. ^ a b Draft Registration 1917-18 accessible on familysearch.com
  4. ^ 1880 US Census Mashpee, MA
  5. ^ "Isaac Simon" listed on vessel, Merlin, a bark in 1876
  6. ^ Death Cetificate 1905 Onset, MA
  7. ^ Earl Mills, Talking With The Elders of Mashpee Memories of Earl H. Mills, Sr. (2012), pg. 56-57
  8. ^ The Crosbyton Review — 15 April 1921, p. 3 - The Crosbyton Review — 15 April 1921, p. 3
  9. ^ a b Mills at 56
  10. ^ "Nelson Simons Student File | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center".
  11. ^ The Carlisle Arrow, 9/26/1913, Volume X, Number 4, p. 3
  12. ^ Hearings Before the Joint Commission of the Congress of the United States. Joint Commission to Investigate Indian Affairs · 1914, p. 1370 accessible on Google Books
  13. ^ a b c "Nelson Simons Student File" at Carlisle Industrial Indian School
  14. ^ US Census 1920 Massachusetts lists him in Mashpee with his mother
  15. ^ Summary under the Criteria for the Proposed Finding on the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council March 31, 2006. pp. 15, 22, 45
  16. ^ The Register Vol. 4 No. 3 1921" p. 4
  17. ^ Cape Cod Magazine: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Cape Cod (1922), p. 38
  18. ^ Robert Dale Parker, Changing Is Not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian (2011), p. 411, quotes her poem published in the Carlisle Arrow in 1913
  19. ^ Cassie M. Lawton, Raymond Bial, The People and Culture of the Wampanoag (2016), p. 88
  20. ^ U.S. Census in 1930 (accessed on familysearch.com) lists him in Cambridge living with his sister Lilly Oakey and working as a chauffeur for a trucking company; and US Census in 1940 lists him living in Boston and working as a carpenter; US Census in 1950 lists him in Cambridge working as a janitor at an apartment house
  21. ^ Mills at 56-57
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