Massachusetts Environmental Police continue support of tribal sustenance rights.

Members of the Wampanoag community both on and off the Island will be receiving 700 pounds of freshly fileted haddock from the Massachusetts Environmental Police as part of a recent food donation.

According to Bret Stearns, natural resources officer for the tribe, the environmental police have been supporting the Wampanoag tribal community for many years, advocating for sustenance rights and bringing fresh food to tribal citizens. “Mass Environmental Police, Pat Moran and the whole team, Matt Bass, Scott Opie, they are all people who we communicate with regularly because there is an interface between the environmental police and the tribe in terms of sustenance and harvest rights in the commonwealth,” Stearns said. “We have had a great relationship with all of them for several years.”

Through the process of providing food to the Wampanoag community, the environmental police have come to understand the tribal food distribution programs and the valuable resources they provide to members, according to Stearns. 

Stearns pointed to an article The Times ran in January of 2021 where the environmental police donated a 700-pound moose to the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) after the animal was struck by a vehicle and was determined perfectly viable for consumption. “Pat called me right away in the morning, he said we have the moose, then he brought it all the way over here with his team, butchered it up, and provided it to the membership,” Stearns said. 

This was another serendipitous situation where Stearns had to act fast to take advantage of a huge benefit to the tribe. Right when Moran got in touch with Stearns, he knew he had to devise a way to filet the hundreds of pounds of fish, and then store it properly until it’s distributed. Stearns didn’t have enough help to filet all the fish, but Stanley Larsen of Larsen’s Fish Market was more than willing to take a few days to help cut the fish. In a further showing of community collaboration, Capt. Wes Brighton of the Martha Rose scalloping vessel allowed the environmental police and the tribe to store the fish in his refrigerator space. “It always turns into this really cool community response,” Stearns said. “These are the kinds of folks who will just cold call me and be like ‘Is there anything going on that we need to deal with? We have lobsters, shellfish. Is everything going alright with the tribal citizens, and does everyone have enough to eat?’ It’s really impressive for them to change the trajectory of their day to deliver this fish which is going to feed a lot of tribal members.” He noted how much he appreciates the kind gesture and the fact that the environmental police are always considering the well-being and sustenance rights of the tribe.

According to Stearns, the haddock came from an auction house where they weren’t able to be sold at market, and were going to go to waste. Now, Stearns is already working on tying the fish in with the tribal food distribution network to get it out to hungry folks. “The moral of this is that the relationship we have was really founded on the fact that there is a good recognition of sustenance rights of the tribe and the sustenance lifestyle —  you can’t be more appreciative of people not only recognizing that, but honoring it in the way that they did,” Stearns said.

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