The Old Indian Meeting House (also known as the Old Indian Church) is a historic
meeting house
A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place.
Terminology
Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a
* church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...
at 410 Meetinghouse Road in
Mashpee, Massachusetts
Mashpee ( wam, Mâseepee) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. The population was 15,060 as of 2020. The town is the site of the headquarters and most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of two feder ...
. Built in 1758, the meetinghouse is the oldest
Native American church in the eastern United States and the oldest church on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1998.
Description
The Old Indian Meeting House stands on the east side of Meetinghouse Road, north of its junction with Falmouth Street. It is located at the western end of a cemetery which extends between the two roads, on of land that extend to the junction. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. It has a Greek Revival exterior, with corner pilasters rising to entablatures that run along the roofline on the sides. There are two symmetrically placed entrances on the front facade, each framed by pilasters and a corniced entablature. A triangular transom window is set in the gable above, and there are fixed-pane windows above the entrances.
History
The first church to be built in Mashpee was built in 1670. In 1684, a second meeting house was built on the site of the first by Deacon John Hinckley. That building was moved about 1717 to another site in Mashpee. In 1758, a meeting house is described as being at the present site; it is unclear whether this was an altered version of the 1684 building, moved to this site and enlarged, or whether it was a new construction.[ It was used by the ]Wampanoag
The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...
Native Americans as a Christian church. In 1717 the church was moved from its original location in the town to its current one, and the building was remodeled.Massachusetts:A Guide to Its Places and People, Federal Writers Project,(U.S. History Publishers) pg. 594
The building also served as a school. In the late eighteenth century, a cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
("burial ground") was founded on the church grounds.
With almost four centuries of Native American leadership and ministry, the Old Meeting House is a place of historic and spiritual significance to the Mashpee Wampanoag
The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...
tribe. In 1833 it was the site of the famous Mashpee Revolt, when tribal members and their minister, William Apess image:Williamapes.jpg, 300px, Autobiography of William Apess
William Apess (1798–1839, Pequot people, Pequot) (also known as William Apes before 1837), was an ordained Methodist minister, writer, and activist of mixed-race descent, who was a polit ...
(Pequot
The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or th ...
), protested state intrusions on their self-governance, and white settlers' theft of wood from tribal lands. The site was re-dedicated in 1923 under the leadership of Nelson D. Simons, and the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1998. In 2009, the Mashpee tribe celebrated its reconstruction and formal re-opening.
See also
*Oldest churches in the United States
The designation of the oldest church in the United States requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving ''building'', and the oldest in the sense of oldest Christian church ...
*
*Praying Indian
Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly ...
References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
1684 establishments in Massachusetts
17th-century churches in the United States
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1684
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Churches in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Colonial architecture in Massachusetts
Greek Revival church buildings in Massachusetts
Italianate architecture in Massachusetts
Mashpee, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts