As Wampanoag people, we believe that the land is a part of our being. Without it we cease to exist. In Wampanoag when you say “my land” you say nutahkeem. Literally, this means “my land which is a part of me.” You cannot say the phrase “my land” without this final morpheme that means we are connected. We know, and have known for millennia, for as long as we have had a spoken language, that the land on which we live is where we belong because it is us. Being disconnected to it, is as being disconnected from our mother. 

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Weetumuw School children practice ceremonies, our traditional teachings, and they understand the high expectations that we have for them as our future leaders. They learn and live our Wampanoag values and often our students’ families tell us stories of what their children have taught them! Most importantly, they do all of these things on their homeland. In the spring these teachings take place by the river, and in the summer, by the ocean and lakes. In the fall, they take place in the woods, and in the winter, in our homes and classrooms. Our Wampanoag education is place-based because it must be. Because we are not ourselves without our land.