The Cultural Conservancy - “Traditional Foodways of Native America – Oral Histories of Native Food Revitalization” Audio Recording Project
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David Vanderhoop
Biography
David Vanderhoop lives in Martha’s Vineyard Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. He has lived in the Island most of his life. David is a fisherman, a cook, an educator and the Director of the Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in fisheries biology, and an associate degree in agriculture. As the Director of the tribe’s hatchery he grows oysters and bay scallops for the tribe as well as for business. They sell anywhere from 300,000 to 600,000 oysters per year. In addition to this work with his wife, he runs nature-based learning programs for children and adults.
Interview Transcript
Well, my name is David Vanderhoop. My nation is called the Aquinna Wampanoag tribe. We live on Martha’s Vineyard Island, about 6 or 7 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and I’m a fisherman. I’ve a bachelor of science degree in fisheries biology, and a associate degree in aquaculture. Right now at this point in my life, I run the oyster farm for the Wampanoag tribe.
We grow oysters, we grow them from babies. We spawn them, we take care of them in the lab on the inside until they’re big enough to go out into our puller system, which is basically what it says, that the water flows through this 20 by 8 raft and feeds the oysters until they’re big enough to be put into a 3/8-inch mesh bag. And then we have a floating system where we put them out in a shallow site and take care of them out there until they’re big enough to be transferred into the next size up, which is a ¾ bag and then they grow in there. We keep them for a total of two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years in which they grow to market size, which is three inches. We sell the oysters around the island here, as well as Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. And we’re looking into markets in Chicago and also the European market. So we sell anywhere from 300,000 to 600,000 per year and we’re looking to expand that a little bit.
We do this in Menemsha Pond which traditionally means a lot to me. My father, William Diamond Vanderhoop, was the last Wampanoag to make his living solely on Menemsha Pond year round. And the pond it’s brackish, but mostly sea water. The pond has fed our people for thousands and thousands of years with the shellfish, with the fish that come through, and I take it extremely serious that we keep the pond in good health, which means, to me, making sure that there are shellfish in there for my tribal people to not only gather to nurture their own bodies, but in this society to have some economic value as well. So I really take that in a serious way and make sure that the pond has enough shellfish in it to keep our people going.
Anyway, it was a lean year for scalloping. And I had a family of five at the time and basically I only had two bullets for my gun. I’d been looking for a deer for a good two or three weeks, and finally, I got one, and I brought it home. You know I gathered my kids around and we gave thanks, and we made a fire. We made a fire and we cooked the heart and some of the liver right away and we ate it, and it just was it was very, very tasty. I was so thankful you know to be able to feed my kids that day, because times were very, very lean. So it was a gift. So that was a tough, tough time.
The clambake includes the shellfish, the fish, as well as the traditional foods that we also throw in there, the potatoes and corn, and beans. They all represent our native foods that we have in this area, and that this is how we used to do it. We make a big fire. You can gather some seaweed from the beach, you cover it and you put your food on top of the seaweed, and you cover that up, wait for a couple hours, and you got enough food to feed a village.
I would define native foods by basically looking around me and just picking out what is available – the deer, all of the fruits that we have that are wild fruits around here that I still harvest and a few other people still harvest – the beech plums, the grapes, the blackberries, the blueberries, the three sisters, of course – corn, squash, and the beans. The wild hazelnuts that we have. And of course all of the shellfish and the fish that we have available to us that the Creator has basically sent to us and said, “Yes, this is for you. You take this bounty and you be thankful for it, because it’s here for you, and it will sustain your life.” So I think that I would define native foods as food that the Creator has actually given you from your area to keep you healthy.
Related Websites:
Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe: www.wampanoagtribe.net/
Landowner Success Story: David Vanderhoop, Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery
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