The People - The Re-Monument

Thomas Spirit Tree Green

Thomas Spirit Tree Green is a proud member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. He is a direct descendent of the Neponset band of the Massachusett, known as the “people of the great hills,” who inhabited the great Blue Hill region south of Boston for over 12,000 years before the arrival of English settlers.

The word Massachusett translates to “Great Hill Place.” For years beyond counting, the Indigenous Massachusett peoples, from whom the Commonwealth of Massachusetts derives its name, lived and thrived in villages that spanned the coast of Massachusetts. Their presence was extended inland by the common language and familial ties they shared with neighboring Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag to the south and Nipmuc to the west, with whom they inter-married over centuries and cooperatively used hunting and fishing grounds in the region.

Spirit Tree is wearing traditional, Northeast Woodland-style side seam deerskin moccasins, leggings and loincloth. His headdress is a mink that was formerly part of his grandmother’s regalia. A closed grip skinning knife, held by a decorative deerskin sheath, hangs from his hip. His choker is made of bone hair pipe beads and agate, and he dons a glass seed bead necklace with a hawk motif. He made the regalia and jewelry items over two decades ago. Spirit Tree’s storied deer hide cape was gifted to the Massachusett by members of the neighboring Nipmuc tribe.

Thomas Green is a Tribal Council member and chairman of the Tribes History Preservation Committee. He is a devoted Indigenous culture steward, preservationist, and educator who specializes in the Native American history of Massachusetts and Indigenous land acknowledgments. Among his notable accomplishments are his works as an Indigenous artist who focuses on quahog shell, seed bead jewelry and traditional Indigenous regalia, and his acts of cultural reclamation such as construction of traditional Indigenous fish weirs, wetu (an Indigenous summer home) and mishoonash (dugout canoes). Thomas is a sought-after consultant and lecturer who has worked with the New England Aquarium, The Trustees of Reservations organization, and historical societies across the region.