The People - The Re-Monument

Toby Eastman

Toby Sun Dances with the Sea Eastman is an enrolled member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag.

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 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.

The Massachusett first encountered European explorers and traders who traversed the continent in the fifteenth century. As a result, they were among the Native Americans who contracted infectious diseases against which they had no immunity. It is estimated that epidemics resulted in the death of up to 90% of theit population by the early 1630s.

Sun Dances with the Sea is wearing a traditional Northeast Woodland indigenous winter dress. It is longer than a summer dress to provide maximum protection and warmth. Decorative fringe at the bottom was traditionally employed to elude pursuit. Her top half is comprised of popular English trade items: a white linen shirt decorated with black silk ribbon and accented by a leather belt with engraved silver discs. Additionally, silk ribbon binds her carefully braided hair.

Toby Eastman is a psychotherapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked in community mental health for over three decades. She uses Indigenous wisdom and ways of knowing, honoring ancestors, our relationship to the natural world, and spirit in her role as a healer and leader in the community.

Toby grew up in Roxbury, MA with her parents and two sisters. As a child, she was a part of the school desegregation movement of the 1970s. Having received her primary school education in an affluent MA suburb, Toby developed an early awareness of inequalities in access to resources as well as the injustices of racism experienced by her family and community. The sharp contrast between the abundant wealth of the children and families she went to school with, and the modest circumstances of her surroundings, spurred her desire to serve in communities like her own. After high school, she was granted a scholarship to Stanford University and received the Stanford Dean’s Award for Community Service. Thereafter, she earned a Master of Arts degree in Social Work from San Francisco State University.

Toby Sun Dances with the Sea Eastman lives with her husband and her many plants. She enjoys spending time with their adult children and visiting family members all around the country. She finds great joy in participating in tribal activities, particularly those involving tribal language preservation and revitalization through the language reclamation program.