Melissa (Harding) Ferretti - Chairwoman "Golden Dragonfly"
Born in Plymouth County (Wareham), the daughter of Bernard Marsden Harding (Herring Pond Wampanoag HPWT), raised in Cedarville/South Plymouth and Bournedale by Verna May Harding (HPWT Elder). Melissa attended Plymouth Carver School system. She attended Cape Cod Community College and studied Information Technology. She is a happily married Mother of two wonderful sons and a proud Grandmother of four.
Her professional career began in early 1998 in the Town Clerk’s Office in Mashpee. She later served the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe as the Executive Administrative Assistant. In 2003, Melissa became a licensed Real Estate Sales Associate and a Notary Public in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She continues to hold these designations and is currently affiliated with Jack Conway and Company. She is also the former Vice President of Operations for Select Staffing of Massachusetts, a position she held for more than six years. Alongside her real estate work, she provides freelance research, consulting, and back-office bookkeeping services.
Melissa is now proudly serving her fifth two-year term as the elected Chairwoman of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe in Plymouth and Bournedale. She dedicates much of her time to strengthening and supporting her community. In her role as Tribal Chairwoman, she has worked tirelessly on many of the initiatives and challenges that Indigenous communities face today. Her work includes the protection of sacred sites and ancestral burial grounds, archival research, documentation and digitization, advocacy for tribal rights and self-determination, environmental justice, mental health, substance use and prevention, youth empowerment, and grant program development. She is deeply committed to educating the public about the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe and its rich and well documented history.
In the spring of 2020, Melissa co taught an undergraduate course with Dr. Amy DenOuden at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department titled Indigenous Women’s Leadership and Tribal Nation Self Determination. In 2022, she ran a successful campaign for public office in the Town of Bourne and was elected to the Select Board on May 17, 2022. She is currently serving her second term and was recently appointed Chair. Melissa is the first Wampanoag woman to hold this position and is believed to be the first person of color ever elected to the Select Board in this municipality. She also serves on several state level and local boards and committees.
Kathleen Gately - Enrollment Director "Morning Star"
Kathleen ‘Morning Star’ Gately, has been active on the Tribal council for over 10 years, serving on the council for much of that time, before her current role as a youth mentor and on the enrollment committee member. Kathleen is a Social Worker where she is helping elders live an independent life in their home. She has also worker in the medical field as a hospice home health aide. As a tribal youth mentor, she hopes to instill native traditions in our youth that can be passed down too many generations. Such as gardening, songs and especially be Intune with the land. As an enrollment member she supports and educated members to enroll and helping member with recourse to attend higher education. Kathleen was a speaker on a national conference in May 2021 on Crimes against women. She spoke about native women are portrayed and what we can do to help the fight on missing and murders indigenous woman. She hopes to one day have more recourses for Northwest tribe to educate and help native women combat domestic violence.
Troy Belmont Currence - "Neesweekokotywak" Paw Paw
Troy Currence, I was born in Germany, Bitgurg (Frankfurt) May 31, 1972. I was raised in Germany, Albuquerque, NM, Panama, England and Cape Cod, MA. I am the grandson of the Great Great Great Joseph and Love Saunders both of Herring Pond. The Great Great grandson of Harriet Saunders Harding. The Great grandson of Caleb Saunders Harding. And the Grandson of Maurice "Buster" Belmont Harding. The son of Hazel Ann Harding Currence, ``The One Who Smiles Easily", Elder to the Herring Pond people and heavily involved in Herring Pond Tribe & The Wampanoag Nation.
Medicine man to the Herring Pond Tribe. And have been involved with the tribe since my parents returned here in 1986, and more involved since the birth of daughter, Kendall Ann-Marie Currence, the one who is known as "Rising Feather" Waapumeeqan. Kendall is currently the Captain of the Women's Northeastern Basketball team. I have been the medicine man for the last 14 years. I was involved in so many things within our tribe from Genealogy, language, pow wows, ceremonies, socials, guest interpreter at Plimoth Plantation (Patuxet), Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers Wampanoag Nation Advisory Committee and have represented not only our tribe but the Wampanoag nation at events and the list goes on and on. I assist the Woods Hole Diversity committee on racial and social justice issues and Falmouth Academy on diversity and affordability about education and I was a past member of the Woods Hole Black History Committee.
I have a degree in Sociology (Concentration in Criminology) and a minor in Psychology. I have worked with the Department of Social Service and Juvenile courts and was an Assistant Director of a Youth Program for several years. I have been an employee for the United States Geological Survey as an IT Technologist for the last 21 years.
Hazel Ann Harding Currence - Enrollment Director "The One Who Smiles Easy" Nuhkumay wohsun
Born in Wareham, MA and the daughter of Maurice "Buster" Belmont Harding Sr. of Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribal Elder and Alberta Virginia Hunt Harding. Lifelong resident of Bourne and attended Public school in the Town of Bourne. I have two sons, Samuel Gene Currence Jr. and Troy BelmontCurrence, the Medicine Man for the Herring Pond Tribe. I have 3 granddaughters and 1 grandson. I have lived in South Carolina, Germany, New Mexico, Panama, and England.
I have always participated in my Wampanoag Culture with my father and have always continued today. I have been involved and or a member of the Regali's workshops, Canal Celebration for Meet & Greet the Herring Ponders, Native Land Conversvcery, Wampanoag Plymouth 400 Committee, Wampanoag Nation Advisory Committee, Herring Pond Singers, and the Wampanoag Language Project, The Plymouth No Place for Hate, Homes for the troops, Massiost Repatrication and attended many different tribal socials and pow wows within the New England areas. I have been on the Election and Genealogy committees for Herring Pond for several years. I have assisted with multiple tribal cemetery clean ups as well & ceremonies within the area.
Other activities that I have been involved in coaching volleyball, basketball, softball, football, cheerleading, officiated the same sports. I am an active member of the Bourne Historical Society & Bourne Historic Preservation Society, Bourne High School Alumni, National Sports Coaches Association, and Panama Arm Forces Sports Coaches Association.