by Fred Moleck
Native Royalty
Two weekends ago to mark my natal day, I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, to participate in a fall foliage tour of eastern Rhode Island.Many of us return year after year to celebrate New England’s incredible display of colorful leaves and bright skies. This year was outstanding.
The leader of the tour provides another element that makes the tours so popular. He knows great eating places.
Whether it is a simple clam chowder shack or high table dining rooms in Newport or Providence, the food and the service have been second to none.
Bright foliage, high tables, congenial company. . . what could be better to celebrate sixty-nine years on earth. God is good.
Back to this year’s trip.
At one of the downtown Providence eating establishments we were greeted by a real maitre d’, who ushered us to a table by the window in a restaurant any wealthy Charles Dickens character would find pleasing.
Soon, the waiter, about six and one half feet tall with a facial profile one would find on coinage of the realm plus a vocal tessitura of a basso profundo, joined us.
He made some suggestions of what we should consider on the menu and continued to execute a suave and hospitable table ministry.
The conversation with him continued midst serving drinks, appetizers, and other great dinner fare.
We soon learned that he was a member of the Wampanoag nation, whose sovereignty would soon be recognized. We also learned that
1. he is a member of the Wampanoag people; 2. his father is a leader of the people; 3. he is a direct descendent of Massasoit, the chief who basically saved the lives of the English Pilgrims, who by starvation and sickness were nearly wiped out in the first year in the Plymouth Colony. (You might remember the name Squanto from your grade school US history classes; he was contemporary to Massasoit. After nearly seven decades on earth, I finally meet an authentic Native American with a pedigree.
Here is a polished gentleman assisting us at high table, who could be seen as heir apparent to a cultivated and honorable nation that predates by centuries the arrival of the English separatist Pilgrims in 1620.
I am sure that again you can reflect back on your grade-school history class and remember that it didn’t take very long for the English to set up a nontoleration government and society that was intolerant of any deviation from their standards and mores.
Roger Williams comes to mind; he broke away from them and established Providence, Rhode Island.
Within a hundred years Roman Catholics were spurned, and Jesuit priests had a price on their heads. Papists were never welcomed—all in the name of religious purity.
All of this history is rolling around in my head while our waiter is telling us his history as well as his hopes and dreams.
What also came up in my head was the quote from 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.”
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net