By MICHAEL LEVESQUE

Everett Gardiner Weeden Jr., or Tall Oak, was a member of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe stated that Weeden was “a documented descendant of the Mashantucket Pequot, Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes.” Tall Oak dedicated his life to education and advocacy for the rights of indigenous peoples. Weeden’s traditional name, Tall Oak, was given to him by Princess Red Wing, another prominent historian of Narragansett and Wampanoag ancestry, when he was 16 years old. Tall Oak traced his surname to his ancestor Toby Weeden, a servant mentioned in the 1735 will of John Weeden of Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Weeden was born on September 4, 1936, in Providence to Everett Weeden Sr. and Bertha Ramos Weeden. He grew up in North Providence. In 1945, when he was 9 years old, he moved to the Roger Williams Homes, a public housing project in South Providence. Weeden attended St. Michael’s School. After graduating from Central High School, he received a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design, which he attended in 1955 and 1956. From 1957 to 1963, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Tall Oak is known throughout Indian Country as a passionate Native American rights activist and someone who fought across borders for Native rights. He was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the “National Day of Mourning” at Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving Day 1970. In 1970, on the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock, Frank James of the Aquinnah Wampanoag was asked by Governor Francis Sargent to write a speech and deliver it at the ceremony. However, when James presented his speech to officials, they considered it “too aggressive and too extreme.” This censorship angered local Native Americans and contributed to the establishment of the National Day of Mourning.

Inspired by the government officials’ decision, Tall Oak gathered several other Native American activists from the area, including Frank James. The six had originally planned for their meeting to take place in Jamestown, Virginia, but later decided to hold it in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Mayflower landed and where a statue of Massasoit stands overlooking Plymouth Harbor. Their biggest goal was to make sure the event remained peaceful. Part of their mission was to improve relations between Native and non-Native people on Cape Cod. The first national day of mourning was held on Thanksgiving 1970. Nearly 500 Native Americans from across the country gathered to hear James speak.

In 1959, he moved to Washington County to assist his cousin, Princess Red Wing, at the newly established Tomaquag Indian Museum. In the 1980s, Tall Oak began working to reunite members of the Pequot diaspora who had been scattered across the Atlantic after the slave trade that followed the Pequot War in the first half of the 17th century. On St. David’s Island in Bermuda, he helped found the St. David’s Island Indian Reconnection Committee, which was a leading advocate for learning more and then establishing a more formal connection between the Connecticut and Bermuda communities, culminating in the first reconnection in 2002. Tall Oak was featured on the cover of St. Clair “Brinky” Tucker’s St. David’s Island, Bermuda: Its People, History and Culture (2009).

Tall Oak’s commitment to accurate representation of Native Americans is evident in his participation in several videos. He worked on Kevin Costner’s 1994 production of “500 Nations” and assisted with the 2005 documentary “Mystic Voices,” which focused on the Pequot War. He has served as an educational consultant to the Boston Children’s Museum, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and Brown University. He has also been associated with the Tomaquag Museum since its founding in 1958, serving as a staff member and research consultant. Tall Oak was a founding member of the Charlestown Historical Society, a founding member of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum Research Center, a member of the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, and the Rhode Island Historical Society. He has also served on the advisory board of the American Indian Friends Coalition.

Everett Weeden married Patricia Turner Weeden (Mashpee Wampanoag). They had several children, including David Weeden (Mashpee Wampanoag), who serves as the historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Everett Weeden’s grandson is Brian Weeden, the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Tall Oak died in Charleston on February 11, 2022 at the age of 85. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2023.

Michael Levesque is the former mayor of West Warwick and director of the Rhode Island Hall of Fame.