We are Wampanoags, People of the Breaking Day. Nippa'uus the Sun, in
his journey through the sky, warms us first as he rises over the rim of
the sea. At his birth each new morning we say, "Thank you, Nippa'uus,
for returning to us with your warmth and light and beauty."
But it is Kiehtan, the Great Spirit, who made us all: we, the
two-legged who stand tall, and the four-legged; those that swim and
those that fly and the little people who crawl; and flowers and trees
and rocks. He made us all, brothers sharing the earth.
So begins the story of the Wampanoag people, the tribe that lived in
southeastern Massachusetts at the time the Pilgrims landed. In this
companion book to The Pilgrims of Plimoth, winner of the Boston
Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction, Marcia Sewall recreates the world
of the Wampanoags, the People of the Breaking Day. In a voice that
evokes the pride and natural poetry of these native people and in
paintings glowing with life and light, the distinguished
author-illustrator presents another view of an important time in
American history, a time before the meeting of two very different
cultures.