Landscapes of belonging: white possession and settler subjectivity in Mashpee, Massachusetts

Mashpee, Massachusetts is unique amongst coastal areas in New England. This is due to the fact that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe retained partial sovereignty and land-use rights in Mashpee from the pre-colonial era to the mid-20th century. Beginning in the 1950s, however, developers took interest in Mashpee and transformed the landscape into recreational-residential resorts, attracting an influx of new white residents. In 1976, the Mashpee Tribe filed suit for the return of their land, to the widely publicized outrage of the town's white newcomers. How did the 1976 land suit reinforce the settler colonial logic that links whiteness and property? How are geographies o f belonging, comfort, and leisure formed on this land? In this thesis, I use this case study to explore how white subjectivities materialize through ideologies of US exceptionalism, Indigenous assimilation, and property ownership.