Linda Coombs
Contemporary
Aquinnah; Mashpee; Plymouth
Linda Coombs is an Aquinnah Wampanoag historian, author, artisan, and museum educator with deep ties to Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. She has worked at the Boston Children's Museum, Plimoth's Wampanoag Indigenous Program, and the Aquinnah Cultural Center. Through exhibits, teaching, and writing, she helps audiences learn Wampanoag history from Wampanoag perspectives. Her book Colonization and the Wampanoag Story addresses young readers directly. Coombs connects research with community knowledge and living cultural practices. Her work reminds students that Native people interpret their own history and continue shaping Massachusetts today.
You can use your device’s reading tools or read with a partner.
Find a detail. Build an idea.
- What did this person or group do? Point to a detail in the reading.
- How did this person care for a community, its rights, or its knowledge?
- What would you like to find out next? Which kind of source could help?
“Linda Coombs mattered because ___. A detail that supports my idea is ___.”
Grades 6–8: dig deeper
How might a museum's account change when members of the community being described help research and tell the story?
Follow the evidence.
This short reading is an original classroom summary. Open the source with your teacher to check details and learn more.
Read the source: peabody.harvard.edu ↗Ask: Who made this source? What can it tell us? What might it leave out?