Zerviah Gould Mitchell

Zerviah Gould Mitchell (July 24, 1807 – March 5, 1898) was a Wampanoag educator, basket weaver, and direct descendant of the sachem Massasoit. In 1878, she published Indian History, Biography and Genealogy: Pertaining to the Good Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag Tribe, and His Descendants with historian Ebenezer W. Peirce, and the book included a narration of the life of Massasoit, as well as a genealogy of Massasoit's descendants.

Early life and heritage Mitchell was born in North Abington, Massachusetts, to Brister Gould (1759–1823) and Phebe Squinn (1770–1839). Her maternal grandmother, Lydia Tuspaquin (c. 1740–1812), was the great-great-granddaughter of Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoag Native American people during the 17th century.

Marriage and children In 1824, she married Thomas C. Mitchell (1795–1859), a merchant sailor of African-American descent. Some sources claim that Thomas Mitchell was half Cherokee, although this would be unlikely given their location. The couple had eleven children: Jane (1827–1840), Zerviah (1828–1923), Levinia (1830–1841), Delores (1834–1875), Melinda (1836–1919), Thomas (1838–1859), John (1841–1870), Lydia (1843–?), Emma (1846–1932), Charlotte (1848–1930), and Alonzo (1850–1921). Five of Mitchell's children survived her.

Mitchell was well educated and worked as a teacher at a private school in Boston while her husband would spend prolonged periods of time overseas. She was also the first person of African-American descent to apply to Wheaton College, though she was turned down.

Later life

Mitchell first challenged the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ treatment of Native Americans in 1857, when she petitioned to have the guardianship removed from four lots of land on the Fall River Indian Reservation. She held ancestral land rights to the lots on the reservation, but the land had been entrusted to white merchant and justice of the peace, Benjamin F. Winslow (1813–1883). Mitchell's land rights were affirmed by 1861, yet she received considerable hostility from other residents of the reservation, who saw her land claim as purely self-serving. Nevertheless, her petition has since been considered an important contributing factor towards the enfranchisement of Native Americans in Massachusetts in 1869, which resulted in the end of the guardianship system.

Mitchell died at her home in Betty's Neck, Lakeville, on March 5, 1898, aged 90. Her death was reported in The Boston Journal and the New York Herald, both of which described her as a Native American “Princess”.