Editing Mashpee, Massachusetts (section)

=== 19th century ===
In 1834, the state returned a certain level of self-government to the Wampanoag, although they were not completely autonomous. With the idea that emulating European-American farming would encourage assimilation, in 1842 the state broke up some of the Wampanoag communal land. It distributed {{convert|2000|acre|km2}} of their {{convert|13000|acre|km2|adj=on}} property in allotments of {{convert|60|acre|m2|adj=on}} parcels to heads of households, so that each family could have individual ownership for subsistence farming.

The legislature passed laws against the encroachments on Wampanoag land by European Americans, but did not enforce them. The competing settlers also stole wood from the reservation. It was a large region, once rich in wood, fish and game, and desired by white settlers, who envied the growing community of Mashpee. The Mashpee Indians suffered more conflicts with their white neighbors than did other more isolated or less desirable Indian settlements in the state.<ref name="HNAIff">''Handbook of North American Indians.'' Chapter: "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island, late period," p. 178ff; [http://mashpeewampanoagtribe.com/ Mashpee Wampanoag Nation webpage]; [http://www.wampanoagtribe.net/Pages/index Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah webpage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017182108/http://www.wampanoagtribe.net/Pages/index |date=October 17, 2016 }}</ref>

In 1870 the state approved the incorporation of Mashpee as a [[town]], the second-to-last jurisdiction on the Cape to undergo the process. Ultimately the Wampanoag lost control of their land and self-government. Many of their descendants remain in the area and identify as Mashpee by their communal culture.