Everett Gardner Weeden, Jr. (“Tall Oak”), a documented descendant of the Mashanticut Pequot, Narragansett, and Wampanoag tribes, was an artist, an activist, survivalist, and historian, He was born in Providence on September 4, 1936 to the late Everett G. Weeden, Sr, and Bertha (Ramos) Weeden Summers.
At age nine Everett moved with his family to the Roger Williams Homes, a public housing project in South Providence. He attended St. Michael’s School where his classmates were “amazed with his extraordinary artistic skill.” After graduating from Central High School in 1955, he was awarded a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design where he attended for two years. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1957 until 1963.
Everett worked very closely spreading and preserving native culture with his cousin Princess Redwing, who named him Tall Oak. When she and Eva Butler established the Tomaquag Museum in 1958, he joined as a staff member and research consultant. One of the ways he taught cultural traditions was when he formed and directed the Watchaug Indian Dancers in a variety of religious dances.
Tall Oak was an educational consultant affiliated with the Boston Children’s Museum, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and Brown University. He was a charter member of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum Research Center.
Tall Oak was known in Indian country as an ardent Indian Rights activist and one who sought to uplift the rights of Indigenous People across all borders. He was one of the driving forces behind the birth of “The National Day of Mourning” at Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving Day in 1970 where almost 400 Indigenous People from across the country gathered in protest at the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim landing at Plymouth Rock. The National Day of Mourning focused on the injustices Native Americans in New England faced and one of its original goals was to find a connection and peace between Natives and non-natives. As a member of the American Indian Movement, Tall Oak joined in the 500-strong occupation of Washington’s Bureau of Indian Affairs building in 1972.
Tall Oak was instrumental in researching the descendants of ancestors who were captured and taken from the shores of southern New England and dispersed and sold into slavery after the Pequot War in 1637. His in-depth research led to the inaugural celebration of the “Reconnection Festival” on St. David’s Island in Bermuda where, in 2002, he educated the island’s residents of Native American ancestry about their roots.
Always seeking to generate a more accurate and honest image of Indigenous People led to his participation in several videos including Kevin Costner’s “500 Nations” production in 1994 and a documentary, “Mystic Voices,” about the Pequot War. Tall Oak gave numerous speeches on the Native American Experience in Southern New England, while continuing to portray the indigenous experience through his art.
Tall Oak was married to Patricia Turner, “Commetah,” of the Mashpee nation who survives him. He had five children: the late Christopher, and Enada, and Toni, David, and Annanwon. He died in Charlestown on February 11, 2022 at age eighty-five, and was laid to rest in the Old Indian Burial Grounds
Dr. Joyce Stevos
Director, Emeritus