Indigenous Translations Will Be Added to Street Signs Around Cambridge | News | The Harvard Crimson
Cambridge will install new street signs with road names translated into the Massachusett language in a multi-year initiative to recognize the city s historical ties to its Indigenous residents.
The project, first approved as part of the city s 2021 participatory budgeting cycle, will begin with roughly 80 translated street signs on First Street through Eighth Street. An accompanying website will allow residents and passersby to access audio of sign name pronunciations and context around the history of the Massachusett people in Cambridge.
Sage B. Carbone a member of the Northern Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island who first proposed the initiative said Indigenous translations on signs in reservations are commonplace, but the project represents a milestone for Indigenous recognition in Cambridge.
This is a unique project, said Carbone, a Cambridge resident. This is the first time that in any of our research I found that the signs are being put on municipal city land.
The initiative is part of the city s African American and Indigenous Peoples Historical Reckoning Project, which received $180,000 in funding during the 2021 Participatory Budgeting cycle.
Well this makes me feel much more virtuous, and I didn’t even go to Harvard.