Martha's Vineyard
Massachusetts island of six towns and the Wampanoag homeland of Aquinnah
For more than two centuries, so many people on Martha's Vineyard were born deaf that hearing and deaf islanders alike spoke their own sign language. By the late 1800s about one in 155 residents was deaf, and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language thrived until the mid-20th century. The island itself covers about 96 square miles (250 km²) off the southwest corner of Cape Cod, a glacial landscape of moraines, outwash plains and ponds that rises to 311 feet (95 m) at Peaked Hill. The Wampanoag call it Noepe, often translated as land amid the streams.
Bartholomew Gosnold's 1602 expedition gave the island its English name, likely honoring his mother-in-law, Martha. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) remains on the island and has been federally recognized since 1987, and the clay cliffs at Aquinnah are among its landmarks. Oak Bluffs, with its gingerbread cottages, became a summer haven for African American families in the early 20th century. The six towns of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah hold about 20,600 year-round residents in Dukes County, a number that multiplies each summer.