Fire Keeper for the Royal House of the Pokanokets, Dighton Intertribal Council, and Affiliated Tribes of New England, Gray Fox (Roger Desrosiers) prepares to spiritually cleanse the area around the 400 year old Council Oak on the property of Saint Thomas More Church at 386 Luther Ave, Somerset, MA. The tree is thought to have been a gathering place for the Massasoit Osamequin in the early 1600s. (Photos by George Austin, editor of the Somerset Spectator)

Gray Fox fans some burning sage that he uses to smudge those gathered at the tree before the trimming of the tree needed to maintain its health begins. The wood will be retained for ceremonial uses.

Gray Fox’s wife, Spirit Fox (Donna Desrosiers), stands by as he makes a tobacco offering to the creator and Mother Earth and to the four directions, east, south, west and north, before offering it to the tree under which a stone marker was placed in 1976.

Click here for the article in the November 25, 2015 edition of the Somerset Spectator.