Beverly Jensen Of The Shinnecock Nation Dies July 9

Beverly Jensen (nee Crippen), the founding author of The Southampton Press’s former Agawam Notes community column about the Shinnecock Nation, died of respiratory failure on the doorsteps to her Shinnecock Territory home on July 9 at the age of 76. She was surrounded by family.

One of 10 children born to the late Alvilda “Kitty” and Arthur Lee Crippen of the Shinnecock Nation, Ms. Jensen attended the Shinnecock Schoolhouse and then went on to attend Southampton public schools. When her mother and her aunt, Harriett Crippen Brown Gumbs, moved to Connecticut for work, Ms. Jensen attended Greenwich High School and graduated alongside her first cousin, Phillip Brown IV, in 1961.

Ms. Jensen was baptized in the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church, which is where she also married her husband Robert Jensen of New York City on August 24, 1963. The couple met through their siblings, Aruthur “Mike” Crippen and Shirley Jensen, who later married.

Mr. Jensen, is a retired electrical engineer and served as a chief design engineer for several years and later started his own company. He traveled internationally and retired in 2003. He lives at the Shinnecock Indian Reservation.

In 1966, following the completion of her Bachelor of Arts in English Honors degree at the State University of New York at Brockport, Ms. Jensen gave birth to an only daughter, Lori B. Gomez, who currently serves as the Executive Director of Tribal Operations of the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

She later obtained a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and was awarded a journalism fellowship at the University of Missouri in Colombia, Missouri.

Fondly known as Aunt Bev, Cousin Bev, Miss Bev, and Bevy Deer, Ms. Jensen lived her passion through writing, the family said. Up until the age of 75, Ms. Jensen served 15 years as the Shinnecock Nation’s official media correspondent and communications director, acting as reporter, photographer, editor and publisher of the Shinnecock Nation’s monthly newsletter, The Nation’s Voice.

“She narrated life how she saw it,” said Pastor Preston Brown, Ms. Jensen’s second cousin, who officiated graveside services at Shinnecock Cemetery on July 15. “She lived life on her terms.”

Ms. Jensen’s graveside ceremony began with a hand drum and a half dozen singers — one in traditional regalia with others adorning contemporary ribbon shirts, ribbon shirts and the ever timeless wampum. At the swell of the opening song, four osprey and a white heron circled high above the procession, which according to tribal traditionalist Jonathan Smith, signified Ms. Jensen’s good journey to the spirit world.

It was a grand entry fitting for the grand exit of a woman whose words vividly portrayed the reverence of Shinnecock Nation in local and national media for over a decade.

“Miss Bev meant so much to the Nation,” said Shinnecock Council of Trustee Chairman Bryan Polite. “She also meant a great deal to me personally … Back and forth in our emails, when I was a chairman prior, she always gave us encouragement. She gave us a light.”

In the early 2000s, Ms. Jensen hesitantly accepted an invite to become the first Shinnecock to author a weekly community column about the Shinnecock Nation in The Southampton Press, making Shinnecock one of the last communities to be added to The Press’s community section featuring news by local residents of East End hamlets. After more than 125 years of the newspaper’s existence, Shinnecock Nation was finally offered a platform to tell its own story. Ms. Jensen paved the way for other young Shinnecock writers to follow, and opened avenues for other local media outlets to include Shinnecock news.

Ms. Jensen moved on from The Press in 2007. Years later, she picked up writing Shinnecock community news for Southampton Patch and Dan’s Papers. In addition, her public relations articles on behalf of the Nation were often published by national Native American media networks, including Indian Country Today and Indianz.com.

Notwithstanding carving out an authentic space for Shinnecock to be included in local public discourse, Ms. Jensen’s most profound contributions to her tribal community include her completion of the first draft of the Constitution of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, alongside Winona Warren and David Bunn Martine; her development of a Native American history curriculum for grade school children with Newsweek; and her 2015 self-published photographic history book “Images of America — Shinnecock Indian Nation.”

“Her book, which shows the pride of our people through generations, continues her legacy to showcase our Shinnecock Nation,” said Chairman Polite. “Her contribution to the Shinnecock Nation will live on far past today.”

Beyond her pride for her community, Ms. Jensen’s pride and adoration for her family was evidenced in the countless anecdotes she shared in writing about her travels to visit with her daughter and grandchildren in Taos Pueblos, New Mexico.

According to Pastor Brown, Ms. Jensen made it a point to bring her Eastern Woodland flair to her Southwestern relatives, teaching her grandchildren to make eastern regalia and sharing with them the family recipe for Crippen Clam Chowder in preparation for the annual Shinnecock Powwow. When her daughter survived a tragic motorcycle accident that fatally injured her husband Phillip Gomez in 2008, Ms. Jensen dropped everything to move to New Mexico to nurture her family back to health.

Ms. Gomez and her fiancé Jessie Gonzalez were in the process of moving from Shinnecock back to the Southwest when they received the news of Ms. Jensen’s death and had to reverse course. Ms. Gomez’s three children, Alyssa Sunbow Gomez, a New Mexico State Trooper and was the first woman of Taos Pueblo to hold the highest certification as a Native American woman among State Troopers; Alexandria Springwater Gomez-Stripland, a member of the U.S. Air Force stationed in California with her husband Phillip Chavez; and Elijah Stormstar Gomez, a U.S. Marine stationed in California; were on active duty and unable to receive leave in time for Ms. Jensen’s services.

In addition to her husband, daughter, three grandchildren, an aunt, a brother and a sister-in-law, Ms. Jensen is also survived by a great-grandson Phillip Chavez of California; three sisters, Joan Williams and her husband Donald Williams Sr. of Shinnecock Territory, Roma Niles of Shinnecock Territory, Laurie Sanders and her husband Ulysses Sanders of Queens Village; and a second brother, Wayne Crippen of Shinnecock Territory. She is also survived by a brother-in-law, Harry Jensen, and many nieces, nephews, close friends and cousins.

Besides her parents and a son-in-law, Ms. Jensen was predeceased by her brother Thomas C. Crippen and two sisters Carmen L. Murphy and Cheryl O. Munoz.

Funeral services were entrusted to Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton. The Reverend Michael A. Vetrano assisted Pastor Brown with opening prayers as Ms. Jensen was not only a woman of tradition, but also one of strong Presbyterian and Catholic faith, the family said.