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Cheryll Toney Holley is the current chief of the Nipmuc Nation, a tribe recognized by the state of Massachusetts. She is the leader of the Hassanamisco Band of Nipmuc Indians, who are one of the last tribes currently occupying land in Massachusetts. She was elected in July of 2013 after the resignation of Chief Walter Vickers. As chief, her duties range from spiritual advice to job placement assistance.Holley is the tribe's third female chief in the past fifty years.

She is a co-founder and the director of the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation, which is a Native Community Development Corporation. She is also the director of the Hassanamisco Indian Museum in Grafton, Massachusetts.

There is a long tradition among Native American people of female leadership (I'll fill this in--don't worry about it right now)Ssenier (talk) 20:14, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Prior to her election in 2013, Holley was the clinical supervisor of the dermatology clinic at UMass Memorial Medical center. Between 1998 and 2008, she served on the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. In her role as proprietor of PasTense Genealogy, she works to connect New England’s descendants of communities of color in her role as proprietor of PasTense Genealogy.

Historical Work
Holley is well-known regionally as an historian specializing in Native American and African American genealogies, in which capacity she is frequently invited to speak.

In June 2014, she participated in a panel discussion at Boston’s Suffolk University entitled, “A Hidden History: How Massachusetts Law and Policy Facilitated the Loss of Tribal Lands.” Holley and other Massachusetts tribal leaders detail the effect the loss of land has on Native Americans. Holley outlines the vast taking of land that occurred towards the end of the eighteenth century where the majority of Hassanamesit Nipmuc reservation land was sold to English families for £2,500. The money made from this exchange of land was intended to be distributed to the impoverished Native American families, however the funds disappeared. Today, only three acres remain of the original Hassanamesit reservation in Grafton, Massachusetts. No members of the Nipmuc tribe live on their traditional tribal land today, however they continue to hold their traditional cultural events on Nipmuc land in order to honor and to connect with their ancestors. The panel discussed how the loss of land destroyed communities because of the importance of land to all tribes. Along with the other panel members, Holley called attention to the importance of land justice for her tribe as well as the other tribes of Massachusetts.

In March 2015, Holley participated in a conversation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. During this discussion, Holley, along with other tribal leaders,spoke about the experience of and the current challenges with reparation work in the efforts to properly rebury tribal members.

In April 2015, she spoke at the 13th New England Regional Genealogical Conference held in Providence, Rhode Island. Holley commented on how New England’s waterways served as highways between tribes, which allowed for intertribal connections. She spoke about how these waterways created connections that still exist with today’s tribal members, highlighting the discoveries that are able to be made in the investigation of ethnic genealogy.