THE WAMPANOAG, TRIBESPEOPLE “OF THE DAWN” “Ye see, Hinnissy, th’ Indyun is bound f’r to give way to th’ onward march iv white civilization. You ’an me, Hinnissy, is th’ white civilization... The’ on’y hope f’r th’ Indyun is to put his house on rollers, an’ keep a team hitched to it, an’, whin he sees a white man, to start f’r th’ settin’ sun.” — Finley Peter Dunne, OBSERVATIONS BY MR. DOOLEY, New York, 1902 HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG When the English settlements first commenced in New England, that part of its territory, which lies south of New Hampshire, was inhabited by five principal nations of Indians: the Pequots, who lived in Connecticut; the Narragansets, in Rhode Island; the Pawkunnawkuts, or Womponoags, east of the Narragansets and to the north as far as Charles river;1 the Massachusetts, north of Charles river and west of Massachusetts Bay; and the Pawtuckets, north of the Massachusetts. The boundaries and rights of these nations appear not to have been sufficiently definite to be now clearly known. They had within their jurisdiction many subordinate tribes, governed by sachems, or sagamores, subject, in some respects, to the principal sachem. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, they were able to bring into the field more than 18,000 warriors; but about the year 1612, they were visited with a pestilential disease, whose horrible ravages reduced their number to about 1800.2 Some of their villages were entirely depopulated. This great mortality was viewed by the first Pilgrims, as the accomplishment of one of the purposes of Divine Providence, by making room for the settlement of civilized man, and by preparing a peaceful asylum for the persecuted Christians of the old world. In what light soever the event may be viewed, it no doubt greatly facilitated the settlements, and rendered them less hazardous. 1.I have supposed that the Indians living south of Charles river did not belong to the Massachusetts tribe. Chickatabot, sachem of Neponset, and Obatinuat acknowledged submission to Massasoit in 1621, and were at enmity with Squaw Sachem. No instance within my knowledge is recorded of a petty sachem going to war with his own tribe. It is also worthy of remark, that these sachems and their descendants executed deeds of lands within Massasoit’s territories, but never in the Massachusetts territories As the country became settled by the English, and the jealousies between different tribes were forgotten, all the Indians living within the Massachusetts patent were rather erroneously classed among the Massachusetts Indians. Hence the statements of Winthrop, Gookin, and other historians. See Prince, ANNALS, 1621. 2.MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COLLECTION, volume I. ALGONQUIN MASSACHUSETT NARRAGANSETT NIPMUC PENNACOOK WAMPANOAG CONNECTICUT PEQUOT 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral was claiming Brazil for Portugal and Férnandes was exploring Labrador. By the time of their 1st contact with Europeans, the Pequot would have situated themselves in what is now southeastern Connecticut from the Nehantic River eastward to the border of what is now Rhode Island, but at this early point the Pequot and the Mohegan were still a single tribe migrating into eastern Connecticut from the upper Hudson River Valley, perhaps from the vicinity of Lake Champlain.1 Situated as they were behind Long Island, the Pequot and their neighbors would be off the intrusives’ radar screens have little contact with Europeans before 1600, but the effects of the European presence in North American would begin to reach them soon afterwards. Warfare precipitated by the start of the French fur trade in the Canadian Maritimes would sweep south at the same time that a sickness left among the Wampanoag and Massachusett by English sailors on a slave raid would depopulate New England in three separate epidemics between 1614 and 1617. The Pequot and Narragansett would emerge from this chaos as rivals for the status of dominant tribe in the area. Like other Algonquin in southern New England, the Wampanoag were a horticultural people who supplemented their agriculture with hunting and fishing. Villages were concentrated near the coast during the summer to take advantage of the fishing and seafood, but after the harvest, the villages packed up and moved inland and separated into winter hunting camps made up of extended families. Since New England was heavily populated before the epidemics began, these hunting territories were usually defined to avoid conflict. Ownership passed from father to son, but it was fairly easy to obtain permission to hunt on someone else’s terrain. The Wampanoag were organized as a confederacy with lesser sachems and sagamores under the authority of a Grand Sachem or Metacom. Although the English often referred to Wampanoag sachems as “kings,” there was nothing royal about the position beyond respect and a very limited authority. Rank had few privileges and sachems worked for a living like everyone else. It should also be noted that, in the absence of a suitable male heir, it was not uncommon among these people for a woman to become the sachem (queen or squaw-sachem). 1.“Pequot” is From the Algonquin pekawatawog or pequttoog meaning “destroyers.” This group was also called Pekoath, Pequant, Pequatoo or Sickenames (by the Dutch), Pequod, Pequin (Sequin), Pyquan, and Sagimo. It had allied itself with the Eastern and Central Metoac, Manchaug (Nipmuc), Massomuck (Nipmuc), Monashackotoog (Nipmuc), Quinebaug (Nipmuc), Menunkatuc (Mattabesic), Pequannock (Mattabesic), Quinnipiac (Mattabesic), Siwanoy (Wappinger), and Western Niantic. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG 1524 March 1, Saturday: Giovanni da Verrazano (or Verazzano, or Verrazzano) of Firenzi may have visited our coast in La Dauphine as early as 1508 in the service of French merchants. However, the landfall of this date to this point has stood as the 1st verifiable visit to Rhode Island waters by a European. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT This skipper was in the employ of King Francis I of France and several Italian promoters, and was searching for an all-water way to get past the barrier of savage North America and on west toward the great markets of civilized Cathay (China). After his initial landfall at Cape Fear on what is now the North Carolina coast, on about this date, as the 1st French ship to scout this coast, he would proceed northward to the present site of New-York and anchor in the narrows which are now spanned by the giant bridge bearing his name, and claim the Algonkian Manah-hatin 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG “Island of the Hills” on behalf of the French king. From there, according to his own account, he would sail in an easterly direction until in about April he “discovered and Ilande in the forme of a triangle distant from the maine lande three leagues about the bigness of the Islande of Rhodes,”2 an island which he named Luisa in honor of the Queen Mother of France. This 2. Rhodos, in Greek, means “rose,” and from this we have the Reverend Williams’s comment that “Rhode Island, like the Isle of Rhodes, is an island of roses.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG must have been the island we now know as Block Island, but the Reverend Roger Williams and others would later mistake this as a reference to Aquidneck Island, at which Verrazzano soon came to anchor under the guidance of Wampanoag canoes.3 Thus they would reject that indigenous name Aquidneck4 in favor of “Rhode Island” after Verrazzano’s “the Island of Rhodes” and it would be Verrazzano who had (inadvertently, indirectly, as a ricochet) given to our smallest state its name “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” When Verrazano’s ship would reach the waters off Point Judith, the Wampanoag would paddle out and guided the sailors to a 2d anchorage in Narragansett Bay, at what is now Newport harbor. Their ship would anchor there for a couple of weeks while noting the fertile soil, the woods of oak and walnut, and such game as lynx and deer. There is not now any record of what the Narragansett thought of their strange guests, but we do happen 3. Giovanni da Verrazano would, on a subsequent voyage, provide protein supplement to New-World cannibals. Later, the Dutch mariner Adriaen Block would rename Luisa Island, which had become Claudia Island, in honor of himself. 4. In Algonquian, “Aquidnet” means “a place of security or tranquility,” from “aquene” or “aquidne” meaning secure or peaceful, and “et” meaning place. 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG to have retained a record of what that Florentine navigator thought of them: These people are the most beautiful and have the most civil customs that we have found on this voyage. They are taller than we are ... the face is clear-cut ... the eyes are black and alert, and their manner is sweet and gentle, very much like the manner of the ancients. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX WAMPANOAG WAMPANOAG He then may have landed somewhere in this cluster of eight islands now known as the Isles of Shoals. (When they built a bridge in his honor, they put it between Long Island and Staten Island rather than between any two of the islands in this group off the mouth of the “Merimock” River.) One of the things to bear in mind, in regard to the fire that Henry Thoreau and his companion would so carelessly start, is that all this forest growth had come about subsequent to the cessation of the native American practice of constant management by burning.