Wampanoag, Tribespeople “Of the Dawn”
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.
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