Wampanoag

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For the U.S. Navy ships which bore this name, see USS Wampanoag

The Wampanoag (Wôpanâak in the Wampanoag language) are a Native American people. In 1600 they lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in an area also encompassing Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. Their population numbered about 12,000.

Wampanoag leaders included Squanto, Samoset, Metacomet (King Philip), and Massasoit. Modern Thanksgiving traditions are based on the Wampanoags' interaction with the Pilgrims.

Contents 1 Name 2 Groups of the Wampanoag 3 Culture 4 Language 5 History 5.1 Squanto (or Tisquantum) 5.2 The Pilgrims 5.3 Massasoit 5.4 Expansion of the Colonists 5.5 Metacomet (King Philip) 5.6 King Philip's War 5.7 Consequences of the war 5.8 18th to 20th Century 5.8.1 Mashpee 5.8.2 Wampanoag on Martha's Vineyard 6 Current status 7 Demographics 8 Notable Wampanoag 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Name

John Smith named the Wampanoag Pakanoket in 1616, after their chief’s village, which was located near present-day Bristol, Rhode Island. This name was used frequently in early records and reports. The name currently used by ethnologists means ‘’Eastern People’’. The word Wapanoos was first seen on Adriaen Block's 1614 map and was probably a description of all tribes living in the Wampanoag's general area. Other synonyms include ‘’Wapenock, Massasoit’’ and ‘’Philips Indians’’.

[edit] Groups of the Wampanoag

Group	Area inhabited
Gay Head or Aquinnah	western point of Martha's Vineyard
Nantucket	Nantucket Island
Nauset	Cape Cod
Mashpee	Cape Cod
Patuxet	eastern Massachusetts, on Plymouth Bay
Pokanoket	eastern Massachusetts, near present-day Bristol
Pocasset	present day Massachusetts and or present day Rhode Island
and approximately 50 more groups

[edit] Culture

The Wampanoag were semi-sedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites. Corn (maize), beans and squash were the staples of their diet, supplemented by fish and game. More specifically, each community had authority over a well-defined territory from which the people derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting, harvesting and hunting. Because southern New England was thickly populated at the time, hunting grounds had strictly defined boundaries, and were passed on from father to son.

The Wampanoag way of life fostered a harmonious relationship between the people and their natural environment, both physical and spiritual. Also, they respected the traditions and the elders of their nation. The work of making a living was organized on a family level. Families gathered together in the spring to fish, in early winter to hunt and in the summer they separated to cultivate individual planting fields. Boys were schooled in the way of the woods, where a man’s skill at hunting and ability to survive under all conditions were vital to his family’s well being. The women were trained from youth to work diligently in the fields and around the family wetu.

A wetu was the round or oval Wampanoag wigwam. To build them, several posts were placed in the ground, then bent in over a fire and bound together at the top. They were covered on the outside by grass or bark and had an exit hole for smoke at the highest point. A summer house like this was designed so that it could be easily dismantled and moved in just a few hours.^[1]

The Wampanoag were organized into a confederation, where a head sachem presided over a number of other sachem. The English often referred to the sachem as king, a misleading concept, because the position of a sachem was in no way like that of a king and allowed only restricted authority and few privileges. It was traditional, that if there was a lack of appropriate male candidates, a woman could become a sachem.^[2]

See also: Massachusett

[edit] Language

Wampanoag spoke Wôpanâôt8âôk,^{[citation needed]} a dialect of the Massachusett language, and a member of the Algonquian language family. The name "Wampanoag" means "people of the dawn". They are also called "Massasoit" or "Philip’s Indians". In the early historic records they were very commonly referred to as "Pokanoket" (Poncakenet). The language has been extinct for at least a century.^[3][4]

A project was begun in 1993 through the initiative of several Wampanoag tribes in hopes that the Wampanoag language, which died out in the 19th century, might be resuscitated. Old printed texts provided a basis, including the translation of the Eliot Bible from 1663, as well as examples from related neighboring Algonquian languages. The "Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project" was started by Jessie Littledoe Baird, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, and Helen Manning, a Gay Head Wampanoag. Today Baird teaches classes in Mashpee and Aquinnah; only Wampanoag is spoken during the lessons. There is a Wampanoag dictionary, which currently contains about 7,000 words.^[5]

[edit] History

[edit] Squanto (or Tisquantum)

Main article: Squanto

The earliest contact between the Wampanoag and Europeans dated from the 16th century, when merchant vessels and fishing boats traveled along the coast of New England. Most of these encounters were of a friendly nature. There were, however, also exceptions, because some captains of these ships were known to capture Native Americans and sell them as slaves in order to increase their earnings. For example, Captain Thomas Hunt had a Wampanoag carried off onto his ship in 1614, and later sold him in Spain as a slave. One of his victims - a Patuxet named Squanto (or Tisquantum) - was bought by Spanish monks, who wanted to "civilize" him. Eventually he was let to go free, and despite his bad experiences he boarded an English ship again, in order to accompany an expedition to Newfoundland as a translator. From Newfoundland he ended up back at his homeland in southern New England in 1619, where meanwhile the whole Patuxet tribe (and with them, his family), had fallen victim to an epidemic.^[6]

[edit] The Pilgrims

During the same time, a small group of English religious dissidents, who had left England in order to escape persecution, lived in Holland. They had heard of the New World in the west and decided to emigrate there. The Virginia Company was ready to bring them to America, so they took their money and sent them off on two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Only a third of the passengers were religious separatists; the others were adventurers, criminals and debt prisoners, who England wanted to get rid of. Before this, the Plymouth Company was founded by a trading company of rich London traders, who were interested in the barter trade in the New World. Three men carried the speculations of the Plymouth Company across the Atlantic: William Bradford, who was named in advance to be the governor of the new-founded colony, Captain Myles Standish, the military leader of the pilgrims, and Andrew Weston, the leader of the adventurers.^[6]

In July 1620 the small fleet set sail, but after 300 miles the Speedwell got a leak and had to sail back to Plymouth, accompanied by the Mayflower. The repairs failed, and so in September 1620 all of the passengers boarded the Mayflower and took off for the New World again, in crowded conditions. After 65 days, on November 11, they reached the coast of present-day Massachusetts and landed near present-day Provincetown on the outermost point of Cape Cod.^[6]

The colonists decided to settle at this spot, but after some time realized that the sandy soil there was not suited to their needs. Therefore a group of them decided to settle on the other side of the bay of Cape Cod. On December 21, they landed near the abandoned village of the Patuxet, near present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. The majority of the remaining settlers followed them five days later.

For the next few months they lived there in squalid huts, hungry, sick and waiting for their impending deaths. Half of the newcomers did not survive the first winter. The Native Americans did keep an eye on the Englishmen, but they tried to stay out of their way. The Abenaki sachem, Samoset, from present-day Maine, had already met some English fishers at the short-lived colony by the mouth of the Kennebec River, and he greeted the pilgrims in broken English. He surveyed the situation and came back the next day with Squanto, who helped the Englishmen survive the next few months. He showed them, for example, how the local Native Americans cultivated the land, how to catch fish, and how to collect seafood.

The preceding information comes from William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation.^[7]

[edit] Massasoit

Squanto lived with the colonists and escaped captivity with the Wampanoag. He acted as a middleman between the pilgrims and Massasoit, the Wampanoag sachem. For the Wampanoag, the previous ten years before the arrival of the pilgrims was the worst time in their history. They were attacked by Micmac warriors from the north, who took over the coast after their victory over the Penobscot in the Tarratine War (1607-1615). At the same time, the Penobscot came from the west, and occupied eastern Connecticut. Even worse were the three epidemics, which claimed 75% of all the Wampanoag. The Narragansett were the least affected by the epidemics, due to their isolated location on the islands of Narragansett Bay, and so they became the most powerful tribe in the region. They began to demand that the weakened Wampanoag pay them tolls, and Massasoit began to hope that the English would help his people fight the oppression by the Narragansett.

In March 1621 Massasoit visited Plymouth, accompanied by Squanto. He signed an alliance which gave the English permission to take about 12,000 acres (48.5 km²) of land for Plymouth Plantation. However, it is very doubtful that Massasoit understood the differences between land ownership in the European sense, compared with the native people’s manner of using the land. At the moment, this was not particularly significant, because so many of Massasoit’s people had died that New England was halfway depopulated. Furthermore, it was impossible for the Wampanoag to suspect that the few English, who had barely lived through the winter, could ever be a danger to them. The friendship and cooperation between the English and the Native Americans continued, and the Pilgrims were thankful for the Wampanoags' help, so together they celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in the fall. Massasoit and his 90 companions brought five deer, and the festival lasted for three days.

This first Thanksgiving is debated controversially in the United States. Native Americans especially argue against the romanticized idea of contented Wampanoag celebrating together with the colonists, for at that time the Indians had already recognized that the god-fearing Puritans could be greedy and violent. Thus in 1970 Native American organizations declared Thanksgiving the "National Day of Mourning".

In the winter of 1622 another ship came unexpectedly from England and brought 40 additional hungry settlers, so that the second winter yet again brought famine.^[8]

The Narragansett were suspicious of the friendship between the Wampanoag and the English. They suspected that they had formed a military alliance targeted against them, so they sent a message to Plymouth in the form of a bundle of arrows wrapped in snakeskin. Although the English could barely feed themselves, let alone think about trying to wage war, they sent the snakeskin back filled with bullets. Because the Narragansett had been attacked by the Pequot in the meantime, Plymouth managed to evade a new disaster. The good relationship between the Wampanoag and the pilgrims lasted, and when Massasoit became gravely ill in the winter of 1623, he was nursed back to good health by the English. In the meantime, the colony at Plymouth grew larger, and a number of the English Puritans settled on Massachusetts Bay. In 1632 the Narragansett ended their wars with the Pequot and the Mohawk and turned against the Wampanoag again. They attacked Massasoit’s village, Sowam, but because the Wampanoag had help from the English, the Narragansett retreated.^[6]

[edit] Expansion of the Colonists

After 1630 the founding members of Plymouth Colony found themselves becoming a minority, due to the growing number of new Puritans arriving. They settled on Massachusetts Bay, near present-day Boston. Barely tolerant of other Christians, they viewed the native peoples as savages and heathens. The militant Puritans were soldiers and traders, who had no interest in friendship or cooperation with the Indians. Under this new leadership, the English expanded westwards into the Connecticut River Valley, and in 1637 they destroyed the powerful Pequot Confederation. In 1643 the Mohicans defeated the Narragansett in a war, and with support from the English, they became the dominant tribe in southern New England.^[6]

Between 1640 and 1675 new waves of settlers arrived, and they continued to force the native peoples westward. While the Pilgrims had normally paid for the land, or had at least asked for permission, the Puritans simply took the land for themselves. In 1665 the Indians of southern New England were simply in the way of the English. They did not desire the ability to survive in the wilderness. Catching fish and the trading of commodities had replaced the trading of furs and wampum from previous years. The population of the native peoples continued to decline, due to recurring epidemics in 1633, 1635, 1654, 1661 and 1667.^[6]

After 1640 there was a "humane" solution to the Indian problem by John Eliot and other Puritan missionaries, in which the native peoples were converted to Christianity. How humane these efforts really were is a matter of opinion. The converted Indians were resettled in so-called "praying towns," in Natick, Nonatum, Punkapog and other places. Indians who were critical of the Puritan version of Christianity were not welcome. Attendance at church was required, and their clothes and hairstyle had to be just like that of the white Christians. Even the hint of a traditional ceremony resulted in expulsion.^[8]

[edit] Metacomet (King Philip)

Even Massasoit took on English customs. Before his death in 1661, he asked the legislators in Plymouth to give both of his sons English names. Wamsutta, the older son, was given the name Alexander, and his younger brother, Metacomet, was named Philip. After his father’s death, Alexander became the sachem of the Wampanoag. The English were not happy about this, because they felt he was too self-confident, and so they invited him to Plymouth to talk. After eating a meal, he became seriously ill and died. The Wampanoag were told he died of fever, but mostly likely it was poison that killed him. The following year Metacomet became the next sachem of the Wampanoag, following the path of his murdered brother. He was later named "King Philip" by the English.^[9]

To all appearances, Philip was not a radical sachem, but under his rule there were dramatic changes in the relationship between the Wampanoag and the colonists. It had become clear to him that the English would eventually take over everything, not only their land, but also their culture, their way of life and their religion. Philip decided to impede the further expansion of English settlements. For the Wampanoag alone, this was not at all possible, because at that time their tribe had less than 1,000 members. From his home on Mount Hope outwards he began to visit other tribes, to talk them in to his plan. This too was a nearly hopeless undertaking, because at that time the number of colonists in southern New England was more than double that of the Indians – 35,000 colonists in the face of 15,000 natives. Philip’s efforts did not stay a secret, because a network of spies, the "praying Indians", betrayed Philip’s plans to the English. In 1671 Philip was called to Taunton, where he listened to the accusations of the English and signed an agreement that required the Wampanoag to give up their firearms. To be on the safe side however, he did not take part in the subsequent dinner, and the weapons were not delivered later either.^[9]

The seizures of land by the English continued, and little by little, Philip gained the Nipmuck, Pocomtuc and Narragansett as allies. The beginning of the uprising was first scheduled for the spring of 1676. In January 1675 the body of John Sassamon, a Christian Indian spy, was found. Three Wampanoag warriors were then taken captive, charged with the murder, and eventually hanged. After this blatant provocation, Philip could not hold back his warriors anymore, because in addition to this, rumors were circulating that the English wanted to capture Philip. Philip called together a council of war on Mount Hope: most Wampanoag wanted to follow him, with the exception of the Nauset on Cape Cod and the small groups on the offshore islands. Further allies were the Nipmuck, Pocomtuc and some Pennacook and Eastern Abenaki. The Narragansett, however, were forced to sign a peace treaty with the English and thus stayed neutral. ^[9]

[edit] King Philip's War

On July 20, 1675 some young Wampanoag trekked to Swansea, killed some cattle, and scared and horrified the white settlers. The next day King Philip's War broke out and a number of white settlements were attacked by the Indians and burned to the ground. The unexpected attacks caused great panic among the English. The Christian Indians in the praying towns, who the Puritans had located in various parts of New England, were considered suspicious and thus taken to an island in Boston harbor. The united tribes in southern New England were furthermore successful, and of 90 English settlements, 52 were attacked and partially burned down.^[9]

From Massachusetts outwards, the war spread to more parts of New England. Some tribes from Maine, the Kennebec, Pigwacket (Pequawket) and Arosaguntacook joined in the war against the English. Even the former enemies of the Wampanoag, the Narragansett of Rhode Island, relinquished their neutrality after the colonists attacked a fortified village. In that battle, which became known as the “Great Swamp Massacre,” the Narragansett lost more than 600 people and 20 sachems. Their leader Canonchet, however, was able to flee and led a large group of Narragansett warriors west to join King Philip’s warriors.^[9]

In the spring of 1676, after a winter full of hunger and deprivation, the tides turned against Philip. The English troops set out on a relentless chase after him, and his best ally, Sachem Canonchet of the Narragansett, was taken captive and executed by a firing squad. His corpse was quartered, and his head was sent to Hartford, Connecticut, and put on public display.^[9]

During the summer months, Philip escaped from his pursuers and took up a hideout on Mount Hope. But in August it was discovered by Indian scouts working for the English, and 173 Wampanoag were killed or taken prisoner. Philip only barely escaped capture, but among the prisoners taken were his wife and their 9 year old son. They were taken onto a ship in Plymouth and sold as slaves in the West Indies. On August 12, 1676 British troops surrounded Philip’s camp, and shortly after that he was shot dead by an Indian scout. His head was cut off and for 20 years it was displayed on a pike in Plymouth.^[9]

[edit] Consequences of the war

With the death of Philip and most of their leaders, the Wampanoag were nearly exterminated; only about 400 of them survived the war. The Narragansett and Nipmuck suffered similar losses, and many small tribes in southern New England were, for all intents and purposes, gone. As a result of a large relocation, many of the survivors were forced to leave their homelands, although some did not have to go far away. They accepted the asylum offer from Edmund Andros, the governor of New York, and settled in Schaghticoke on the Hudson River under the Mahicans. Others found refuge with the Lenni Lenape in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, plus large numbers fled to the Western Abenaki and to Canada. Although small groups lived on the Connecticut River until the 19th century, the Pocumtuc as an organized group disappeared. The war took a toll on the English as well: 600 colonists were killed, in all 90 settlements were attacked and of those, 13 were completely destroyed. Before the war there were approximately 15,000 Indians in southern New England; in 1680 only 4,000 survivors remained, and the severe English peace terms meant outright repression.^[9]

[edit] 18th to 20th Century

[edit] Mashpee

With the exception of the Wampanoag groups on the coastal islands, who had stayed neutral through the war, the Wampanoag of the mainland were resettled with the Saconnet, or brought, together with the Nauset, into the praying towns in Barnstable County. In Massachusetts, Mashpee, on Cape Cod, was the biggest reservation. In 1660 the Indians were allotted about 50 square miles there, and beginning in 1665 they governed themselves with a court of law and trials. The area was integrated into the district of Mashpee in 1763, but in 1788 the state revoked their ability to self-govern, which it considered a failure. It then appointed a committee to supervise, consisting of five white-only members. A certain degree of self-government was returned to the Indians in 1834, and although the Indians were far from completely autonomous, one could say that this time the experiment was successful. Their land was divided up in 1842, with 2,000 of their 13,000 acres distributed in 60 acre parcels to each family. Many laws attest to constant problems of encroachments by whites, who stole wood from the reservation. It was a large region, once rich in wood, fish and game, and therefore desirable for the whites. Some had trouble ignoring the constantly growing community of non-whites, and so the Mashpee Indians had more conflicts with their white neighbors than the other Indian settlements in the state.^[5]

[edit] Wampanoag on Martha's Vineyard

On Martha’s Vineyard there were three reservations in the 18th and 19th centuries – Chappaquiddick, Christiantown and Gay Head. The Chappaquiddick Reservation was part of a small island with the same name, and was located on the eastern point of that island. As the result of the sale of land in 1789, the Indians lost valuable areas, and the remaining land was distributed between the Indians residents in 1810. In 1823 the laws were changed, in order to hinder those trying to get rid of the Indians and to implement a visible beginning of a civic organization. Around 1849, they owned 692 acres (2.8 km²) of infertile land, and many of the residents moved to nearby Edgartown, so that they could practice a trade and obtain some civil rights.^[5]

Christiantown was originally a "praying town" on the northwest side of Martha’s Vineyard, northwest of Tisbury. In 1849 the reservation still consisted of 390 acres (1.57 km²), of which all but 10 were distributed among the residents. The land which was kept under community ownership yielded very few crops, and the tribe members left it behind to get paying jobs in the cities. It is known, through oral tradition, that Christiantown was wiped out in 1888 by a smallpox epidemic.^[5]

The third reservation on Martha’s Vineyard was constructed in 1711 by the New England Company (founded in 1649) to Christianize the Indians. They bought land for the Gay Head Indians, who had lived there since before 1642. Unfortunately there was a fierce dispute over how the land should be cultivated, because the better sections of the land had been leased to the whites at low interest. The original goal of creating an undisturbed center for missionary work was quickly forgotten. The state finally created a reservation on a peninsula on the western point of Martha’s Vineyard and named it Gay Head. This region was connected to the main island by an isthmus and created the isolation that the Indians wanted to have. In 1849 they had 2,400 acres (9.7 km²) there, of which 500 were distributed among the tribe members. The rest was communal property. In contrast to the other groups on Massachusetts reservations, the tribe had no guardian or headman. When they needed advice on legal questions, they asked the guardian of the Chappaquiddick Reservation, but other matters they handled themselves. They had no legal claim to their land and allowed the tribal members free rein over their choice of land, as well as over cultivation and building, in order to make their ownership clear. They did not allow whites to settle on their land, and the laws regulating tribe membership were strict. As a result they were able to strengthen the groups' ties to each other, and they did not lose their tribal identity until long after the other groups.^[5]

The Wampanoag on Nantucket Island were almost completely destroyed by an unknown plague in 1763; the last Nantucket died in 1855.^[5]

[edit] Current status

About 3,000 Wampanoag survive (many of whose ancestry includes other tribes), and many live on the reservation (Watuppa Wampanoag Reservation) on Martha's Vineyard, in Dukes County. It is located in the town of Aquinnah (formerly known as Gay Head), at the extreme western part of the island. It has a land area of 1.952 km² (482.35 acres), and a 2000 census resident population of 91 persons.

There are currently five organized groups of the Wampanoag: Assonet, Gay Head, Herring Pond, Mashpee and Namasket. All have applied for recognition by the government, but only the Gay Head Wampanoag still have a reservation on Martha’s Vineyard. They received government recognition in 1987 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They currently have 1,000 registered members. Their reservation consists of 485 acres (approx. 2 km²) and is located on the outermost southwest part of the island. The official registered name is "Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head". The "Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe" consists of 1,200 registered members and owns many stores and museums. Since 1924 there has been a powwow every year at the beginning of July. The reservation is located near Mashpee on Cape Cod. After decades of legal disputes, the Mashpee Wampanoag obtained provisional recognition as an Indian tribe from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in April 2006. A final decision is expected in October 2006.^[10] {note the Mashpee received offical Federal recognition as of February 2007}. There is also still land which is owned separately by families and in common by Wampanoag descendants at both Chapaquddick and Christiantown.

In addition, a remnant of the Wampanoag reside on St. David Island, Bermuda. They are descendants of those sold overseas in the aftermath of King Philip's War by the Puritans. See "External Links" on article Metacomet.

[edit] Demographics

Year	Number	Note	Source
1610	6,600	mainland 3,600; islands 3,000	James Mooney
1620	5,000	mainland 2,000 (after the epidemics); islands 3,000	unknown
1677	400	mainland (after King Philip's War)	general estimate
2000	2,336	Wampanoag (total)	US Census

[edit] Notable Wampanoag

• Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck
• Jamaal Branch

[edit] See also

• List of Native American Tribal Entities
• The City of Columbus was a shipwreck where a group of Wampanoag Indians risked their lives to save passengers
• Crispus Attucks

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Wampanoag-Aquinnah Trust Land, Massachusetts United States Census Bureau
• Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project
• Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah webpage
• Cape Cod Times TRIBES RECONNECT: Part I, Worlds rejoined
• Cape Cod Times TRIBES RECONNECT: Part II, 'We missed you'
• Cape Cod Times Spade tooth discovery offers another clue to bloodline
• Cape Cod Times Finding a link that was never really lost
• Cape Cod Times Roots emerge in native dance
• Roots Web RECONNECTION FESTIVAL 2002
• The Royal Gazette Learning a valuable lesson

[edit] External links

• The Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Wampanoag Nation
• Mashpee Wampanoag Nation webpage
• Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah webpage
• Plimoth Plantation webpage
• Wampanoag History
• Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project
• Chappaquiddick Wampanoag

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 31 October 2006.