Massachusett
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the Native American tribe. For the U.S. state, see MassachusettsMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who lived in areas surrounding Massachusetts Bay in what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, in particular present-day Greater Boston
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
; they spoke the Massachusett language
Massachusett language
The Massachusett language was a Native American language, a member of the Algonquian language family. It is also known as Wôpanâak , Natick, and Pokanoket....
. The present-day U.S state Massachusetts is named after the tribe.
Alternate forms are Moswetuset, as in the Moswetuset Hummock
Moswetuset Hummock
Moswetuset Hummock is a wooded historic place in Quincy, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.The site is located at the northern end of Wollaston Beach along Quincy Bay on East Squantum Street near the junction with Quincy Shore Drive...
where Myles Standish
Myles Standish
Myles Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception...
and Squanto
Squanto
Tisquantum was a Patuxet. He was the Native American who assisted the Pilgrims after their first winter in the New World and was integral to their survival. The Patuxet tribe was a tributary of the Wampanoag Confederacy.-Biography:Squanto's exact date of birth is unknown but many historians...
first met Chief Chickatawbut in 1621, and Massachusit, as in the Massachusit Fields where Captain Richard Wollaston brought the first settlers of Quincy Massachusetts in 1624. "Massachusett" translates from Algonquian as "The people who live near the great hill", while "Moswetuset" translates to "The hill shaped like an arrowhead". The former is thought to refer to the Blue Hills
Great Blue Hill
Great Blue Hill is a hill of 635 feet located within the Blue Hills Reservation in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, 10 miles southwest of Boston. It is the highest point in Norfolk County...
located south of Boston, while the latter most definitely refers to the Moswetuset Hummock.
One of the first groups of indigenous American peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
to encounter English colonists, their numbers were quickly depleted, although descendants continue to inhabit the Greater Boston area. The Massachusett belong to the Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
family of peoples.
Roots in pre-history
The Massachuset people are most likely descendants of early people who lived in eastern North America at the end of the last glaciation 30,000-15,000 years before presentBefore Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
(BP). Archeological evidence (spear points, midden mounds) uncovered in Boston indicate habitation in that area between 6,500 and 8,000 years BP. Fishing structures, the Boylston Street Fishweir
Boylston Street Fishweir
In archeological literature, the name Boylston Street Fishweir refers to ancient fishing structures first discovered in 1913 buried 29 to below Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts...
, dating to 5,200 years BP have been discovered in what is now Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. A recreation of a fish weir is erected annually on Boston Common in May. These early people lived a seasonally migratory existence, alternating between inland hunting grounds in the fall and winter, to coastal fishing and foraging sites in the late spring and summer and winter homes inland.
Historical period, contact with European colonists
The Massachuset and other Algonquian tribal groups were almost totally wiped out by a European-introduced plague between 1616 and 1619, and the remaining population was scattered following colonization of the area by English settlers. The death of two Massachusett military leaders during an altercation with Captain Miles Standish of Plymouth ColonyPlymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
in 1623 caused the Massachusett to avoid further contact. A period known as the Great Migration
Great Migration (Puritan)
The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades from 1620 to 1640, after which it declined sharply for a while. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English settlers, primarily Puritans to Massachusetts and the warm islands of...
between 1630 and 1640 introduced over 20,000 English settlers to the Massachusett territory. Though much diminished in size and strength from their numbers before the arrival of English colonists, the Massachusett Indians were documented to have participated in King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
of 1675-1676.
Colonial records show that during the early 17th century the Massachuset fished the shores and farmed the lands, migrating from longhouses on the coast to wigwam settlements inland for farming. The tribes were introduced to John Eliot
John Eliot (missionary)
John Eliot was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the Indian apostle.”-English education and Massachusetts ministry:...
, who converted some of them to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, created a written alphabet, and published the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in the native language. The tribe was confined by English law to praying villages and later suffered at the hands of colonists, who mistrusted the Indians after King Philip's War, despite the fact that Massachusett Indians had served as guides and scouts. Many perished in the islands in Boston Harbor, where they were confined.
Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks was a dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. He was the first person shot to death by British redcoats during the Boston Massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts...
, the first casualty during the Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support...
at the start of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, was of Massachusett descent through his mother.
After 1869
In 1869 Massachusetts passed the Indian Enfranchisment Act making the Massachusett Indians citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and "terminating" their nationhood. Communities still survive:- One community of the Massachusett are residents of NatickNatick, MassachusettsNatick is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Natick is located near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 33,006 at the 2010 census. Only west from Boston, Natick is considered part of the Greater Boston area...
. See Praying Indians. - One community of the Massachusett are residents of BrocktonBrockton, MassachusettsBrockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 93,810 in the 2010 Census. Brockton, along with Plymouth, are the county seats of Plymouth County...
. They are PonkapoagPonkapoagPonkapoag is the name of a Native American "praying town" settled in the western Blue Hills area of eastern Massachusetts during the colonization of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States by settlers from Britain in the 17th century...
. (Another community of the Ponkapoag were residents of CantonCanton, MassachusettsCanton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,561 at the 2010 census. Canton is part of Greater Boston, about 15 miles southwest of downtown Boston.- History :...
. One of the alleged last members of this community died in 1852 at age 101.)
Many descendants have retained their identification and organized as the Massachuset-Ponkapoag Tribal Council.