The Algonquian (also spelled Algonkian) people spoke different dialects of the same language. One tribe of that group was the Wampanoag, which means “Eastern People,” and included dozens of subtribes or bands. The Wampanoag lived primarily in wigwams— round-roofed houses covered in elm or birch bark—throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each Wampanoag village operated independently with a leader called a sachem and a tribal council. Similar to today’s mayors and city councils, the sachem and council made the important decisions.
In spring, the Wampanoag fished in the rivers for herring and salmon. They planted gardens of maize, or corn, plus other vegetables. People hunted during the summer and autumn—deer, beaver, otter, and bear. These animals not only provided the Wampanoag with food, but also clothing from the skins and tools from the bones.
Among the Wampanoag, respect was very important. They respected the animals around them. When they made a kill, they left an offering of bones or meat to the Creator or other deity in the belief system of the specific tribe. Respect to neighbors and visitors included sharing whatever food they had, even if they only had a little.
When the Pilgrims landed on the rocky shores of Cape Cod in 1620, it wasn’t the first time the Wampanoag had seen white people. Other Europeans had sailed along the eastern coast in the 1500S, most notably the French and English. In 1564, French Protestants established a colony near Jacksonville, Florida, at Fort Caroline, although it was later taken over by the Spanish. The first British colony had already been established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
The Wampanoag became used to seeing European fishing boats, and sometimes traded corn and furs with these foreign people. One of the Wampanoag was a Patuxet man named Tisquantum, who had most likely met one of the Jamestown leaders. Captain John Smith. Tisquantum, who became known as Squanto, also met a different kind of sea captain, Thomas Hunt. To make his trips to the New World more profitable. Hunt seized Native Americans to sell as slaves. In 1614, Captain Hunt captured some Wampanoag, including Tisquantum, to sell to the Spanish.
Tisquantum later gained his freedom from Spanish monks and made his way to England, where he learned the language and customs of the British. In 1619 he signed on as an interpreter on an expedition to Newfoundland, Canada. Back in North America, Tisquantum made his way south to his village, only to learn that everyone there had died from an epidemic, perhaps smallpox. With no family or village, Tisquantum lived with other Wampanoag nearby.
After the success of the Jamestown colony, another group of English settlers arrived in Cape Cod on the Mayflower in November 1620. They were the Pilgrims, who left England to escape religious persecution. But they were
An early Algonquian portrait.
MAIZE
Better known today as corn, maize figured heavily in Mayan culture and in the oral history of many native people in the Americas. It is believed to have started as a wild plant, teocinte, but evolved into the cultivated maize of Mexico and Central America. From there, maize spread both north and south, and was eventually introduced to Europe by Christopher Columbus.
Many cultures ground up the maize to make bread products for eating. Some native groups also used maize in ceremonies and offerings. The Hopi, in particular, have historically prized maize. Today, corn is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the United States and the world.
THE TRUE STORY OF JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS
The legend of Pocahontas and John Smith has long been told as a romantic tale between two adults. Instead, it was a friendship that began with a girl of 10 or 12 years old. Pocahontas, the daughter of a chief named Powhatan, was a friendly and spirited girl who met John Smith and other colonists when they arrived in Jamestown in 1607. When Smith was captured by Powhatan’s warriors in late 1607, he felt certain he faced death as several natives stood over him with clubs. But Pocahontas rushed in, and according to Smith, she took his "head in her arms and laid her owne upon his to save him from death."
Afterward, Pocahontas often visited Jamestown to deliver food and talk with her friend John Smith. In 1609, Smith was injured by gunpowder. He returned to England, and Pocahontas was told that Smith had died. Another Jamestown colonist. Captain Samuel Argali, kidnapped Pocahontas and held her for ransom. When Powhatan refused to pay the entire ransom, Pocahontas remained at English settlements, learning the customs and Christianity. At her baptism, she took the name Rebecca.
Pocahontas met a tobacco farmer named John Rolfe, whom she married in 1614. She, her husband, and a son sailed to London in 1616. She was presented to King James I and was very popular with the British public. But perhaps the best part of her trip was being reunited with John Smith, who hadn’t died after all. She insisted on addressing him as "father."
When Pocahontas and her family decided to return home to Virginia in early 1617, she fell ill from either pneumonia or tuberculosis. She died at the age of 22.
Unprepared for a New England winter. A small party sent ahead to explore this new land stumbled into a Nauset cemetery, but all the starving Pilgrims noticed was the baskets of corn. Leaving baskets of food as an offering to the dead was a Nauset custom. The Pilgrims began to take the corn, but Nauset warriors showed up and ran them off.
The Pilgrims then found a deserted village on the other side of the bay, which they made their home. The Wampanoag had moved their villages inland to protect themselves from the cold north winds, living off the food they had saved for winter. With little food and poor shelter, half of the Pilgrims died during the first winter.
The Wampanoag watched the starving Europeans for months and determined that they probably weren’t a threat. In March a sachem from an Algonquian band called the Abenaki entered Plymouth, saying, “Hello, Englishmen.” The sachem was Samoset, and he had learned English from British fishermen and traders. After reviewing the Pilgrims’ situation, he left and returned with Tisquantum.
The village where the Pilgrims spent their winter was Tisquantum’s old village, Patuxet. As a Wampanoag, Tisquantum had been raised to help others. He taught the Pilgrims skills to survive, such as how to plant crops that would grow on the rocky ground. Tisquantum even
Mediated peace between the English and the Pokanoket Wampanoag band that lived nearby.
In that first treaty of friendship, Massasoit, the Pokanoket sachem, gave the Pilgrims use of 12,000 acres for their settlement. Native American concepts of owning land differed from those of the Europeans. Most Indians believed that you couldn’t own the land. Everyone in a tribe or nation was entitled to use the
Samoset greets an Englishman at the Plymouth settlement.
Land. When making treaties. Native American leaders were granting the Europeans use of the land, not personal ownership.
The Pokanoket also hoped that the new settlers would be allies with them against their enemies, the Narragansett. The illness that had wiped out the Patuxet village had devastated many Wampanoag bands, including the Pokanoket. This left them vulnerable to enemies.
After that first year, the Pilgrims showed their gratitude by inviting the Wampanoag to a celebration: giving. The number of Wampanoag overwhelmed the Pilgrim’s meager supply of food, so Massasoit’s band brought five deer, wild turkey, corn, squash, and berries for the three-day celebration. The leader of the Pilgrims, Miles Standish, sat at one end of the table, and Massasoit sat on the other end.
Tisquantum continued to live among the English, serving as an interpreter. Later, Massasoit became very angry with Tisquantum, who he believed was trying to mislead both the Pokanoket and the Pilgrims. But Tisquantum died from an illness, two years after meeting the Pilgrims.
The friendship between Massasoit and the Pilgrims lasted for the remainder of Massasoit’s life. The colonists even nursed Massasoit back to health when he became ill in the winter of 1623. However, things were changing. The settlers often objected to native dress, customs.
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