Wampanoag

“ At Rehoboth, the settlers, reinforced by some fifty Mohegan warriors, attacked him without serious loss to the whites, although thirty of King Philip's men were soon weltering in their own blood. The Wampanoag Chief was fighting for his life, and he fought well, urging on his hardy braves by word and gesture, and animating them to deeds of daring by exposing himself freely upon the firing line. The whites and friendly Indians were unable to capture his devoted band and soon they were lost in the thick forest, into the gloomy depths of which the attackers dared not follow. ”

“ There were also statuses within the groupings that carried special implications, such as warrior, powow, wife of sachem, older man, etc.
There were certain visible signs of social standing in Wampanoag society. The person of wealth or noble birth wore zoomorphic tattoos on his face. [426] His house had mats of an especially fine quality. [427] He wore a lot of wampum and had it woven into caps and aprons to show his lack of immediate need for this money. [428] He could have more than one wife. [429] He might have servants to do household tasks, and his wife could have a nurse for the children. ”

“ The pages that follow attempt to describe as fully as possible the culture of the Wampanoags as it would have been during the lifetime of Plymouth Colony—1620 to about 1690. A few words are in order in regard to sources of information. The normal procedure for gaining ethnographic information is for a trained observer—usually an anthropologist—to live among the people he wants to study, interviewing informants and observing with the aid of notebook, tape recorder, and camera the activities and habits of the groups under study. ”

“ He fled with most of the defeated warriors to the Nipmuck country, and made a visit to the Mohawks of New York, whom he strove to persuade to join him in the uprising against the English, but they refused, and the Wampanoag orator roused the Indians elsewhere. In the course of a month, the war was raging over an area of three hundred miles. Settlers who lived beyond the confines of villages were attacked, generally in the dead of night, and often when the weather was bitterly cold or a violent storm raged. They fought bravely, but few thus assailed escaped. ”

“ Anthropologists recognize nine subdivisions on the mainland, an additional four on Martha’s Vineyard, and several others scattered throughout the offshore islands and coastal promontories. The mainland sub-tribes were generally quite cohesive, largely because of the strong leadership offered by Massasoit and his immediate heirs. The leading Wampanoag sachems kept their principal headquarters at Pokanoket (now Bristol Rhode Island) .... [390]
The actual organization of the territory into political units is difficult to discover from information recorded during the seventeenth century. ”

“ Here coastal dwelling Indian groups such as the Wampanoags took the advantage. Being first to meet the Europeans, they quickly established themselves as go-betweens in the trade, and besides doing trapping of their own, they traded for the furs of inland tribes, which they then traded to the Europeans for a profit. [338] The fur trade caused increased emphasis upon hunting and trapping. Since it was more profitable to trade skins than to wear them, the fur trade was a force that encouraged Indians to adopt European textiles and dress. ”

“ It has been said that New England, during its early colonial days, had five powerful Indian confederacies. While the Wampanoags could not put more than a thousand warriors in the field, the united tribes could muster twenty-five thousand. What a resistless army they would form, if they would combine to destroy the pale faces that had come across the great water to steal their hunting grounds! King Philip's dream was to bring about such a union, and he now bent all his energies to the task. ”

“ Like the Narragansetts, the Wampanoags were considerably advanced in civilization. They built permanent villages, and cultivated corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. They manufactured cooking utensils of stone and clay, [5] and rude implements for domestic and war-like purposes from shells, stone, and bone. They prepared the greater part of their food by the aid of fire and their cookery was, by no means, unpalatable. The famed Rhode Island Johnny cake and still more famous Rhode Island clam bake each claim an Indian origin. ”

“ However, before assuming that agriculture was the major food source for the Wampanoags, it should be remembered that these Indians and their neighbors were best known to the early chroniclers in their coastal farming settlements. When they were living in the forest during hunting season and in the winter villages they were probably seldom seen by the Europeans. Therefore, the foreigner’s view of Indian dietary habits may not contain the entire story. ”

“ Annual Cycle: The environment of coastal southern New England was rich in a variety of wild food resources. Because these resources were available seasonally in several differing localities, the Wampanoags, who lived by a combination of hunting, fishing, collecting, and horticulture, moved several times during the year.
Beginning in about April, large numbers of Indians, probably the populations of several localized winter camping groups, would gather at the falls of certain rivers for the upstream runs of fish such as herring. ”

“ Year by year the territory of the Wampanoags had narrowed until they had nothing left they could call their own but the two narrow peninsulas of Bristol and Tiverton on the east coast of Narragansett bay.
There were personal grievances also on both sides. With prosperity came avarice. Unprincipled men flocked to the new settlements which sprang up everywhere; the Indians were despised and often harshly treated; and the forbearance which marked the Pilgrims with the Indians was forgotten. ”

“ By 1660 the fur trade had declined, fish and lumber having become the important exports. This trade brought in silver, and wampum ceased to be the medium of exchange. With the passing of furs and wampum, the Indian became less and less useful to the white man, who looked upon him with contempt. The christianizing of the Cape Cod Indians by the Reverend John Eliot and other missionaries was viewed sullenly by the Wampanoags, who saw in it an attempt [Pg 192] to weaken their power. Massasoit, Sachem of the Wampanoags, died in 1662, leaving two sons, called by the whites Alexander and Philip. ”

“ To compete with the Puritans, the Wampanoags had to adopt their ways, but they were content with their own manner of living; were satisfied with their wigwams and primitive method of tilling the soil, and did not want the care or trouble of tending to flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, which made the white man rich and prosperous. It was the stronger race against the weaker, and, as has always happened, the Indians had to give way to those of greater intelligence and thrift. ”

“ It is very difficult to account for the wonderful change which a few weeks introduced. The Massachusetts Indians, for some unknown cause, became alienated from the sovereign of the Wampanoags, and bitterly reproached him with having seduced them into a war in which they were suffering even more misery than they created. All the Indians in the vicinity of the English settlements had been driven from their corn-fields and fishing-grounds, and were now in a famishing condition. ”

“ Fifty-five years of peace and friendship with the English had resulted in giving the white men all the land of any value, while the Wampanoags were decreasing in numbers and each year were finding it more and more difficult to live.
The young warriors urged immediate action. They wanted war, and wanted it then, and desired to keep it up until the English should be driven out of the country. ”

“ The heroic and unfortunate monarch of the Wampanoags was now indeed a fugitive, and almost utterly desolate. A few of the more noble of the Indians still adhered faithfully to the fortunes of their ruined chieftain. The colonists pursued the broken bands of the Indians with indefatigable energy. A small party sought refuge at a place called Agawam, in the present town of Wareham. Captain Church immediately headed an expedition, pursued them, and captured the whole band. ”

“ As we are dealing with a nomadic people, our ideas of town and village life have little in common with those of the Wampanoags. Where the conditions of life were the most comfortable and supplies of food the easiest, there was the Indian's home. ”

“ Trade: The several groups of Indians of southeastern New England traded among themselves in pottery vessels, wooden bowls, bows, arrows, pipes, shell money, stone bowls, skins, and food products of the hunt and the fields. [332] The manufacture of some of these items appears to have been specialized according to local group. That is, the women of one locality seem to have made cooking pots, and these were traded to the women of other groups. [333] Wooden bowls seem to have been the specialty of the Wampanoags. ”

“ The name given to a rising of the Wampanoags, an Indian tribe, in 1675, with the object of exterminating the white settlers in New England. The war lasted over a year, with much destruction of property, but finally the Indians were defeated and their leader, Philip, shot. ”

“ English observers of the Wampanoags were impressed with the hospitality the Indians showed toward one another. [431] Any visitor was provided with a share of whatever food the household had, even if provisions were low. [432] Regardless of when a guest arrived, the courteous thing to do was to first offer him food. [433] The guest was provided with a place to sleep—usually in the family bed. In the summer the visitor might be provided with a space by having a member of the household sleep outside. ”

“ Some of them thought that he was directing the war, but really it was carried on by other tribes of Indians that had not been very friendly towards the whites. The Wampanoags seem to have had very little connection with the war.
The Indians attacked the English towns in the Connecticut Valley, and the more exposed places on the frontier of the colony where the people were few and scattered.
No battle was fought in the open field. The Indians did not fight in that way. ”

“ The Wampanoags’ only domesticated animal at the time the Europeans arrived was the dog. [76] Later, those Indians who adopted European culture as part of their conversion to Christianity seem to have begun keeping the types of livestock—cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, etc.—brought by the settlers. ”

“ He went to Plymouth very frequently, to visit the whites and to trade with them. And, likewise, the whites frequently came to Mount Hope to see him.
The relations between the whites and the Indians were such that it was perfectly safe for a white man to go anywhere among the Wampanoags unarmed. This is something that cannot be said of any other Indian tribe in the colonial days. The Indians, acting under orders from King Philip, treated the whites honestly and fairly. In fact, there was a feeling of great friendship between the whites and the Indians. ”

“ During the summer, when the Wampanoags were engaged in gardening, ocean fishing, and shellfish collecting, the smaller, round house was used. This is the sort of house, probably occupied by one or two nuclear family units, that early explorers saw strung out along [13] the New England coast. [283] The size of the house varied according to the number of people to be fit in. Fifteen to twenty feet would probably be a good estimate of average diameter. ”

“ It was in these summer villages that the Wampanoags spent the most time during the year. [320] Actually, a family might make one or two moves during the summer, although staying in the same general area. When the fields planted later in the season were too far away for convenience, the family would move into another house near the field they were currently cultivating. Another resident of southern coastal New England, the flea, sometimes prompted a shift in residence during the summer. ”

“ Is it possible yeou’re goin’ to let us snooze unprotected—is it possible?”
“Huh!” grunted Piper. “I guess there’s no danger, and I’m mighty tired. There won’t anything touch us.”
“Then,” laughed Grant, rousing from his reverie and picking up the guitar, “you no longer fear that tomorrow may see our scalps dangling in the wigwams of the Wampanoags?”
“The progress of civilization,” returned Sleuth, “the irresistible advance of the ruthless palefaces, has driven the red men steadily toward the setting sun, and I have a conviction that not many Wampanoags remain in this region.” ”

“ The Indians were always particular to locate their permanent villages in the vicinity of springs of running water. Warren abounds in such springs. Its soil is generally fertile and its climate agreeable and healthy, as, owing to its somewhat inland position, it escapes the full rigor of the fierce winds, that, during the winter months, sweep the unsheltered shores of Bristol. In the days when the Wampanoags inhabited its territory, it was well timbered, and grapes, cherries, huckleberries, and other wild fruits grew abundantly in field and swamp. ”

“ Governor Bradford states that the Narragansetts and Pequots grew “rich and potent” by the manufacture of wampum and, presumably, wealth contributed in no small degree towards establishing the prestige of the Wampanoags.
This tribe, properly speaking, was a confederation of clans each clan having its own headman who was, however, subservient to a chief sachem. The Wampanoags, or Pokanokets as they were also called, were originally a populous and powerful people and it is said that, at one period, their chief was able to rally around him no less than 3,000 warriors. ”