Wampanoag Indians

The Wampanoag Tribes

Article contributed by Jacqui Hayes
Plymouth South High School in Plymouth, Ma.

From atop a hill that overlooks plymouth Rock, a statue of Massasoit, the great Wampanoag sachem, surveys the harbor where the Pilgrims landed over 375 years ago. Holding a long peace pipe, the chief appears dignified and confident, as if he has nothing to fear. The inscription on the monument identifies Massasoit as " Protector and Preserver of the Pilgrims." His people protected the English settlers from the hostile tribes, and saved them from starvation by teaching them to plant corn and other crops.

Today, there are only 700 tribe members left, and their ancestral lands are confined to the Gay Head section of Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Cape Cod.

The decline of the Wampanoags had begun before the Pilgrims arrived. By 1620, diseases brought over by European explorers. Devastated by those losses and at war with a neighboring Narragansett tribe, Massasoit made allies of the Pilgrims. Peace, although uneasy times, lasted for years. But the two peoples were on a collision course.

The English assumed that once they bought property, it was theirs forever. The Wampanoags believed that people own land only whan they are using it. As English settlements spread, tensions grew. In 1675, Massasoit's son, King Phillip declared war on his white neighbors. The bloody conflict resulted in a massacre on both sides. With in a year, King Phillip was dead. Vanquished, the New England tribes came under the colonist's complete control. Over the next three centuries, the Wamapongas gradually assimilated into the larger society. Their Language, culture, and sense of identity were nealy lost.

The Wampanoag became more active as a tribe during the 1960's and 1970's as Native Americans all over the country began to reassert their heritage. On Thanksgiving Day, 1970, some 200 tribe members gathered at Massasoit's monument to protest the European conquest. The "Day of Mourning" protest has been held every Thanksgiving since.

The Wampanoags want to open a casino in New bedford, Ma., that could reap more than $20 million in annual revenues. Besidess creating jobs for tribe members, the gambling and entertainment complex would produce money for health care, housing, and scholarships.

Overview
Reprinted from Pilgrims Theme Unit; Susan Moger/Pilgrim Hall Museum

Long before the Pilgrims landed in New England and settled in plymouth, the area was home to the Wampanoag, called "people of the dawn" because they lived in the east. The Wamanpoag lived by Farming, fishing, hunting and gathering. In the spring, whole villages, moved to the seashore to fish and plant crops - corn, squash and beans. Since their homes were often made of woven mats streched with wood frames, they could carry the mats with them and leave the wooden structures behind for their return. In the fall and winter they moved inland to the forests of oak, maple and pine where they hunted deer, wolf, bear, beaver, moose, wild turkey, raccon, otter, and wildcat. From the streams, rivers , lakes and ocaen they took fresh and salt water fish; in winter they fished through the holes of the ice.

Views of the Seventeenth Century
Plimoth Plantation, the living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that re-creates the lives of the Pilgrims and The Wampanoags feature a native homesite. Pictures of Hobbamock's Homesite can be seen at the virtual tour of Pilmoth Plantation.

Wampanoag Thanksgiving Tradition
Reprinted from Pilgrims Theme Unit; Susan Moger/Pilgrim Hall Museum The Wampanoag were used to giving thanks for nature's bounty. They thanked the spirits of the game they killed for food and thanked the Creator, Kiehtan, for good harvests. They believed that corn - their most valued food - was a gift from Kiehtan. Hers's how Edaward Winslow, a Pilgrim, described a Wampanoag ceremony
"The Wampanoag would meet together and cry unto him [the Creator]...sing, dance, feast,give thanks."

The presence of the Wamanpoag sachem, Massasoit, and his men at the Harvest Home was fitting. The Pilgrims had many reasons to thank them. Massasoithad made a traty with the Pilgrims which had kept their fields and homes safe. Squanto had shown the Pilgrims how to plant corn, the most plentiful crop they harvested in th e fall of 1621.

More information can be found on the Wampanoags and the impact on the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving in "Pilgrims" by Susan Moger, available through the Pilgrim Hall Museum.

The Plimoth Plantation of Plymouth Ma. has recently dedicated a new Exhibit, "Irreconcible Differences", that provides an insight into the relationship of the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims in the years following 1620.

BACK TO AMERICA'S HOMEPAGE, PLYMOUTH, MA. - More history links and complete plymouth, Ma. information.
For more information you may want to consult the following resources:

The Plimoth Plantation - "Living Museum of the 17th Century". The Plantations staff of historians have spent countless hours researching the relationship between the Native Americans of the area and America's earliest settlers from Europe.
The Plimoth Plantation maintains a vast collection of books on the subject as well as other items for purchase.
Mashpee meeting house for Wampanoag activity - Mashpee, Ma. is the center for tribal activity.
A more indepth look at the Wampanoag nation
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Bibliography: Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation:1620-1647, ed. by Samuel E. Morison (1952); Caffrey, Kate, The Mayflower (1974); Colloms, Brenda, The Mayflower Pilgrims (1977); Dexter, Morton, The Story of the Pilgrims (1990); Harris, John, Saga of the Pilgrims (1990); Dillon, Francis, The Pilgrims (1975); Gill, Crispin, Mayflower Remembered: A History of the Plymouth Pilgrims (1970); Harris, J., Saga of the Pilgrims (1990); Notson, A.W., and R.C., eds., Stepping Stones: The Pilgrim's Own Story (1987); Plooij, D., Pilgrim Fathers from a Dutch Point of View (1932; repr. 1970); Smith, Bradford, Bradford of Plymouth (1951); Usher, R. G., Pilgrims and Their History (1918); Willison, G. F., The Pilgrim Reader (1953) and Saints and Strangers: Pilgrim Fathers, rev. ed. (1965); Langdon, G. D., Jr., Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620-1691 (1966); Morison, S. E., Plymouth Colony Beachhead (1986); Stratton, E. A., Plymouth Colony (1987); Sherwood, M. B., Pilgrim (1982).