9/4/2023 0 Comments Pilgrims and wampanoagThe Wampanoag kept their distance through the winter. "Some of the best things we took away with us,” he wrote.Ī grave in the Royal Wampanoag Cemetery, Lakeville, Massachusetts “In the houses, we found wooden bowls, trays and dishes, earthen pots, handbaskets made of crab shells,” Winslow wrote in “Mourt's Relation,” a history of the Pilgrims’ exploration and settlement. Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow would later admit to the deed. The Nauset tribe of Cape Cod would have alerted the Wampanoag to the Mayflower’s arrival at the tip of Cape Code just weeks before, likely complaining about how the Englishmen had plundered Nauset food and supplies and disturbed graves. They were part of a greater landscape of tribes - among them the Pequot, Mohegan, Narragansett and Nipmuc - with whom they traded and shared information. In 1620, that leader was Ousamiquin, a Pokanoket Wampanoag, based near present-day Bristol, Rhode Island. Collectively, these sachems answered and paid tribute to the Wampanoag Massasoit, a title meaning paramount leader. But they were reading everything in a Christian context,” he said.Įach Wampanoag tribe had a sachem or leader. The Pilgrims were interpreting what they observed and what they were being told. “Not all of our words have correlations in English. Mashpee Wampanoag Phillip Wynne pours water to control fire and temperatures while making a boat, from a tree at the Wampanoag Homesite at Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, Mass. Today, much of what is known about them comes from Pilgrim records and accounts, but Weeden cautions against relying on those too heavily. Like most Native peoples, the Wampanoag had no written language they passed down their history orally. Historians and epidemiologists estimate that coastal tribes lost anywhere from 50% to 90% of their populations.Īt the beginning of the 17th century, Weeden said, nearly 70 Wampanoag villages dotted southeastern New England, with a combined population of about 12,000 citizens. He was referring to an as-yet-unidentified epidemic that ravaged what is now known as New England from 1616 to 1619. “Sometimes they took Natives as hostages or slaves,” Weeden told VOA. “Sometimes Europeans would engage in battle with the Natives,” said David Weeden, historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag Nation, which, along with the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), are the only federally recognized tribes in the state of Massachusetts today. Not all these Europeans had good intentions. France had established a colony in Maine in 1604, and the English and Dutch had been trading with Indians along the New England coast for decades. This wasn’t their first encounter with Europeans: Spain had explored and mapped New England a century earlier. The Natives watched the newcomers from a cautious distance. It would be many weeks before the Pilgrims met any Wampanoag face to face. Watch this video next: Building a wigwam, a time lapse.Painting of the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims by Michele Felice Cornè - circa 1805 This NBC News Learn video, in partnership with NBC 10 Boston, compares and contrasts the roles, responsibilities, and community powers of Wampanoag and Pilgrim women during the 17th century.Īlso spotted in the video above: A dome made from tree saplings, grasses, bark, buckskin, cloth. Yet everyone within their tribes needed to know how to do these activities. Women were responsible for up to 75 percent of all food production in Wampanoag societies. Wampanoag men were mainly responsible for hunting and fishing, while women took care of farming and gathering wild fruits, nuts, berries, and shellfish. Women played an active role in many of the stages of food production, so they had important socio-political, economic, and spiritual roles in their communities. The production of food among the Wampanoag was similar to that of many American Indian societies, and food habits were divided along gender lines. Women passed plots of land to their female descendants, regardless of their marital status. Men acted in most of the political roles for relations with other bands and tribes, as well as warfare. Women elders could approve selection of chiefs or sachems. They were also matrifocal when a young couple married, they lived with the woman’s family. Wampanoag women lived in matrilineal societies, “in which women controlled property, and hereditary status was passed through the maternal line.” From Wikipedia: The lives of women in Wampanoag tribes were very different from those of Pilgrim women in that era. When the Mayflower landed in November of 1620 at what’s now known as now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, it arrived on the land belonging to the Wampanoag Nation.
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