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This article was written by Nancy Eldredge, Nauset Wampanoag and Penobscot.
Excerpt is from Plimoth.org
The Wampanoag are one of many Nations of people all over North America who were here long before any Europeans arrived, and have survived until today. Many people use the word “Indian” to describe us, but we prefer to be called Native People.
Our name, Wampanoag, means People of the First Light. In the 1600s, we had as many as 40,000 people in the 67 villages that made up the Wampanoag Nation. These villages covered the territory along the east coast as far as Wessagusset (today called Weymouth), all of what is now Cape Cod and the islands of Natocket and Noepe (now called Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard), and southeast as far as Pokanocket (now Bristol and Warren, Rhode Island). We have been living on this part of Turtle Island for over fifteen thousand years.
The Wampanoag Homeland provided bountiful food for fulfillment of all our needs. It was up to the People to keep the balance and respect for all living beings and to receive all the gifts from The Creator. We were seasonal people living in the forest and valleys during winter. During the summer, spring, and fall, we moved to the rivers, ponds, and ocean to plant crops, fish and gather foods from the forests.
Martha's Vineyard, with its beautiful shoreline and farm land, has long been a summer destination, but most visitors know little about the history of the Wampanoag people. A group on the island is reviving that history by educating children and adults about the Native culture and traditions while also aiming to protect our increasingly challenged planet. Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports.
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The Sale of Aquidneck Island
Rhode Island’s modern-day Narragansetts are mostly of Niantic descent, but they’re joined by some who descend from the actual Narragansett nation, which was perhaps the largest tribe in Rhode Island during the 17th century. By the time of King Philip’s War, there were 5,000 Narragansetts living throughout Rhode Island. Their larger numbers are explained in part by their not succumbing to the diseases that brought down the more powerful Wampanoags, who lived mostly in southeastern Massachusetts but also in part of eastern Rhode Island. As the Wampanoags declined, the Narragansetts took over their territory on the islands of what is now Narragansett Bay.
It was with Narragansett and Wampanoag leaders that Roger Williams socialized and negotiated a land treaty on his arrival in the 1630s. Canonicus was the sachem, or ruler, of the Narragansetts and would become a close friend of Williams until his death in 1647; Massasoit headed the Wampanoags, and Williams assisted in bringing some degree of peace between these two nations. He also made peace between the Native Americans of Rhode Island and the colonists of Massachusetts, who had arrested and banished Williams in the first place.
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: https://
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation: https://www.mptn-nsn.
Narragansett Indian Tribe: http://
Nipmuc Nation: https://www.
Historic Patuxet - from the Plymouth Plantation website: https://www.plimoth.