The Massachusett were an Indigenous tribe of the Northeastern Woodlands whose historic homeland encompassed much of present-day Greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, particularly the watersheds of the Charles and Neponset rivers and the coast of Massachusetts Bay. The English name Massachusett derives from an Indigenous place-name commonly interpreted as referring to the Great Blue Hill. The colony and later the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were named after the people.
Before sustained European settlement, Massachusett communities lived in politically autonomous villages led by sachems. Their economy combined the cultivation of maize, beans and squash with fishing, shellfishing, hunting and the collection of wild plants. They spoke Massachusett, an Eastern Algonquian language also used in several neighboring Indigenous communities.
As some of the first people to make contact with European explorers in New England, the Massachusett and fellow coastal peoples were severely decimated from an outbreak of leptospirosis circa 1619, which had mortality rates as high as 90 percent in these areas. This was followed by devastating impacts of virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, influenza, scarlet fever and others to which the Indigenous people lacked natural immunity. Their territories, on the more fertile and flat coastlines, with access to coastal resources, were mostly taken over by English colonists, as the Massachusett were too few in number to put up any effective resistance.
Epidemics during the early 17th century caused severe population losses among the Massachusett and other coastal peoples. English settlement subsequently restricted their access to land and coastal resources. During the missionary work of John Eliot, many Massachusett joined Christian communities at Natick and Ponkapoag. The Massachusett-language translation of the Bible produced through Eliot's mission became an important early work of Indigenous-language printing in colonial North America. The Massachusett language, related to other Eastern Algonquian languages of southern New England, slowly faded, ceasing to serve as the primary language of the Massachusett communities by the 1750s. The language likely went extinct by the dawn of the 19th century.
Massachusett political and territorial organization was disrupted by warfare, colonial guardianship and the alienation of communal lands. Descendants continued to live in eastern Massachusetts, although the documentary record became increasingly fragmentary during the 19th and 20th centuries. Contemporary organizations, including the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, identify as descendants of the historic Massachusett and participate in cultural and educational activities, but they do not have federal or Massachusetts state recognition.
Name Endonyms
The native name is written () —singular (). It has been translated as "at the range of hills" and as "at the great hill," referring to the Great Blue Hill, located in Ponkapoag.
Exonyms English settlers adopted the term for the name for the people, language, and ultimately as the name of their colony which became the American state of Massachusetts. John Smith first published the term Massachusett in 1616.Bert Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 172 Narragansett people called the tribe Massachêuck.
Territory
The historic territory of the Massachusett people consisted mainly of the hilly, heavily forested and comparatively fertile coastal plain along the southern side of Massachusetts Bay in what is now eastern Massachusetts. Major watersheds in Massachusett territory included the Charles River and the Neponset River.Bert Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 161.
The Pennacook and Pawtucket lived north of the Massachusett tribe, the Nipmuc to the west, Narragansett and Pequot to the southwest in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and Pokanoket, now known as Wampanoag to the south. Anthropologist John R. Swanton wrote that their territory extended as far north as what is now Salem, Massachusetts, and south to Marshfield and Brockton. He wrote later they claimed lands in the Great Cedar Swamp (near present-day Lakeville), previously controlled by Wampanoag.John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America, pp. 19–20. In contrast, contemporary source Daniel Gookin lumps present day Salem (Naumkeag) with the Pawtucket, but extends the authority of the Massachusett sachem as far north as Lancaster, Massachusetts (Nashaway) and as far west as present day Deerfield, Massachusetts (Pocumtuc).
By the 1660s the Massachusett moved into praying towns, such as Natick and Ponkapoag (Canton).
Swanton lists the following: Massachusett settlements.
Divisions Massachusett people settled in villages; however, these were organized into larger bands.
Swanton writes about six major bands named for their sachems or leaders. Chickatawbut, later led by his son Wompatuck and subsequent heirs, additional region/band led by Obtakiest; Massachusett territory south of the Charles River and west of Ponkapoag Pond Nanepashemet, north of the Charles River. His territory was divided between his three sons: Winnepurkit, Deer Island and Boston Harbor Wonohaquaham, Winnisimmet and Saugus Montowampate, Massebequash and Lynn Manatahqua, around Nahant and Swampscott Cato, east of the Concord River Nahaton, around the area of Natick Cutshamekin, around Dorchester, Sudbury, and Milton.Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America, p. 19.
The appointment of guardians to administer the assets of the Praying Indians and represent them before the colony in 1743 ended the authority of local chiefs and the last vestiges of traditional tribal organization.Order Accepting the Report in Regard to the Timber and Land of Natick Indians and Appointing a Committee Thereon, Province of Massachusetts. Session Laws § 257.
Language
The Massachusett language, () ), was an important language of New England as it was also the native language of the Wampanoag, Nauset, Cowesset, and Pawtucket people. Due to its similarity with other closely related languages of the region, a simplified pidgin of it was also used as a regional language of trade and intertribal communication.Goddard, Ives. 1996. "Introduction." Ives Goddard, ed., The Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17. Languages, pp. 1–16. By the 1750s, Massachusett was no longer the predominant language of the community, and by 1798 only one Massachusett elder of advanced age spoke the language at Natick. Factors that led to the decline of the spoken language include the rapid rates of intermarriage with non-Indian spouses outside the speech community in the mid-18th century, the need for English for employment and participation in general society, the lack of prestige regarding the Indian language, and the dissolution of Indian communities and outmigration of people leading to greater isolation of speakers. The Wampanoag on Noepe, with its more secure land base and larger population, held onto Massachusett as the communal language into the 1770s and went extinct with the death of the last Wampanoag dialect — and last speakers of any Massachusett dialect — in the 1890s.Goddard, I., & Bragdon, K. (1988). (185 ed., p. 20).Speck, F. G. (1928). "Territorial Subdivisions and Boundaries of the Wampanoag, Massachusett, and Nauset Indians." Frank Hodge (ed). Lancaster, PA: Lancaster Press. p. 46. (PDF)D.R. Mandell, "The Saga of Sarah Muckamugg: Indian and African Intermarriage in Colonial New England" in Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History, ed. Martha Elizabeth Hodes (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1999). pp. 72–83.
Efforts to revitalize the language include the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project led by Jessie Little Doe Baird (Mashpee Wampanoag).
Early subsistence
The Massachusett occupied fertile flatlands. Men and women cleared fields first by burning trees, then by removing stumps. Women grew food crops, but men were involved in tobacco cultivation. Women used clamshell hoes.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, p. 105. Women cultivated crops such as northern flint corn, called weachimineash in Massachusett, a variety of brands, squashes, and pumpkins.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650, p. 107. They planted corn in mounds, then planted beans that grew up the cornstalks, and finally the cucurbits, which protected roots and discouraged weeds.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, p. 108. This companion planting method is called the Three Sisters.
Other regional plant foods included grapes, strawberries, blackberries, currants, cherries, plums, raspberries, acorns, hickory nuts, chestnuts, butternuts, and leafy greens and pseudocereals such as chenopods.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, pp. 66, 72, 104, 112. Some of the most well known foods eaten were Nasaump which was a cornmeal porridge.
Massachusett people lived in conditional sedentary villages built along rivers.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, pp. 66, 78. Families lived in domed houses, called wétu in Massachusett.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, pp. 135. The base structure of curved wooden support beams was covered with woven mats in the winter or chestnut bark in the summer. Inside, possessions were stored in hemp dogbane bags and baskets of all sizes.Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, pp. 105. Men carved wooden bowls and spoons as dining utensils.
Water transport was by both either carved dugout canoes and birchbark canoes.Bragdon, pp. 105–06.
History European exploration of the 16th century
The first known European encounter may have been in 1605 when French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in Boston Harbor. Champlain met with Massachusett leaders on several of the Boston Harbor Islands and anchored off Shawmut to conduct trade. Champlain was accompanied by an Algonquin guide and his "Massachusett-speaking"—wife who helped translate. Despite mapping the region to promote French interest, colonization support was deterred by the dense population and resistance to contact by some of the Massachusett leadersJameson, J. F. (1907). Original Narratives of Early American History: Voyages of Samuel de Champlain 1604–1618. W. L. Grant (ed.) (pp. 49-71.) New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. The region was later mapped as "New England" by John Smith who followed in many of Champlain's footsteps, but also made landfall at Wessagusset and Conohasset where he conducted trade and met with the chiefs, and helped promote further English colonial settlement in the region.Lawson, R. M. (2015). The Sea Mark: Captain John Smith's Voyage to New England. (pp. 120–123). Lebanon, NH: University of New England Press.
17th-century epidemics
With increasing levels of contact with European fishermen and explorers, the Massachusett and neighboring tribes were increasingly affected by infectious diseases. With minimal livestock, Indigenous peoples of the Americas lacked immunity to many zoonotic diseases carried by Europeans and the animals they brought. These introduced diseases quickly became a series of virgin soil epidemics that devastated populations. Up to an estimated 90 percent of the Native population of the Massachusetts Bay Colony may have been killed by infectious diseases, known as the "Great Dying," in the early 17th century.
The deadly epidemic of 1616 through 1619 may have been caused by leptospirosis, a lethal blood infection, likely spread by invasive black rats. This epidemic killed between 33 and 90 percent of the Native American population of New England.
The Massachusetts smallpox epidemic of 1633 further decimated Native populations, as did subsequent smallpox outbreaks, occurring almost every decade.
Devastation by disease and European encroachment upset political balances among New England tribes.