The Wampanoag People
The Wampanoag (pronounced /ˌwɑːmpəˈnoʊ.æɡ/; Wôpanâak in the Wampanoag language; alternate spellings Wompanoag or Wampanig) are a Native American nation which currently consists of five tribes.
In 1600 the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. Their population numbered about 12,000.
Historical Wampanoag leaders included:
* Massasoit, who met the English;
* Massasoit’s oldest son Wamsutta (known by the English as King Alexander) who died under mysterious circumstances after visiting with English colonial administrators in Plymouth;
* His second son Metacom or Metacomet (King Philip), who initiated the war against the English known as King Philip’s War in retaliation for the death of his brother at the hands of the English;
* Sachem Weetamoo of the Pocasset, a woman who supported Metacom and drowned crossing the Taunton River while fleeing the English;
* Sachem Awashonks of the Sakonnet, a woman who at first fought the English but then changed sides; and
* Annawan, a war leader.
In 1616, John Smith erroneously referred to the entire Wampanoag confederacy as the Pakanoket. Pakanoket continued to be used in the earliest colonial records and reports. The Pakanoket tribal seat was located near present-day Bristol, Rhode Island. Wampanoag means ‘’People of the First Light.’’ The word Wapanoos was first seen on Adriaen Block’s 1614 map and was the earliest European representation of Wampanoag territory. Other synonyms include ‘’Wapenock, Massasoit’’ and ‘’Philip’s Indians’’.
group Area inhabited
Gay Head or Aquinnah western point of Martha’s Vineyard
Chappaquiddick Chappaquiddick Island
Nantucket Nantucket Island
Nauset Cape Cod
Mashpee Cape Cod
Patuxet eastern Massachusetts, on Plymouth Bay
Pokanoket eastern Massachusetts, near present-day Bristol
Pocasset present day north Fall River,Massachusetts
Herring Pond Plymouth & Cape Cod
Assonet Freetown
and approximately 50 more groups
The Wampanoag were semi-sedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites in present-day southern New England. The “three sisters,” corn (maize), beans and squash were the staples of their diet, supplemented by fish and game. More specifically, each community had authority over a well-defined territory from which the people derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting, harvesting and hunting. Because southern New England was thickly populated, hunting grounds had strictly defined boundaries. Land was hereditary and descent was reckoned matrilineally, wherein both hereditary status and claims to land were passed down through women. Mothers with claims to specific plots of land used for farming or hunting passed those claims to their female descendants, irrespective of their marital status.
The work of making a living was organized on a family level. Families gathered together in the spring to fish, in early winter to hunt and in the summer they separated to cultivate individual planting fields. Boys were schooled in the way of the woods, where a man’s skill at hunting and ability to survive under all conditions were vital to his family’s well being. Women were trained from their earliest years to work diligently in the fields and around the family wetu, a round or oval house that was designed to be easily dismantled and moved in just a few hours.
The production of food among the Wampanoag was similar to that of many Native American societies. Food habits were divided along gendered lines. Men and women had specific tasks and Native women played an active role in many of the stages of food production. Since the Wampanoag relied primarily on goods garnered from this kind of work, women had important socio-political, economic, and spiritual roles in their communities. Wampanoag men were mainly responsible for hunting and fishing, while women took care of farming and the gathering of wild fruits, nuts, berries, shellfish, etc. Women were responsible for up to seventy-five percent of all food production in Wampanoag societies.
The Wampanoag were organized into a confederation, where a head sachem, or political leader, presided over a number of other sachems. The English often referred to the sachem as “king,” a title that misled more than it clarified since the position of a sachem differed in many ways from that of a king. Sachems were bound to consult not only their own councilors within their tribe but also any of the “petty sachems,” or people of influence, in the region. They were also responsible for arranging trade privileges as well as protecting their allies in exchange for material tribute. Both women and men could hold the position of sachem, and women were sometimes chosen over close male relatives. Two Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Wampanoag female sachems, Wunnatuckquannumou and Askamaboo, presided despite the competition of male contenders, including near relatives, for their power. These women gained power because their matrilineal clans held sway over large plots of land and they themselves had accrued enough status and power—not because they were the widows of former sachems.
Pre-marital sexual experimentation was accepted, although once couples opted to marry, the Wampanoag expected fidelity within unions. Roger Williams (1603–1683), stated that “single fornication they count no sin, but after Marriage, (which they solemnize by consent of Parents and publique approbation…) then they count it heinous for either of them to be false.” In addition, polygamy was practiced among the Wampanoag, although monogamy was the norm. Even within Wampanoag society where status was constituted within a matrilineal, matrifocal society, some elite men could take several wives for political or social reasons. Multiple wives were also a path to and symbol of wealth because women were the producers and distributors of corn and other food products. However, as within most Native American societies, marriage and conjugal unions were not as important as ties of clan and kinship. Marriages could be and were dissolved relatively easily, but family and clan relations were of extreme and lasting importance, constituting the ties that bound individuals to one another and their tribal territories as a whole.
In 1524, King Francis I of France commissioned Giovanni Da Verrazzano to lead an expedition to the “New World”. Verrazzano likely reached present-day North Carolina one point south of present-day Cape Fear. He first traveled south but turned north for fear of encountering the Spanish who had established outposts in present-day Florida. When Verrazzano reached Newport Harbor, he attempted to contact the Wampanoag Indians to initiate trade relations
Source: Wikipedia
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