Among the Wampanoags, and likewise with other primitive societies
who lack full-time legal and judicial specialists, the business
of punishing wrongdoers and settling disputes was often a matter
of selecting the most expedient course of action in the current
situation.[408] For certain sorts of cases, however, there were
well-established patterns observed and recorded by the seventeenth
century chroniclers.
The chief judiciary was the sachem. He also functioned as the jury,
sometimes with the additional counsel of other wise men, and in most
cases he carried out whatever punishment was decreed.[409] Regularly
recognized crimes were robbery, adultery, murder, and treason. For
theft, the first offense resulted in a degrading public rebuke. If
the offender stole a second time, he was beaten by the sachem “with
a cudgel on the naked back”. The third offense resulted in a more
severe beating, and he “... hath his nose slit upwards, that thereby
all men may both know and shun him”.[410]
Adultery was punished by the wronged party, who would beat the
offender, sometimes to death—in which case his death could not be
revenged. The adulterous wife was kept or sent away at the husband’s
wish. If the husband was the offender, his wife might leave him, but
there is no other form of punishment recorded.[411]
Death was the punishment for murder. The regular procedure was to
bring the offender before the sachem, who would pass judgement.
The condemned man was then blindfolded, compelled to kneel and was
bludgeoned to death by the sachem. Revenge was eagerly sought by the
kinsmen of a murdered man.[412] They might take matters into their
own hands and seek out the offending party, especially if the formal
channels of justice did not first offer them satisfaction.[413]
This was more likely to happen when the suspect belonged to another
tribe.[414] If he were a valuable man, his sachem might be reluctant
to execute him.[415] In lieu of the actual offender, one of his
close relatives might be executed for the offense.[416] It was also
possible to escape retribution by purchasing forgiveness of the
offended group of kinsmen if enough wampum or other goods could be
given.[417]
Treason also was usually punished by death.[418] When the offender
fled before his treachery was discovered, the sachem sent special
messengers with his own knife to find and execute the guilty party.
The head and hands were brought back to the sachem as proof of a
mission accomplished.[419] This procedure was also used to dispatch
suspected leaders of intrigues against the sachem when it was feared
that a public execution might throw sentiment to the side of the
traitor’s faction.[420]
Etiquette required that all punishments, whether beatings or death,
were to be borne with a show of outward calm. If one were to cry out,
show pain, or try to escape, it was considered to be an unspeakable
disgrace.[421]
Serious disputes that could not otherwise be worked out might be
settled by combat between the two parties involved. In this case,
each man was armed with his bow and a quiver of arrows. They would
cast lots for a choice of the tree to use as a shield. From behind
their respective trees they would shoot at each other until one or
the other was killed. The scars of wounds received in this kind of
combat were displayed with a great deal of pride.[422]
Inter-tribal justice, as the preceding suggests, was of a dubious
nature. If one tribe were wronged by a member of another, emissaries
were sent to ask for compensation. Whether or not it was given was a
matter up to the tribe of the offender. Satisfaction might involve
taking the offender’s life or the payment of a fine to compensate for
loss through theft or killing. If satisfactory reparations were not
made the offended party usually tried to forcibly take the equivalent
in lives or goods to what had been lost.[423]