[1] Alden T. Vaughan, NEW ENGLAND FRONTIER: PURITANS AND INDIANS
1620-1675, p. 54.
[2] “And though there be difference in a hundred miles’ distance of
place, both in language and manners, yet not so much but that they
very well understand each other. And thus much of their lives and
manners.”; Edward Winslow, “Winslow’s Relation” in CHRONICLES OF
THE PILGRIM FATHERS OF THE COLONY OF PLYMOUTH FROM 1602 TO 1625,
Alexander Young, ed. pp. 366-67; also Roger Williams, A KEY INTO
THE LANGUAGE OF AMERICA: OR AN HELP TO THE LANGUAGE OF THE NATIVES
IN THAT PART OF AMERICA, CALLED NEW-ENGLAND, p. 20; Daniel Gookin,
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE INDIANS IN NEW ENGLAND, p. 149.
Willoughby states that the Massachusetts, Wampanoags, Narragansetts,
and Nipmucs, together with the Nontauks of Long Island formed a
dialect group by themselves; Charles C. Willoughby, ANTIQUITIES OF
THE NEW ENGLAND INDIANS, p. 276.
[3] Vaughan, p. 54.
[4] Gookin, p. 158.
[5] James Mooney, “The Aboriginal Population of America North of
Mexico,” SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS LXXX (February 6,
1928), p. 3.
[6] Douglas Edward Leach, FLINTLOCK AND TOMAHAWK: NEW ENGLAND IN KING
PHILIP’S WAR (New York, 1959), p. 1.
[7] Professor Demitri Shimkin, personal communication.
[8] Vaughan, p. 53.
[9] Emmanuel Altham, “Emmanuel Altham to Sir Edward Altham,
September, 1623”, THREE VISITORS TO EARLY PLYMOUTH, Sydney V. James,
Jr., ed. (Plimoth Plantation, 1963), p. 29; Gookin, p. 158.
[10] Altham, p. 29.
[11] Gookin, p. 158.
[12] Figures on Wampanoag population, unlike the case for several
other New England groups, are not abundant. This is the only estimate
found by the author; Leach, p. 1.
[13] Mooney, p. 3.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Vaughan, p. 28.
[16] In actual fact, exposure to the sun, the usual coating of
grease, and an inevitable layer of dust must have altered skin color
somewhat.
[17] Willoughby, pp. 230-31.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid., p. 66. The Narragansetts’ name for the Englishmen was
“knive men”; Williams, p. 176.
[20] Willoughby, p. 243.
[21] Ibid., pp. 243-44; Williams, pp. 72-73.
[22] William Bradford, HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION 1620-1647, II
(Boston, 1912), pp. 52-53.
[23] For an example of the Indians’ sentiment toward the embrace
of Christianity, the following passage from Wood: “... since the
English frequented those parts, they daily fall from his the devil’s
colours, relinquishing their former fopperies, and acknowledge our
God to be supreame. They acknowledge the power of the Englishmans
God, as they call him, because they could never yet have power by
their conjurations to damnifie the English either in body or goods;
and besides, they say hee is a good God that sends them so many good
things, so much good corne, so many cattell, temperate raines, faire
seasons, which they likewise are the better for since the arrivall
of the English; the time and seasons being much altered in seven
or eight years, freer from lightning and thunder, long droughts,
suddaine and tempestuous dashes of raine, and lamentable cold
Winters.”; William Wood, NEW ENGLAND’S PROSPECT (Boston, 1865), p. 94.
[24] M. K. Bennett, “The Food Economy of the New England Indians,”
THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, LXIII (October, 1955), p. 395.
[25] John Elliot, quoted in Edward Winslow, “The Glorious Progress
of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England,” Massachusetts
Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3 IV (Boston, 1834), p. 81.
[26] Willoughby, pp. 297-98.
[27] Bennett, pp. 385-86; Leach, p. 3; Thomas Morton, THE NEW ENGLISH
CANAAN (Boston, 1883), p. 138; Williams, pp. 74-75; Willoughby, pp.
297-98; Wood, pp. 100-101.
[28] Gookin, pp. 150-51. According to the account by Champlain,
the artichoke, _Helianthus tuberosa_, was actually cultivated by
the Indians; Henry F. Howe, PROLOGUE TO NEW ENGLAND (New York and
Toronto, 1943), pp. 72-73. Williams, pp. 120-22; Willoughby, pp.
297-99; Wood, pp. 75-76.
[29] Williams mentions another kind of berry, for which he did not
know the name, “... growing in fresh Waters all the Winter, Excellent
in conserve against Feavers”. The editor of Williams’ work suggests
that perhaps this was the cranberry; Williams, pp. 120-21.
[30] Willoughby, p. 299.
[31] Bennett, pp. 385-86; Frank G. Speck and Ralph W. Dexter,
“Utilization of Marine Life by the Wampanoag Indians of
Massachusetts,” JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES XXXVIII
(Menasha, August 15, 1948), p. 262; Vaughan, p. 30; Willoughby, pp.
297-98; Wood, p. 170.
[32] Wood, p. 170.
[33] Vaughan, p. 30; Williams, pp. 115-16.
[34] Williams, p. 115; Wood, p. 75.
[35] Williams, p. 116.
[36] Ibid., p. 115.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid., pp. 188-193; Vaughan, p. 30; Wood, pp. 98-100.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Williams, pp. 188-193.
[42] Wood, pp. 98-99.
[43] MOURT’S RELATION OR JOURNAL OF THE PLANTATION OF PLYMOUTH
(London, 1622), reprinted in Alexander Young, CHRONICLES OF THE
PILGRIM FATHERS FROM 1602-1625, Alexander Young, ed. (Boston, 1841),
pp. 136-37; Williams, pp. 188-193; Winslow, p. 362; Wood, pp. 98-100.
[44] Wood, pp. 99-100.
[45] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 136-37.
[46] Wood, pp. 99-100.
[47] Williams, pp. 188-193.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Ibid.
[51] Ibid.; Wood, pp. 99-100.
[52] Williams, pp. 188-193; Winslow, p. 362.
[53] Williams, pp. 188-93.
[54] Ibid., Wood, pp. 99-100.
[55] Williams, pp. 188-93.
[56] Wood, pp. 99-100.
[57] “... it being the custome of the Indians to burne wood in
November when the grass is withered, and leaves dryed.”; Wood, p. 17.
“The Salvages are accustomed to set fire of the Country in all places
where they come, and to burne it twize a yeare, viz. at the Spring
and the fall of the leafe”; Morton, p. 172.
[58] Wood, p. 101.
[59] Bradford, I, p. 168; D. S. Byers, “The Environment of the
Northeast”, MAN IN NORTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA, Frederick Johnson, ed.
(Andover, 1946), p. 25; Williams, p. 136.
[60] turbot, halibut, plaice, flounder.
[61] resembles a smelt.
[62] Champlain in Howe, pp. 110-115; Gookin, p. 150. It is not really
possible to tell which of these fish were in most frequent use; bass
seems to be the most mentioned by writers on tribes in the area.
Josselyn lists the following as favorites of the Indians: striped
bass, sturgeon, salmon, eels and lamphreys and frostfish. Since he
does not tell the specific groups he was writing about and since his
home was to the north of our area of concern, it is not certain that
this list is representative of the preferences of Indians in the
Plymouth area; Bennett, pp. 385-86. MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 196, 205;
Williams, pp. 136-37, 142; Wood, pp. 100-102.
[63] Byers, p. 26.
[64] Bennett, pp. 385-86.
[65] “Of their fishing, in this trade they be very expert, being
experienced in the knowledge of all baites, fitting sundry baites for
the severall fishes, and diverse seasons; being not ignorant likewise
of the removall of fishes, knowing when to fish in rivers, and when
at rocks, when in Baies, and when at seas....”; Wood, p. 100.
[66] Champlain in Howe, pp. 110-115; Wood, pp. 100-101, 107.
[67] Champlain in Howe, pp. 110-115; Wood, p. 107.
[68] Wood, p. 107.
[69] Williams, p. 142; Wood, pp. 100-101.
[70] Wood, pp. 100-102.
[71] Williams, p. 137.
[72] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 205. One technique, found among the 19th
century descendants of the Wampanoags, was: “Fish wiers were built in
shallow water with nets having notched stone sinkers tied to them for
anchorage.”; Speck and Dexter, p. 264.
[73] Williams, p. 137.
[74] Wood, pp. 100-101.
[75] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 196.
[76] Bradford, I, p. 162. There is no information as to the role of
the dog in Wampanoag culture.
[77] Wood, p. 94.
[78] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 133; Willoughby, p. 296.
[79] Martin Pring’s Narrative in Howe, pp. 72-73.
[80] Ibid.; Willoughby, p. 296.
[81] Williams, p. 123; Wood, p. 106.
[82] Williams, p. 114.
[83] Ibid., p. 117.
[84] Willoughby, pp. 297-98.
[85] Wood, p. 106.
[86] Champlain in Howe, p. 130.
[87] Ibid. Early observers were impressed with the agricultural skill
of the Indians and characterized them as being mainly dependent for
their livelihood upon the corn they grew. Speaking from a present-day
vantage point, with considerably more information at hand about the
practices of primitive horticulturalists, one must be more cautious
about drawing such a conclusion. In regard to the amount of corn
produced, Williams says: “The woman of the family will commonly
raise two or three heaps of twelve, fifteene, or twentie bushells a
heap ... and if she have the helpe of her children or friends, much
more.” (p. 124). Presumably the size of the fields on which this was
grown averaged out to about an acre per family. The Pilgrims were
able to get corn from the Indians in order to survive their initial
hardships. Later they tell of obtaining rather large amounts of corn
from the Indians along the coast to take north to trade (Willoughby,
pp. 297-98). However, before assuming that agriculture was the major
food source for the Wampanoags, it should be remembered that these
Indians and their neighbors were best known to the early chroniclers
in their coastal farming settlements. When they were living in the
forest during hunting season and in the winter villages they were
probably seldom seen by the Europeans. Therefore, the foreigner’s
view of Indian dietary habits may not contain the entire story. The
habitual use of acorns and ground nuts as starvation foods indicates
that their control of agricultural food supplies was not as yet
always dependable. Probably horticulture had come to largely supplant
a pattern of summer gathering of vegetable foods and to be ordinarily
more productive than the former practice. But without the addition
of animal foods, the crops alone probably would not normally have
provided enough food to sustain the Indians.
[88] Williams, p. 136; Willoughby, p. 299; Wood, p. 107.
[89] Wood, p. 107.
[90] Ibid. Meat was probably dried in the same way, but the only
mention of this is smoke-dried moose’s tongue (a delicacy);
Willoughby, p. 299.
[91] Wood, p. 107.
[92] Morton, p. 160; Williams, p. 120.
[93] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 133.
[94] Ibid.; p. 141. Champlain notes that the depth of these holes
was “some five or six feet,” and that they were mounded up three or
four feet; Howe, p. 133. Morton, p. 160, notes the capacity of these
storage pits as being a “hogshead” apiece. Williams, pp. 120-22.
[95] Wood, p. 106.
[96] Ibid., p. 107; Williams, p. 136.
[97] Wood, p. 75; Gookin, pp. 150-151.
[98] “Their spits are no other than cloven sticks sharped at one end
to thrust into the ground; onto these cloven sticks they thrust the
flesh or fish they would have rosted, behemming a round fire with a
dozen of spits at a time, turning them as they see occasion.”; Wood,
p. 75.
[99] Gookin, p. 150.
[100] Ibid.
[101] Williams, p. 136.
[102] Ibid.
[103] Gookin, pp. 150-51; Williams, p. 40; Wood, p. 76.
[104] D. Bushnell, Jr., “The Sloane Collection in the British
Museum,” AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, ns., VIII (1906), p. 675.
[105] Gookin, p. 150; Williams, p. 40.
[106] Gookin, pp. 150-51; Williams, p. 40; Wood, p. 76.
[107] Williams, p. 40.
[108] Ibid., pp. 120-22; Gookin, pp. 150-51.
[109] Williams, p. 122.
[110] Ibid., p. 121.
[111] Ibid., p. 120.
[112] Ibid.; no description of the process is given.
[113] Including snakes. John Brereton’s narrative in SAILORS
NARRATIVES OF VOYAGES ALONG THE NEW ENGLAND COAST 1524-1624, George
Parker Winship, ed. (Boston, 1905), p. 50.
[114] This is the conclusion reached by Bennett after a study of the
subject, and the current writer could not find reference to its use
by Indians of the area either; Bennett, p. 384.
[115] Bennett estimates that 65% of the caloric intake was provided
by corn; Ibid., p. 394.
[116] Wood, pp. 75-76.
[117] Ibid., p. 77; Williams, p. 136.
[118] Williams, p. 120.
[119] Martin Pring, “The Voyage of Martin Pring” in SAILORS
NARRATIVES—, George Parker Winship, ed. (Boston, 1905), p. 56. This
combined with the evidence of periodic scarcity provided by the
existence of “starvation foods” and the evidence for large gatherings
of people to take fish during their spring runs, suggests that there
was a fairly heavy dietary dependence upon fish from early spring
until the time the corn ripened.
[120] Morton, p. 137.
[121] Wood, p. 76.
[122] Ibid., pp. 75-76.
[123] Ibid.
[124] Leach, p. 137.
[125] Williams, p. 40; Wood, p. 76.
[126] Morton, p. 137; Wood, p. 77.
[127] Bennett, p. 395.
[128] Ibid.
[129] Williams, pp. 72-73.
[130] Ibid.
[131] Brereton, p. 38.
[132] Williams, pp. 72-73.
[133] Ibid., p. 100.
[134] Ibid., p. 43; The use of tobacco by women is listed by Flannery
as a southern New England trait.
[135] Ibid.
[136] Wood, p. 73.
[137] Ibid., p. 101; Williams, p. 145.
[138] Williams, p. 145.
[139] Morton, p. 142; Wood, p. 73.
[140] “... they have likewise another sort of mantles, made of Mose
skinnes, which beast is a great large Deere so bigge as a horse;
these skinnes they commonly dress bare, and make them wondrous
white.”; Morton, pp. 142-43.
[141] Probably the material used for this embroidery was moose hair
and/or porcupine quills as was done by the Algonquians living farther
north. The information about the style of this decoration is not very
extensive: “... in forme like lace set on by a Taylor ... of severall
fashions very curious, according to the several fantasies of the
workmen, wherein they strive to excell one another....”; Morton, pp.
142-43; Williams, p. 145; Wood, p. 101.
[142] Morton, p. 143.
[143] Gookin, p. 152; Wood, p. 73.
[144] Morton, p. 141.
[145] Ibid., pp. 135-37.
[146] Ibid., p. 143; Williams, p. 40; Willoughby, p. 239; Wood, p. 76.
[147] Some information about items in this category has come to light
through archaeology. Where pieces of textile have been buried near
metal objects, as was sometimes the case in Indian graves in this
region, the metal acted to preserve fragments of the otherwise highly
perishable textile industry.
[148] Byers, pp. 16-17; Gookin, p. 151; Willoughby, pp. 233, 244-45,
248.
[149] Wood, pp. 101-102.
[150] One such line was collected by John Winthrop eventually placed
in the British Museum. Its length is 13.6 meters; Bushnell, p. 84.
[151] In this case, the line itself was made out of bast fiber;
Champlain in Howe, p. 115.
[152] Williams, p. 137.
[153] Wood, p. 102.
[154] Ibid., p. 107; Williams, pp. 65, 133; Willoughby, p. 248.
[155] Willoughby, p. 248.
[156] Gookin, p. 151; Wood, p. 107.
[157] Willoughby, pp. 244-45.
[158] Samuel Champlain’s narrative in SAILOR’S NARRATIVES—, George
Parker Winship, ed. (Boston, 1905), p. 90.
[159] Gookin, p. 152; Morton, pp. 142-43.
[160] This is the technique for making similar garments used by other
American Indian groups.
[161] Morton, pp. 134-35; Wood, p. 30.
[162] Willoughby, pp. 244-45.
[163] Ibid.; Gookin, p. 152.
[164] Gookin, p. 151; MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45. “From the tree
where the bark grows, they make severall sorts of baskets, great and
small. Some will hold four bushels, or more: and so downward, to
a pint. In their baskets they put their provisions. Some of their
baskets are made of rushes; some, of bents; others of maize husks:
others, of a kind of silk grass: others of a kind of wild hemp: and
some, of barks of trees: many of them very neat and artificial, with
the portraitures of birds, beasts, fishes, and flowers upon them in
colours.”; Wood, p. 107.
[165] Wood, p. 107.
[166] Willoughby, p. 248.
[167] Ibid.; Gookin, p. 150.
[168] Willoughby, p. 248.
[169] Williams, p. 40.
[170] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 133.
[171] Willoughby, p. 244.
[172] Wood, p. 107.
[173] Ibid.
[174] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45.
[175] Willoughby, p. 151, illustrates one basket, dating about
1675 and made by the Narragansetts. It is a twined basket; the
materials are basswood bark and corn husk, the decoration being in
the latter. Red wool yarn also once was part of the decoration, but
that has been since destroyed. Designs are worked in light corn husk,
which forms part of the weft element. Design form is geometric,
non-representational, diagonal steps, horizontal bands, and
disconnected square spots. Design field covers the entire side area
of the basket, which is tall and narrow in shape. Recalling Gookin’s
description of zoomorphic decoration, there is reason to suspect
considerable scope to the decorative content of this style.
[176] Brereton, p. 50, writes of them as being four feet long and six
inches wide. Pring in Howe, p. 72. Pring, p. 56, says the belts were
“sixe foot long” and made of a snake’s skin.
[177] Gookin, p. 152.
[178] Breech clouts worn by women are described as hanging down a
little longer in back than those worn by men; Pring in Howe, p. 72;
Williams, p. 143.
[179] Williams, p. 143.
[180] Vaughan, pp. 47-48, lists fish oil, eagle and rackoon fat, bear
and later pig grease used for this purpose.
[181] The deerskin from which both breech clouts and leggings were
made was de-haired; Morton, pp. 142-43. The method of fastening
leggings aboriginally is not described. Wood, p. 73, says that they
were attached to the belt with buttons, which in post-contact times
is not so unlikely, considering that the Indians learned to mould
buttons out of pewter. MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 186-87; Winslow, p. 72.
[182] Morton, pp. 142-43; Willoughby, p. 208.
[183] Wood, p. 73.
[184] Pring in Howe, p. 72; MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 186-87; Winslow, p.
365.
[185] Morton, p. 144.
[186] Ibid., pp. 142-43.
[187] Massasoit sometimes wore a mantle of black wolf skin; Altham,
p. 30; Gookin, p. 152; Wood, p. 73.
[188] Morton, p. 144.
[189] Champlain, p. 90.
[190] Twilling is a variety of plaited weaving.
[191] “This fringe is formed of the ends of the warp reinforced
with loops of the same material to give additional thickness, all
being nicely bound together by a single double woof cord of twined
weaving.”; Willoughby, p. 247.
[192] Ibid., p. 280; Pring in Howe, p. 72.
[193] Morton, p. 143.
[194] Materials mentioned for sleeves are otter, fox, and cat fur;
Winslow, p. 365 and MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 186-87; Willoughby, p. 247;
Wood, p. 73.
[195] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 186-87.
[196] Morton, pp. 142-43.
[197] Williams, p. 98.
[198] Wood, p. 73.
[199] Rowlandson gives the following description of Indians in 1676
wearing festive attire: “He was dressed in his Holland shirt, with
girdles of wampom upon his head and shoulders. She had a kersey coat,
covered with girdles of wampom from the loins upward. Her arms from
her elbows to her hands were covered with bracelets; theyre were
handfuls of necklaces about her neck, and several sorts of jewels
in her ears. She had fine red stockings, and white shoes, her hair
powered, and her face painted red....”, in S. G. Drake, TRAGEDIES OF
THE WILDERNESS (Boston, 1841), pp. 51-52.
[200] Gookin, p. 152.
[201] Ibid. This material came in widths of about a yard and half,
and was colored blue, red, purple, and some was used white. About two
yards would be used to make a mantle for a man or woman.
[202] Williams, pp. 143-45.
[203] These items also appear archaeologically, but in most cases the
dating is imprecise.
[204] All work in copper and brass was done by pounding the soft
metal into shape, and cutting was probably done by scoring with a
sharpened stone. Metal casting was unknown to the Wampanoags prior to
the arrival of European settlers.
[205] Archer’s narrative in Howe, p. 59. A breastplate of this
description was excavated in a burial at Fall River, Massachusetts;
Willoughby, p. 233.
[206] It is thought, based on excavated remains, that the wood used
was elder; Willoughby, pp. 233, 238-39.
[207] A burial was excavated in which a bandolier lay across the
copper breastplate, possibly indicating simultaneous wearing;
Willoughby, p. 233.
[208] Willoughby, pp. 240-41. These were joined by running a thread
through the bead and looping it around two threads running along the
ends of the beads; Ibid., p. 233. Stringing material in one case was
a 2-ply twisted cord; Ibid., p. 238.
[209] Brereton, pp. 43-44, reported the wearing of this style of
necklace simultaneously with a bandolier.
[210] Brereton, p. 43; Archer in Howe, p. 59. A gorget recovered
archaeologically was disc-shaped, of sheet brass, with two
perforations; Willoughby, pp. 238-39.
[211] A large copper necklace was placed about the neck of an
important chief’s daughter in a Rhode Island burial that dates
to about 1660; H. H. Wilder, “Notes on the Indians of Southern
Massachusetts,” AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, ns. XXV (1923), p. 211.
[212] Wood, p. 74.
[213] Willoughby, p. 265, notes that “... the term _Wampum_ or
_wampumpeage_ was usually applied by the New England tribes to the
white beads and _suckauhock_, _mowhackees_ or _macheis_ to the purple
variety, both types were generally known to the English as _wampum_.”
[214] Bradford, II, p. 43.
[215] Altham, p. 30.
[216] Gookin, p. 152; Thomas Lechford, PLAIN DEALING, OR NEWS FROM
NEW ENGLAND, J. H. Trumbull, ed. (Boston, 1868), pp. 116-117,
describes one such belt as having a checkered design.
[217] Bushnell, p. 674; Lechford, pp. 116-117; Williams, pp. 177-78.
[218] A “belt” of wampum might range in size from one to five or
more inches wide; Williams, pp. 177-78. Willoughby, p. 271, cites a
contemporary account of wampum belts owned by King Philip: “One of
King Philip’s belts, ‘curiously wrought with black and white wampum
in various figures and flowers and pictures of many birds and beasts’
was nine inches broad, and when hung about Captain Church’s shoulders
reached to his ankles. Philip had two other belts, one with two flags
upon the back which hung from his head, the other with a star upon
the end which hung from his breast. When Philip visited Boston he
wore a coat and leggings, set with wampum ‘in pleasant wild works’
and a broad belt of the same.”
[219] Willoughby, p. 265.
[220] Ibid.; Bushnell, p. 647; Williams, p. 176.
[221] A breastplate, the collar made of wampum and the main body of
“shells out of the up country fresh water lakes”, worn on occasion of
war and feast, was among the items collected and described by John
Winthrop; Bushnell, p. 674.
[222] Willoughby, pp. 271-74.
[223] Ibid., pp. 238-39.
[224] Willoughby, p. 198, describes a group of seeds “resembling
those of the _Cornus_” with the ends ground off preparatory to
stringing. These were found archaeologically, associated with
European trade beads. MOURT’S RELATION, p. 194, describes Massasoit
as wearing a “great chain of white bone beads about his neck”.
[225] Verrazano’s narrative in Howe, p. 15. It is possible that glass
trade beads were not very popular among the Wampanoags in the early
17th century. There are 16th century accounts of glass beads given to
the Indians by explorers, and glass beads dating to the early 16th
century have been in graves in this area, but glass beads are not
mentioned as a part of Indian dress by writers of the early colonial
period.
[226] Wood, p. 74.
[227] “... in forme of mullets or spur-rowels”; Ibid. Mullet is the
same shape as a rowel.
[228] Gookin, p. 153; Rowlandson, pp. 51-52.
[229] Gookin, p. 153; MOURT’S RELATION, p. 194.
[230] Gookin, p. 153; Verrazano in Howe, pp. 15, 59; MOURT’S
RELATION, p. 194, mentions painted faces “with crosses, and some
other antic works....” This could be actual painting in patterns or a
mistaking of tattoos for paint.
[231] Archer in Howe, p. 59; Champlain, p. 91; Gookin, p. 153;
MOURT’S RELATION, p. 194; Vaughan, p. 42; Verrazano in Howe, p. 15;
Wood, p. 74.
[232] Gookin, p. 153.
[233] Ibid.; Rowlandson, pp. 51-52; Vaughan, p. 42.
[234] Lechford, p. 116.
[235] “Their Virgins are distinguished by a bashfull falling downe of
their haire over their eyes.”; Williams, p. 58.
[236] Winslow, p. 364.
[237] “... Their boyes being not permitted to weare their haire
long till sixteene years of age, and then they must come to it by
degrees....”; Wood, pp. 71-72.
[238] Ibid.
[239] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 183, 187.
[240] Pring in Howe, p. 72.
[241] Ibid.; Champlain, p. 90; Gookin, p. 153; Lechford, p.
116; Wood, pp. 71-72, gives a description of hairstyles for the
Massachusetts. For a youth above sixteen there was a long lock in
front, on the crown, and on either side. The rest of the hair was
shaved off close to the scalp. A warrior wore his hair long on one
side and short on the other.
[242] Gookin, p. 153.
[243] Ibid.; Pring in Howe, p. 72; Lechford, p. 116.
[244] Gookin, p. 153; Archer in Howe, p. 59; MOURT’S RELATION, p. 187.
[245] Lechford, p. 116. An ornamental comb of the same style in brass
was recovered archaeologically; Willoughby, pp. 235, 243-44.
[246] Champlain, p. 90.
[247] Ibid., p. 91; Wood, p. 72.
[248] Brereton in Howe, p. 64.
[249] Ibid., p. 105.
[250] Byers, p. 16.
[251] Williams, p. 206.
[252] Gookin, pp. 152-53.
[253] H. M. Chapin, “Indian Implements found in Rhode Island,” Rhode
Island Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, XVIII (1924), p. 15, notes
that soapstone quarries known to have been used by the Indians
are located at Johnstone and Westerly, R.I., and Wood, p. 69,
mentions the source of stone pipes as being to the south, among the
Narragansetts. Although it is true that copper and brass were early
obtained by trade from Europeans, native copper was also available.
Byers, p. 5, cites several locations of outcroppings in western
Massachusetts and Connecticut. Copper items from at least one site in
Massachusetts have been analyzed and found to be of native materials.
[254] These items were probably all available in surface
outcroppings, and specialized techniques other than knocking off
chunks were unnecessary; Chapin, p. 3.
[255] It is not known whether the Wampanoags made their own clay
pots or traded for them. However, explorers reported that there were
outcroppings of potting quality clay in Plymouth. Brereton, p. 38,
reports that there was clay on Martha’s Vineyard which the Indians
there used for making pipes.
[256] Chapin, p. 15.
[257] Ibid.
[258] Wood, pp. 69-70.
[259] Bradford, II, p. 52; Willoughby, pp. 243-44.
[260] Willoughby, pp. 243-44.
[261] Gookin, p. 152.
[262] Champlain in Howe, p. 105; Wood, p. 102.
[263] Champlain in Howe, p. 105; Gookin, p. 152; Willoughby, p. 154;
Wood, p. 102.
[264] Champlain in Howe, p. 105.
[265] Ibid.
[266] Willoughby, p. 154.
[267] Champlain in Howe, p. 105; Wood, p. 102.
[268] Champlain in Howe, p. 105.
[269] Once a bowl was thus far completed, it is reported that they
would “soak it in their minerall springs to dye it”; Bushnell, p. 675.
[270] Pring, p. 58.
[271] Byers, p. 16.
[272] The weight of even a large version of this canoe (9-passenger)
did not exceed 60 pounds; Pring, p. 58.
[273] “... sewing them with a kind of bark....”; Gookin, pp. 152-53.
“... sowed together with strong and tough oziers or twigs....”; Pring
p. 58.
[274] Ibid.
[275] Gookin, p. 152-53; Wood, p. 102.
[276] Bushnell, p. 675.
[277] Champlain in Howe, pp. 117, 133-34; Morton, pp. 134-35; MOURT’S
RELATION, p. 144; Verrazano in Howe, p. 17; Williams, pp. 60-61;
Wood, pp. 105-6.
[278] Gookin, pp. 149-50; Vaughan, p. 46; Williams, pp. 60-61.
[279] Williams, pp. 60-61.
[280] Ibid.; Gookin, pp. 149-50; Wood, pp. 105-6.
[281] Vaughan, p. 46.
[282] Ibid.
[283] And it is the type with which the early colonists of Plymouth
would have been the most familiar. We have no firsthand accounts of
the use of the longhouse by the Wampanoags; however, we do know that
it was in use among the Narragansetts and the Massachusetts, which is
strong evidence that the Wampanoags, who followed a similar pattern
of seasonal settlement had this structure also.
[284] “Two families will live comfortably and lovingly in a little
round house of some fourteen or sixteen foot over, and so more and
more families in proportion”; Williams, pp. 60-61. However, according
to Gookin, they might go up to 40 feet in diameter: “These houses
they make of several sizes, according to their activity and ability;
some twenty, some forty feet long, and broad.” Gookin, pp. 149-50.
[285] Champlain, p. 117.
[286] MOURT’S RELATION, p. 144; Williams, p. 67.
[287] Morton, pp. 134-35, says that they place the mats of their
houses “... leaving severall places for dores, according as the winde
sitts.”
[288] Williams, p. 67.
[289] Morton, pp. 134-35.
[290] Their manufacture is discussed more fully in a previous section
on textiles.
[291] Williams, p. 67.
[292] Gookin, pp. 149-50.
[293] Ibid.
[294] Williams, p. 61.
[295] Gookin, pp. 149-50; Champlain in Howe, pp. 117, 133-34; Morton,
pp. 134-135; MOURT’S RELATION, p. 144.
[296] Wood, pp. 105-6.
[297] Williams, p. 163. The sachem’s house is called by a different
name from that of an ordinary dwelling; Winslow, p. 317.
[298] Wood, p. 98.
[299] Williams, p. 189. These would probably have varied considerably
depending on whether it was a single hunter or two that was being
housed or whether the whole family made the move. As mentioned
earlier, both patterns were followed. Structures housing single
hunters could have been mere lean-to’s or something like the bark
_wickiup_ used to the north. When a family was living in the hunting
camp, there would have been women to carry up the mats, and the house
was probably more elaborate; it may have been built in the usual
hemispherical plan.
[300] Rowlandson, p. 50; Williams, p. 194.
[301] Williams, pp. 60-61, 114.
[302] Ibid., pp. 211-12; E. L. Butler, “Sweat Houses in the Southern
New England Area,” BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY, VII (October, 1945), p. 12.
[303] Williams, pp. 60-61; Willoughby, pp. 244-45. “Embroidery” might
also refer to designs that were woven into the mats.
[304] Gookin, p. 150.
[305] Ibid.; Morton, pp. 135-37.
[306] Gookin, p. 150; Champlain in Howe, pp. 133-34; Morton, pp.
135-37.
[307] Gookin, p. 150; Morton, pp. 135-37. Kinds of skins mentioned
for this purpose are: deer, bear, otter, beaver, racoon.
[308] Gookin, p. 151.
[309] Ibid.; Wood, p. 75.
[310] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45; Williams, p. 65.
[311] Gookin, p. 151; MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45.
[312] Morton, pp. 135-37.
[313] Ibid.
[314] MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45; Willoughby, 292.
[315] Morton, pp. 135-37.
[316] “... we found also two or three deer’s heads, one whereof had
been newly killed, for it was still fresh. There was also a company
of deer’s feet stuck up in the house, hart’s horns, and eagles’
claws, and sundry such like things there was; also two or three
baskets full of parched acorns, pieces of fish, and a piece of a
broiled herring”; MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 144-45. Willoughby, p. 248.
[317] Champlain in Howe, pp. 112, 133; Rowlandson, pp. 46-47, has
wives occupying separate households, where there are multiple wives.
[318] Champlain in Howe, pp. 172-73.
[319] Ibid., p. 112.
[320] Wood, p. 106.
[321] Williams, pp. 74-75.
[322] When Plimoth Plantation was established there were no Indians
settlements in its immediate neighborhood. The former village of
Patuxet, once located on the site of Plymouth and said to have had
a population of two thousand, was wiped out by the plague prior to
the settlement of Europeans. Altham, p. 29, reports that the nearest
Indian settlement to Plymouth was called Manomet and was fourteen
miles away. This is probably identical with the town of Mannamit,
described by Chase as being in Sandwich, near the bottom of Buzzard’s
Bay; H. E. Chase, “Notes on the Wampanoag Indians,” SMITHSONIAN
ANNUAL REPORT, 1883 (Washington, 1885), p. 888.
[323] If, as reports indicate, twelve to twenty men went out from
each summer village in the fall to their hunting camps, and it may
be assumed that these represent most of all the able-bodied adult
male population, then we would seem to be dealing with summer village
populations whose total numbers would equal in size the population of
a winter longhouse. It might further be surmised that the personnel
of each are identical; in other words, the same group of 40 to 50
people may have formed a camping-together unit for most of the year,
living together in the same longhouse in winter and camping near each
other as a summer village.
[324] Wood, pp. 100-101.
[325] “... a bundle of Indian candles or splints of the pitch tree”;
Bushnell, p. 675. Willoughby, p. 294.
[326] Brereton in Howe, pp. 63-64; John Josselyn, “An account of
Two Voyages to New England,” Massachusetts Historical Society
COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3, III, (Boston, 1883), p. 257; Morton, p. 172;
Williams, p. 100.
[327] Williams, pp. 57, 87.
[328] Winslow, p. 367.
[329] Gookin, p. 153.
[330] Williams, p. 153, estimates the value of each gift as about
“... eighteen pence, two Shillings, or thereabouts....”
[331] Ibid.; Rowlandson, p. 50.
[332] Chase, p. 900; Morton, pp. 141, 158-59; Williams, pp. 174-75.
[333] Morton, pp. 158-59; Williams, pp. 174-75.
[334] Chase, p. 900.
[335] Williams, pp. 174-75.
[336] Morton, p. 141.
[337] Ibid., pp. 158-59.
[338] Williams, p. 173; Wood, p. 69.
[339] Willoughby, p. 266.
[340] Ibid., pp. 266-67.
[341] Bradford, II, pp. 43-44.
[342] Willoughby, pp. 270-71.
[343] Morton, p. 157.
[344] Willoughby, p. 270.
[345] Morton, p. 157.
[346] Willoughby, p. 267.
[347] Gookin, p. 151; Williams, pp. 66, 75; Winslow, p. 363.
[348] Winslow, p. 363; Williams, p. 66.
[349] Winslow, p. 363; Wood, p. 105.
[350] Wood, p. 105.
[351] Williams, p. 66.
[352] Winslow, p. 364.
[353] Ibid., p. 363; Willoughby, p. 132.
[354] Vaughan, pp. 49-50.
[355] Gookin, p. 151; Williams, pp. 32, 132; Williams, p. 75.
[356] Williams, p. 123.
[357] Ibid.
[358] Willoughby, p. 132.
[359] Ibid., pp. 282-83; Byers, pp. 22-23; Morton, p. 172.
[360] Williams, p. 98.
[361] Ibid., pp. 97-98.
[362] Morton, p. 144.
[363] Gookin, pp. 152-53.
[364] Ibid., Williams, p. 134; Wood, p. 102.
[365] Wood, p. 102.
[366] Ibid.; Pring, p. 58.
[367] Williams, p. 134.
[368] Wood says that this is so that a player would not know who to
blame for any injury he might receive on the playing field.
[369] Williams, p. 196; Wood, pp. 83, 96-98.
[370] “... their swimming is not after our English fashion of spread
armes and legges which they hold too tiresome, but like dogges their
armes before them cutting through the liquids with their right
shoulder; in this manner they swim very swift and farre....”; Wood,
pp. 97-98.
[371] Ibid.
[372] Ibid., pp. 95-96.
[373] “The bones being all blacke or white make a double game; if
three be of a colour and two of another, then they afford but a
single game; foure of a colour and one differing is nothing; so long
as a man wins, he keepes the Tray; but if he loose, the next man
takes it”; Ibid.
[374] Ibid., Williams, p. 194.
[375] Winslow, p. 307; Wood, pp. 83, 95-96.
[376] Williams, p. 194.
[377] Ibid., p. 196; Winslow, p. 307; Wood, p. 83.
[378] Williams, p. 197. The Europeans whose writings provide most of
the information about Wampanoag culture thought such gatherings were
occasions for communion with the devil, and most feared to attend
and risk being corrupted. Therefore, information is scarce as to the
purpose and form of “ceremonial” activities.
[379] Elliot, p. 81; Morton, p. 138.
[380] Williams, p. 151.
[381] Ibid.
[382] Ibid., p. 153.
[383] Ibid., pp. 82-83.
[384] Gookin, p. 153. None of the music has survived, but it seems
to have struck Europeans as pleasant sounding. Wood, p. 108, reports
that the sound of an Indian woman singing a lullaby was sweet to his
ears.
[385] There is one report of the use of a kettle to beat on as a
drum during a dance, but there is no indication of aboriginal use or
manufacture of drums; Rowlandson, pp. 48-50. Williams, p. 57.
[386] Eight in one case.
[387] It is not known whether all personal property was buried with
the owner or whether some was inherited by friends or relatives.
[388] Lands were allotted upon request for planting, and hunting
territories were probably granted in a similar way. Both individuals
and some form of “family” are mentioned as receiving such lands;
Vaughan, pp. 33-34, 105; Williams, pp. 120, 188-93.
[389] Williams, pp. 188-93; Winslow, pp. 316-62.
[390] Vaughan, p. 54.
[391] There is no information to be gained from early accounts as to
what further subdivisions of territory were made or the basis for
them. One could speculate that some aspect of land tenure was based
on the “winter villages”—that is, a certain territory may have been
allotted to the band of co-residence groups who dwelt in adjacent
longhouses during the winter.
[392] Occasional unification of the group under a strong leader
implies that there were also occasions when it was not so unified,
meaning that centralized authority for all Wampanoags as a body was
not institutionalized.
[393] Winslow, pp. 360-61.
[394] During the early years of European settlement at Plymouth a
sachem called Corbitant was dissatisfied with Massasoit’s friendship
with the settlers and plotted to overthrow him.
[395] Winslow, pp. 360-61; Wood, p. 89.
[396] Eliot, p. 139; Gookin, p. 154.
[397] Winslow, pp. 360-61.
[398] Ibid.; Altham, p. 29; Morton, p. 154.
[399] Winslow, pp. 361-62.
[400] Wood, p. 90.
[401] Winslow, p. 362.
[402] Gookin, p. 154; Williams, p. 164; Wood, p. 90.
[403] Winslow, pp. 288, 359-60.
[404] Morton, p. 149; Williams, pp. 152-53.
[405] Ibid.
[406] Possibly the “winter village band” was the group over which
this official exercised authority.
[407] Williams, p. 164.
[408] Winslow, pp. 307-8.
[409] Ibid., pp. 364-65; Williams, p. 166.
[410] Winslow, pp. 307-8.
[411] Ibid., p. 168.
[412] Gookin, p. 149.
[413] Williams, p. 102.
[414] Ibid.
[415] Winslow, pp. 364-65; Wood, p. 90.
[416] Williams, p. 57.
[417] Gookin, p. 149.
[418] Winslow, p. 291; Wood, p. 90.
[419] Winslow, pp. 364-65.
[420] Williams, p. 166.
[421] Winslow, pp. 364-65.
[422] Morton, pp. 153-54.
[423] Williams, p. 102; Winslow, pp. 307-8.
[424] Williams, pp. 58, 68; Winslow, pp. 360-61.
[425] Morton, pp. 170-71. What European observers saw as a “royal
family” was probably a chiefly clan or lineage.
[426] Wood, p. 74.
[427] Williams, p. 163.
[428] Ibid., p. 178.
[429] Massasoit is said to have had five wives; Altham, p. 29; Wood,
p. 91.
[430] Williams, p. 68.
[431] Wood, pp. 77-78.
[432] Ibid.; Williams, pp. 45-46.
[433] Morton, p. 137; Williams, pp. 45-46.
[434] Morton, p. 137; Williams, p. 47.
[435] Wood, pp. 77-78.
[436] Altham, p. 29; Williams, p. 36; Wood, pp. 78-79.
[437] Wood, p. 77.
[438] Winslow, pp. 304-5.
[439] In one case the gift presented was a basket of tobacco and some
beads; Ibid., p. 307.
[440] Wood, p. 91.
[441] Williams, p. 169.
[442] Ibid.
[443] Gookin, p. 149; Winslow, p. 364.
[444] Winslow, p. 364.
[445] Ibid.; Williams, p. 168; Wood, p. 91.
[446] Winslow, p. 364.
[447] Gookin, p. 149; Rowlandson, pp. 45-47.
[448] Ibid.; Wood, p. 91.
[449] Thus enhancing wealth and in turn the possibilities for
displays of generosity.
[450] Williams, pp. 168-69. This practice is fairly common among
pre-literate peoples on a world-wide basis. The reason usually given
is the fear that should the mother conceive again before the child is
weaned, her milk would dry up.
[451] Ibid., p. 34.
[452] Ibid, pp. 170-71; Morton, pp. 145-46; Winslow, p. 358.
[453] Williams, p. 170.
[454] Winslow, p. 358; Wood, p. 108.
[455] Wood, p. 108.
[456] Ibid.; Morton, p. 147.
[457] Wood, p. 108.
[458] Ibid.
[459] Gookin, p. 149; Williams, p. 59.
[460] Williams, p. 169.
[461] Wood, p. 98.
[462] Ibid., pp. 97-98.
[463] Issack de Rasieres, letter to Samuel Blommaert, in NARRATIVES
OF NEW NETHERLANDS, J. Franklin Jameson, ed. (New York, 1909), pp.
113-14.
[464] Winslow, p. 356.
[465] Morton, p. 145; Thomas Shepard, “The Clear Sun-Shine of the
Gospel Breaking Forth upon the Indians in New England”, Massachusetts
Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3, IV (Boston, 1834), p. 40.
[466] De Rasieres, pp. 113-14.
[467] Winslow, pp. 363-64.
[468] “... they train up the most forward and likeliest boys, from
their childhood, in great hardness, and make them abstain from dainty
meat, observing divers orders prescribed, to the end that when they
are of age, the devil may appear to them; causing to drink the juice
of sentry and other bitter herbs, till they cast, which they must
disgorge into the platter, and drink again and again, till at length
through the extraordinary oppressing of nature, it will seem to be
all blood; and this the boys will do with eagerness at the first,
and so continue till by reason of faintness, they can scarce stand
on their legs, and then must go forth into the cold. Also they beat
their shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, stumps
and brambles to make them hardy and acceptable to the devil, that in
time he may appear unto them.”; Ibid., p. 360.
[469] Ibid., pp. 359-60.
[470] Vaughan, pp. 38-39; Willoughby, p. 287; Wood, pp. 94-95.
[471] Willoughby, p. 285 ff., published a collection of important
descriptions of fortifications for the entire New England area.
[472] Williams, p. 99.
[473] Vaughan, p. 39.
[474] Wood, p. 95.
[475] Ibid.
[476] Ibid., p. 89; Vaughan, p. 37; Williams, pp. 201-2.
[477] Rowlandson, pp. 48-49.
[478] Lechford, p. 120; Williams, p. 204; Vaughan, p. 39.
[479] Wood, p. 95.
[480] Williams, p. 204; Vaughan, p. 39.
[481] A skillful conjuror was often called upon to produce such
storms; Winslow, p. 366.
[482] Williams, p. 134.
[483] Ibid., pp. 78-80; Wood, p. 95.
[484] Vaughan, pp. 40-41.
[485] Ibid.
[486] Williams, p. 63.
[487] Ibid.
[488] Winslow, pp. 365-66.
[489] Williams, p. 93.
[490] Winslow, pp. 365-66.
[491] Ibid.; Williams, p. 93.
[492] Winslow, pp. 365-66.
[493] There are reports of the use of sweating to alleviate the
symptoms of the following: “the French disease”, “plague or
smallpox”, “colds, surfeits, sciatica”, “pains fixed in the limbs”;
Butler, pp. 12-13; Williams, pp. 211-12.
[494] Gookin, p. 154; Wood, p. 84.
[495] Wood, p. 84.
[496] Frank G. Speck, “Medicine Practices of the Northeastern
Algonquians,” PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF
AMERICANISTS (Paris, 1917), p. 303.
[497] Williams, p. 78. There is not a great deal of specific
information on the herbal remedies used by the Wampanoags and their
neighbors. Writing of herbal remedies over the entire Northeastern
Algonquian area, Speck notes that there is variation from area to
area and probably among curers within a single area as to what herb
was used for what symptom.
[498] Gookin, p. 154; Mayhew, letter in “The Light Appearing More
and More Towards the Perfect Day, etc.”, Henry Whitfield, compiler,
Massachusetts Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3 IV (Boston,
1834) p. 202; Williams, pp. 212-13; Winslow, pp. 357-58; Wood, p. 84.
[499] Williams, p. 210; Winslow, pp. 313, 317-18, 362-63.
[500] Williams, pp. 152, 212-13; Winslow, pp. 357-58.
[501] Wood, pp. 92-93.
[502] Mayhew, p. 202; Williams, p. 152; Winslow, pp. 357-58.
[503] Gookin, p. 154.
[504] Ibid.; Mayhew, p. 202; Williams, pp. 212-13; Winslow, pp.
317-18; Wood, pp. 92-93. Gookin says that there were both male and
female powows and that they cured both by magic and by herbal means.
Williams states that the powows administered nothing in the course of
a cure, but proceeded by verbal means only. In none of the reports
that recount the actual actions used by the powow is there any
mention of the use of herbal cures as part of the process.
[505] Williams, pp. 212-13.
[506] Winslow, pp. 362-63.
[507] Ibid., p. 359.
[508] B. Bassett, “Fabulous Traditions and Customs of the Indians of
Martha’s Vineyard,” Massachusetts Historical Society, COLLECTIONS,
Ser. 1, I (Boston, 1792), p. 40.
[509] Williams, p. 210.
[510] Wood, pp. 84-85.
[511] Williams, p. 148.
[512] Ibid., pp. 111, 154; Winslow, p. 356; Wood, pp. 105-6. This
interpretation of Wampanoag religious philosophy may reflect the bias
of European observers conditioned by their own Christian beliefs and
the desire to see parallels to them. In actual fact, Wampanoags seem
to have had a concept of multiple souls, and the fate of all these
was perhaps not the same, considering the fear they had of spirits of
all the dead.
[513] Wood, pp. 104-105.
[514] Ibid.; MOURT’S RELATION, pp. 130-33, 142-43; Williams, pp.
216-18; Willoughby, pp. 233, 237-39, 241-42.
[515] Winslow, p. 363.
[516] Williams, pp. 216-18.
[517] Winslow, p. 363; Morton, pp. 169-170.
[518] Willoughby, p. 233.
[519] Williams, pp. 216-18.
[520] Morton, pp. 170-71.
[521] Ibid.; Wood, p. 104.
[522] Williams, p. 214.
[523] Wood, p. 104.
[524] Morton, p. 133; Winslow, p. 363.
[525] Williams, pp. 216-18. It is likely that considerable of this
display was less of what we would call “grief” than an attempt to
convince the spirit of the deceased not to linger and trouble those
who were close to him in life. Malevolence on the part of spirits of
the dead is a typical northern Algonquian pattern, and abandoning
the house to trick the spirit of a dead relative is a very common
practice in primitive groups throughout the world.
[526] Morton, pp. 170-71; Williams, pp. 71, 214-15; Winslow, p. 362;
Wood, p. 104.
[527] Williams, pp. 214-15.
[528] Winslow, p. 363.
[529] Morton, p. 133; Wood, p. 104.
[530] Morton, p. 133; Williams, pp. 35, 216.
[531] Williams, pp. 214-15.
[532] Ibid., p. 34.
[533] John Elliot and Thomas Mayhew, “Tears of Repentance, etc.,”
Massachusetts Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3, IV (Boston,
1834) p. 202.
[534] Williams, pp. 82, 150.
[535] Ibid., pp. 114, 128; John Elliot, “The Day Breaking, if not
the Sun Rising of the Gospell with the Indians of New England,”
Massachusetts Historical Society, COLLECTIONS, Ser. 3, IV (Boston,
1834), p. 19; Elliot and Mayhew, pp. 186, 202; Winslow, pp. 357-58.
[536] Elliot, “The Day Breaking—,” pp. 16, 19; Mayhew and Elliot, p.
186; Williams, pp. 48-49, 154.
[537] Williams, pp. 149-50.
[538] Elliot and Mayhew, p. 202.
[539] Ibid., pp. 186, 202; Williams, p. 152; Winslow, pp. 357-58.
[540] Williams, pp. 114, 128.
[541] Elliot and Mayhew, p. 202.
[542] Morton, pp. 167-68, Williams, pp. 114, 148-49; Winslow, pp.
355-56.
[543] Williams, p. 111.
[544] Winslow, pp. 355-56; Wood, p. 86.
[545] Williams, pp. 157-58; Winslow, pp. 355-56. Morton, pp. 167-68,
also recounts a creation story, in which the people so anger Kiehtan
that he destroys all that are evil in a flood. Morton’s version
sounds like a re-make of the flood story in Genesis. However, a
common tale in North American Indian mythology involves the existence
of the world in some other state, its destruction and subsequent
transformation into its present form. It is impossible to tell from
the evidence at hand the extent to which the story’s aboriginal
content has been altered through contact with Christian mythology.
[546] Williams, p. 114.
[547] Ibid., p. 148-49; Winslow, pp. 355-56.
[548] Williams, pp. 148-49.
[549] Ibid., p. 151; Winslow, pp. 355-58; Wood, p. 92.
[550] Williams, p. 94.
[551] Ibid, p. 151; Gookin, p. 153; Winslow, pp. 355-56.
[552] Winslow, p. 358-59.
[553] Ibid.
[554] Wood, p. 92.
[555] Williams, pp. 48-49.
[556] Ibid., pp. 34-35.
[557] Ibid.
[558] Ibid., p. 152.
[559] Ibid., pp. 152, 212-13; Winslow, pp. 357-58.
[560] Elliot, “The Day Breaking—,” pp. 19-20.
[561] Morton, pp. 150-52; Winslow, p. 366; Wood, pp. 92-93.
[562] Some of the historical sources and the example of other
Algonquian groups suggest that this power varied in its nature from
one powow to another, depending upon the kind of spirit which gave
it, thus the abilities of powows would vary accordingly as to what
sorts of things they were able to do. This in turn was displayed in
various individualized types of tricks.
[563] Elliot “The Day Breaking—,” pp. 19-20; Elliot and Mayhew, p.
186. As far as can be ascertained, the role of the powow was not
formally hereditary. In practice the office probably remained closely
tied to certain families, if only because association and heredity
stimulated the appropriate dreams in the offspring of those who were
powows.
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ETHNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS FOR THE PLYMOUTH
AREA