The Wampanoag Indians

The area of eastern Massachusetts near Plymouth was the traditional land of the Wampanoag Indians. The Wampanoag are a sub group of what is referred to as the Algonquin Indians. Algonquin is a language of which each tribe speaks a slightly different dialect. The New England Algonquins were the Abenaki, Massachuset, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Pennacook, Penobscot, Pequot And the Wampanoag Indians, the Wampanoag being the focus of this post.

The Wampanoag were a society reliant on agriculture and use of the lands resources. Though they formed settlements, the Wampanoag would travel with the seasons to winter and summer hunting grounds. This practice allowed the Wampanoag to take advantage of the land while avoiding some of the harsh conditions. Wampanoag women had the responsibility of providing 80% of the tribes food through farming and gathering fruits, berries and shellfish. Wampanoag agriculture was based on the "three sisters", squash, corn and beans. These three foods were revered as godly and played an important role in Wampanoag diets and culture. The Wampanoag lived in Wetu's which were domed huts much like Wigwams.

The Wampanoag, like all Algonquin Indians, believed in a Great Spirit called Manitou. This Great Spirit, and lesser gods throughout nature, would not have been completely foreign to Puritans and other Europeans who had experience and knowledge of Pagan cultures of Northern Europe and the British isles, but they might have looked down on this practice.

Another cultural practice that Europeans might have looked down upon was the Wampanoag practice of polygamy especially by Wampanoag leaders such as Massasoit, who had many wives, as did most Indian chiefs.

While communication and acculturation was slow in the early periods of contact between the Wampanoag and the colonist at Plymouth, this was not the first contact that Indians in this area had with Europeans. Coastal Indians had been trading and coming into contact with European fisherman and explores for several decades. It wasn't until the arrival of Squanto, the famous Indian statesman, interpreter and former English and Spanish slave, that the process of acculturation was accelerated and the barriers of communication began to come down.

Steele, Ian K. 1994. Warpaths : Invasions of north america. New York: Oxford University Press.
Waldman, Carl, and Molly Braun. 1999. Encyclopedia of native american tribes. New York: Facts on File