![Sidney Perley 1912 Map of Essex County Indian Deeds](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Sidney_Perley_1912_Map_of_Essex_County_Indian_Deeds.png)
Naumkeag is a historical tribe of
Eastern Algonquian
The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
-speaking
Native American people who lived in northeastern
. They controlled territory from the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
to the
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...
at the time of the
Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)
The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects from 1620 to 1640, declining sharply afterwards. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in the period of English Puritans to Massachusetts and the Caribbean, es ...
.
Naumkeag is also the term for a Native American settlement at the time of English colonization in present-day
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
, meaning "fishing place," from ''namaas'' (fish), ''ki'' (place) and ''age'' (at)
or by another translation "eel-land." However, the settlement Naumkeag was only one of a group of politically connected settlements in the early 1600s under the control of the sachem
Nanepashemet
Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a sachem and ''bashabe'' or great leader of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peoples over a large part of what is ...
and his wife the
Squaw Sachem and their descendants. Although referred to in this article as Naumkeag, confusion exists about the proper contemporary endonym for this people, who are variously referred to in European documents as Naumkeag,
Pawtucket, Penticut, Mystic, or Wamesit, or by the name of their current
sachem
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
or sagamore.
Territory
Although the term ''Naumkeag'' refers to the pre-colonial settlement at present day Salem, the territory this polity controlled was much larger, as attested by the number of towns in Massachusetts that received deeds from Naumkeag sachems and their descendants, stretching from the northern border of the Charles River through the
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...
watershed, up the coast as far as present day
Peabody, then inland up to the southern border of the
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...
.
In 1639, the
Squaw Sachem deeded large tracts of land to the young settlements of Newtowne (later
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
) and
Charlestown, an area encompassing the present day towns and cities of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
,
Lexington,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Arlington,
Charlestown,
Malden,
Medford,
Melrose,
Everett,
Woburn,
Burlington
Burlington may refer to:
Places Canada Geography
* Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Burlington, Nova Scotia
* Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington"
* Burlington, Prince Edward Island
* Burlington Bay, no ...
,
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
,
Wilmington,
Stoneham,
Somerville,
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
, and
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
.
In the 1680s,
James Quonopohit and his kin received payment for quitclaim deeds from
Marblehead (1684),
Lynn,
Saugus,
Swampscott
Swampscott () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population was 15,111 as of the 2020 United States Census. A former summer resort on Massachusetts Ba ...
,
Lynnfield,
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
,
North Reading, and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
(1686),
Salem (1687).
History
Precontact
Although
humans lived in the North America Eastern Woodlands for at least 15,000 years, the presence of a
continental ice sheet extending south to the level of
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
and
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
have limited human habitation in present-day northeastern Massachusetts until the end of the
last Ice Age, about 11,700 years ago.
Paleoamerican remains in nearby
Winthrop, Massachusetts
Winthrop is a town in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,316 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Winthrop is an ocean-side suburban community in Greater Boston situated at ...
and
Merrimack, New Hampshire
Merrimack is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 26,632 as of the 2020 census.
There are four villages in the town: Merrimack Village (formerly kno ...
have been
radiocarbon dated
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
to 10,210±60 and 10,600 years ago, respectively. Sea level rise due to the melting of continental ice sheets and disruption of soil layers from extensive development in the Boston area limit the earliest confirmed settlements within Naumkeag territory to the Woodland period beginning 2,000 years ago.
The earliest historical records of the Naumkeag people are from European authors during the contact period from 1600 to 1630, supported by written reminiscences from Indigenous sources at the end of the 17th-century.
Nanepashemet
In 1614 English explorer
John Smith explored the coast of New England, and included "Naemkeck" among the "countries" of the New England coast in an alliance with countries to the north under the ''bashabes'' (chief of chiefs) of the
Penobscot
The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic pr ...
, with a separate culture and government from the
Massachusett
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
to the south of the Charles River. At this time the Naumkeag were under the leadership of
Nanepashemet
Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a sachem and ''bashabe'' or great leader of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peoples over a large part of what is ...
.
At the time of the
Great Migration to New England in the early 17th century, the Naumkeag population was already greatly depleted from disease and war. They engaged in a war with the
Tarrantine
The Tarrantines were a band of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Native Americans inhabiting northern New England, particularly coastal Maine. The name ''Tarrantine'' is one of the words the Massachusett people used to refer to the ''Mi'kmaq'' people.
In the ...
(modern-day
Mi'kmaq
The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northe ...
) people beginning in 1615. A
virgin soil epidemic
Virgin soil epidemic is a term coined by Alfred Crosby, who defined it as epidemics "in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless." His conc ...
due to an introduced European disease ravaged the populations of the Atlantic coast from 1616-1619 and took a particularly heavy toll with the Naumkeag people. The Tarrantines took advantage of this weakness, and further decimated their numbers, including killing their
sachem
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
,
Nanepashemet
Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a sachem and ''bashabe'' or great leader of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peoples over a large part of what is ...
, in 1619.
Squaw Sachem of Mistick
In 1621, after establishing a settlement at
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
, a group of colonists including
Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow (18 October 15958 May 1655) was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and ...
and their native guide
Tisquantum explored an area in present-day
Medford, encountering the Naumkeag settlement where Nanepashemet had lived, several palisade fortifications for the 1615-1619 war between the Naumkeag and Tarrantine, and Nanepashemet's burial place.
Winslow attests to the area's control at that time by a
"squaw sachem," an enemy of the
Massachusett
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...
of Neponset,
who was the widow of Nanepashemet.
![Wood New England Map 1634 Detail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Wood_New_England_Map_1634_Detail.jpg)
The general government of the tribe was continued by three of Nanepashemet's sons and his widow, only known in the historical record as the "
Squaw Sachem of Mistick
Squaw Sachem of Mistick (c. 1590-1650 or 1667) was a prominent leader of a Massachusett tribe who deeded large tracts of land in eastern Massachusetts to early colonial settlers.
Squaw Sachem was the widow of Nanepashemet, the Sachem of the Pawtuc ...
." She administered the region jointly with her three sons
Wonohaquaham
Wonohaquaham also known as Sagamore John was a Native American leader who was a Pawtucket Confederation Sachem when English began to settle in the area.
Early life
Wonohaquaham was the oldest son of Nanepashemet and the Squaw Sachem of Mistick. A ...
or "Sagamore John,"
Montowampate
Montowampate (1609–1633), was the Sachem of the Naumkeag or Pawtucket in the area of present day Saugus, Massachusetts at the time of the Puritan Great Migration. The colonists called him Sagamore James. He was one of three sons of Nanepasheme ...
or "Sagamore James," and
Wenepoykin
Wenepoykin (1616–1684) also known as Winnepurkett, Sagamore George, George No Nose, and George Rumney Marsh was a Native American leader who was the Sachem of the Naumkeag people when English began to settle in the area.
Early life
Wenepoykin w ...
or "Sagamore George." William Wood's map, dated 1634, but based on his travels in the area in the late 1620s, shows Sagamore John in present-day
Medford and Sagamore James in present-day
Lynn.
Wenepoykin
Wenepoykin (1616–1684) also known as Winnepurkett, Sagamore George, George No Nose, and George Rumney Marsh was a Native American leader who was the Sachem of the Naumkeag people when English began to settle in the area.
Early life
Wenepoykin w ...
or Sagamore George was sachem of the settlement of Naumkeag in present-day Salem by the time English settlers arrived in 1629, but he may have received assistance from an older family member until he came of age. In 1633 there came another plague, probably
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, "which raged to such an extent as to nearly exterminate the tribe." This epidemic killed both Montowampate and Wonohaquaham, leaving the Squaw Sachem and Wenepoykin in control of the area from modern day
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
to
Lowell to
Salem.
Wenepoykin
Although he survived the pandemic, after 1633, Wenepoykin or Sagamore George Rumney Marsh became known as "George No Nose" due to disfigurement from smallpox. When the Squaw Sachem died in roughly 1650, Wenepoykin became sole sachem of territory extending from present day Winthrop to Malden to North Reading to Lynn or even Salem, however his attempts to assert his claim to these lands through the settler's legal system were largely ineffective. During the next two decades, the size of the group further declined as the British
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
and the
Massachusetts General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...
worked to relocate Native Americans into
Praying Towns
Praying towns were a settlements established by English colonial governments in New England from 1646 to 1675 in an effort to convert local Native Americans to Christianity.
The Native people who moved into these towns were known as Praying In ...
such as
Natick, Massachusetts
Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part of the Greater Boston area. ...
, drawing some converts from within Weyepoykin's family.
In 1675, Wenepoykin and some of the remaining Naumkeag joined
Metacomet
Metacomet (1638 – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom, Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip,[King Philip's War
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...]
, which was a stark turning point in the history of Native Americans in New England, and for the Naumkeag in particular. Wenepoykin was taken captive the next year in 1676 and sold into slavery in
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
. During this same time, over 1000 nonbelligerent Praying Indians, some of them originally Naumkeag, were interned on Deer Island but only 167 survived to return to Praying Towns.
After 8 years of slavery in Barbados, Wenepoykin returned to Massachusetts in 1684 through the intercession of
John Eliot, where he joined some remaining family members in Natick, but died later the same year, leaving his lands to a maternal kinsman
James Quonopohit a.k.a. James Rumney Marsh, though by this time most of the hereditary territory of the sachem was occupied by English settlers.
Quonopohit
James Quonopohit or Rumney Marsh was a maternal kinsman of Wenepoykin living in the
Natick praying town at the time the sachem entrusted him with title to Naumkeag lands in 1684.
By the time Quonopohit received this inheritance, there were many more European settlers living in Naumkeag territories than Naumkeag, many of whom had relocated to Natick as praying Indians, been killed in
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...
, fled north to join the burgeoning
Wabenaki Confederacy, or been sold into slavery in Barbados.
However, in June of the same year, following the
restoration of the English monarchy, the charter of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
was revoked
in the formation of the
Dominion of New England
The Dominion of New England in America (1686–1689) was an administrative union of English colonies covering New England and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies (except for Delaware Colony and the Province of Pennsylvania). Its political structure represe ...
. This put a number of established New England settlements in a difficult position to justify their right to occupy land that had been granted under a now invalid charter, and created an opportunity for Quonopohit and his kin to seek payment for their traditional territory. They presented their claims to rightful ownership and were eventually paid for deeds to the present day towns of
Marblehead (1684),
Lynn,
Saugus,
Swampscott
Swampscott () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population was 15,111 as of the 2020 United States Census. A former summer resort on Massachusetts Ba ...
,
Lynnfield,
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...
,
North Reading, and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
(1686),
Salem (1687).
See also
*
Native American tribes in Massachusetts
Native American tribes in Massachusetts are the Native American tribes and their reservations that existed historically and those that still exist today in what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Narragansett term for this region is Ninn ...
References
{{authority control
Native American tribes in Massachusetts
Native American history of Massachusetts