Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a
sachem and ''bashabe'' or great leader of the
Pawtucket Confederation of
Abenaki people
The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predo ...
s 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 now coastal Northeastern
Massachusetts.
After his death in 1619, his wife, recorded by the English only as
Squaw Sachem of Mistick, and three sons governed the confederation's territories, during the period of the
Great Migration to New England by English Puritans from about 1620 to 1640. By 1633, only the youngest son of the three, ''
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 ...
,'' known to the colonists as "Sagamore George," had survived a major
smallpox epidemic that year that decimated the tribes. He took over his brothers' territories as sachem, except for areas that had been ceded to colonists.
Biography
By c. 1607, Nanepashemet was the leader of a confederacy of tribes 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 back ...
of present-day
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
, north to the
Piscataqua River
The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the rive ...
in
Portsmouth and west to the
Concord River
The Concord River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 tributary of the Merrimack River in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. The river drains ...
. His influence stretched north to the
Pennacook
The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a n ...
tribe, which inhabited the
White Mountains region of present-day
New Hampshire. As a tribal area, the Pawtucket controlled several territories: Winnisemet (around present-day
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 square miles, Chelsea is the sm ...
), Saugus or Swampscott (
Lynn), Naumkeag (
Salem) (see
Naumkeag people), Agawam (
Ipswich), Pentucket (
Haverhill), from the coast going up the Merrimack.
Daniel Gookin
Major-General Danyell “Daniel” Gookin (1612 – 19 March 1687) was a Munster colonist, settler of Virginia and Massachusetts, and a writer on the subject of American Indians.
Early life
He was born, perhaps in County Cork, Ireland, in the ...
includes Piscataqua (
Portsmouth, New Hampshire and
Eliot, Maine) and Accominta (
York, Maine
York is a town in York County, Maine, United States, near the southern tip of the state. The population in the 2020 census was 13,723. Situated beside the Atlantic Ocean on the Gulf of Maine, York is a well-known summer resort town. It is hom ...
) in the Pawtucket alliance. Other sources name Mishawum (
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...
), Mistic (
Medford, Massachusetts), Musketaquid (
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...
) and Pannukog (
Concord, New Hampshire
Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua.
The village ...
) as Pawtucket territory.
Nanepashemet was respected by his people as a warrior and a leader. His name was translated as "the Moone God" by Puritan
Roger Williams
Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantatio ...
in his ''
A Key Into the Language of America.'' (1643/reprint 1827). Most historical accounts translate the chief's name as meaning "New Moon" (e.g., see B. B. Thatcher, 1839). Nanepashemet's tribe caught fish in the rivers and sea, dug and harvested shellfish, and raised corn on the
Marblehead peninsula.
In 1617, he sent a party of warriors to aid the
Penobscot tribe in their conflict with the
Tarrantine of northern
Maine. The Tarrantine were a warlike band, who did not practice agriculture and who supplemented their food supplies obtained by hunting with raids on the stores of more sedentary bands who cultivated crops and resided along the
New England coast and its tidal rivers. They sent war parties to avenge the support of Nanepashemet for their Penobscot enemies. Sensing danger, Nanepashemet built a log fort near the
Mystic River in present-day Medford. He directed his wife and children to move inland to reside with friendly Indian bands until the crisis passed.
In 1618, an epidemic of
smallpox decimated his band, but Nanepashemet was spared because of his isolation in the fort. By 1619, the Tarrantines discovered his whereabouts, laid siege to the fort and ultimately killed Nanepashemet. Two years later, a party from the
Plymouth Colony including
Edward Winslow came across his fort and his grave.
[ Reprint of the original version.]
Descendants
Nanepashmet had a wife whose name has been lost, who is known only as the ''Squaw Sachem.'' Their three sons are referred to in the colonial records as ''Sagamore John,'' ''Sagamore James,'' and ''Sagamore George.'' She is often confused with
Awashonks, who was the Squaw Sachem of the Sakonnets in Rhode Island, but the two women were contemporaries and not the same person.
Squaw Sachem
Squaw Sachem of Mistick ruled the Pawtucket Confederation lands capably after Nanepashmet's death. In 1639 she deeded the land of what was then
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 becam ...
and
Watertown to the colonists, an area in present-day terms that covers much of the Greater Boston area, including
Newton,
Arlington,
Somerville, and
Charlestown. She lived her last years on the west side of the Mystic Lakes, where she died in 1650. She is remembered on the
Boston Women's Heritage Trail
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating w ...
.
Sagamore John
His real name was ''
Wonohaquaham.'' He controlled what is now Charlestown, Medford, Revere, Winthrop, and Chelsea. In 1631, Gov.
Thomas Dudley wrote that he did not command more than 30-40 men. Sagamore John was friendly to the colonists and was known to warn them of impending attacks by unfriendly Indians.
Gov.
John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led ...
wrote that he died in 1633 of smallpox, "and almost all of his people."
He is mentioned in the poem ''Mogg Hegone'' (1836) by
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...
.
A monument to Sagamore John was installed in Medford in a place called Sagamore Park, where native American remains were discovered in 1888.
Given that Wonohaquaham spent his final days in the care of and was buried by
Samuel Maverick
Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803 – September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His name is the source of the term "wikt:maverick, maverick," first cited in 1867, whic ...
of Winnisimmet, now
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 const ...
,
while his father Nanepashemet is known to have been killed and buried in Medford,
the remains may be Nanepashemet's and not Wonohaquaham's.
Sagamore James
His real name was ''
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 Nanepash ...
.'' He controlled the Saugus, Lynn and Marblehead areas, and died in 1633 during the
smallpox epidemic.
Sagamore George
His real name was ''
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 ...
.'' The youngest of the three sons, he survived the 1633 smallpox epidemic, becoming known as "no-nose" in some records due to disfigurement from this disease. He inherited the lands of both his brothers from Charlestown up to Salem, and also went by the moniker George
Rumney Marsh among English settlers.
He was sold into slavery after participating in
King Philip's War and shipped to the Caribbean island of
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). ...
, where he survived for eight years, then returned just before his death in 1684. His descendants signed the Indian Deeds to
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,
North Reading, and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...
(1686),
Salem (1687).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanepashemet
Native American leaders
Pre-statehood history of Massachusetts
1619 deaths
Year of birth unknown
Native American history of Massachusetts
Massachusett people