The pniese ( or ) were elite warriors of the

Algonquin people The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawato ...

of Eastern Massachusetts - specifically of the

Pokanoket The Pokanoket (also spelled PakanokickKathleen J. Bragdon, ''Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650'', page 21) was the village governed by Massasoit (Wampanoag, c. 1581–1661). The term broadened to refer to all peoples and lands go ...

tribe of the

Wamponoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 17 ...

- in seventeenth-century

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. They "were warriors of special abilities and stamina (it was said a pniese could not be killed in battle) who were responsible collecting tribute for his sachem." Philbrick names Hobbamock of the

s, and one of sachem Massasoit's men, as pnieses. According to Philbrick, both Hobbamock and

Squanto Tisquantum (; 1585 (±10 years?) – late November 1622 O.S.), more commonly known as Squanto Sam (), was a member of the Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the Native American population in Southern New England and t ...

(the shortened name for Tisquntum) were named after Indian spirits of darkness. Squanto has a prominent place in the founding history of Plymouth Plantation. While Philbrick specifically mentions Squanto as not being a pniese, an article by Charles C. Mann in The Smithsonian Magazine implies that he was, and gives information about pniese training. The training was more rigorous than that of his friends, "for it seems that he was selected to become a pniese, a kind of counselor-bodyguard to the sachem." Pniese were expected to learn the art of ignoring pain, by, for instance, "running barelegged through brambles," and by fasting, "to learn self-discipline. After spending their winter in the woods, pniese candidates came back to an additional test: drinking bitter gentian juice until they vomited, repeating this process over and over."

References

{{reflist *Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. *Philbrick, Nathaniel (2006). ''Mayflower:A Story of Courage, Community, and War''. Viking. *http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/december/squanto Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands