Agawam people

Last updated
Land of the beautiful waters, eastern Essex County, Massachusetts. The northern border is the Merrimack River, shown center. The southern border is Cape Ann, shown to the south. Parker river plum island.jpg
Land of the beautiful waters, eastern Essex County, Massachusetts. The northern border is the Merrimack River, shown center. The southern border is Cape Ann, shown to the south.

The Agawam were an Algonquian Native American people inhabiting the coast of New England encountered by English colonists who arrived in the early 17th century. [1] Decimated by pestilence[ which? ] shortly before the English colonization and fearing attacks from their hereditary enemies among the Abenaki and other tribes of present-day Maine, they invited the English to settle with them on their tribal territory.

Contents

The General Court of Massachusetts protected them by colonial law, along with their land rights and their crops. The English defended them against further attacks. The Agawam had an open invitation to enter Puritan households. Often a small number would show up as dinner guests and were fed. By the time of King Philip's War in 1675, the Agawam had been assimilated. They played no part in the war.

Territory

At the time of English colonization in the 1600s, the Agawam inhabited the area from Cape Ann inland to the edge of present-day North Andover to Middleton, and from there to the Danvers River, which was the border with the Naumkeag tribe (near where Salem, Massachusetts developed). [2]

Name

Agawam has been interpreted to mean "fishing station," "fish-curing place," "ground overflowed by water," "resort for the fish of passage," "lowland," "marsh," "meadow," [3] or "river." [4]

The name is likely an anglicization of the native name assigned to the territory of a sovereign state consisting of the tribe. The English named the tribes after their native place names; therefore it is likely that the natives did also; i.e., Agawam is an English exonym based on a native endonym. The colonists created a number of anglicized place names from the territorial name: Agawam and Squam from asquam. [5]

Varieties of the English name were used also for small tribes near Springfield, Massachusetts and Wareham, Massachusetts. There is no evidence that they were connected in any way to the Essex County Agawam. The former were of the Pocomtuc and the latter of the Wampanoag peoples. The large variety of English variants indicates an origin from different endonyms, such as "the fish-curing place." [6] These natives did participate in King Philip's War, causing some loss of life among the colonials with whom they had formerly resided in peace.

Historical Record

In 1605, Samuel de Champlain encountered and interacted with native people inhabiting Cape Ann during his summer voyage down the North Atlantic coast. He observed "from their numbers that these places are more populous than the others we had seen" farther north along the coast. [7] Though the language of Cape Ann was not intelligible to the native guides the French explorers brought on their voyage from farther north along the coast, the inhabitants of Cape Ann used birch bark canoes like other groups farther to the north, differentiating them from peoples immediately to the south who used dugout canoes. [7]

On June 13 1630, the sachem of Agawam (unnamed) met with John Winthrop aboard his ship. [4]

In February 1637, sachem Masconomet deeded a tract of land to John Winthrop the Younger in present day Ipswich (at that time known as Agawam) for his family to farm. [2] On June 28, 1638, Masconomet deeded further cessions to Winthrop the Younger for the English settlement of Agawam, later Ipswich, Massachusetts.

On March 7, 1644 in the context of war between the Mohegans under Uncas and the Narragansetts under Miantonomo, sachem Masconomet appeared with other Massachusett sachems before the Massachusetts General Court and gave 26 fathoms of wampum in exchange for being placed under the "protection and government" of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [8]

Language

All the natives of the east coast of the United States and Canada from Nova Scotia to South Carolina spoke Eastern Algonquian, a language group belonging to the Algonquian family, but separated from the rest of it by the Appalachian Mountains. Eastern Algonquian included Massachusett, spoken on the coast of Massachusetts. The latter family was divided into more closely related languages, or dialects, one of which was that of the Agawam of the North Shore.

Society

Each Algonquian language marks the range of a sovereign state, or tribe, ruled by a hereditary sachem, or chief. He had additional chiefs to assist him. The basis on which the position of sachem was defined was economic. He personally was considered to own all the lands used for common food gathering and production. [9] He distributed the use of these to groups of families under sub-chiefs at his discretion. This arrangement meant that the English could negotiate with a single sachem to gain lands, but the Native Americans had a different concept of the use of land, and may not have understood that the purchased land was being permanently removed from the commons of the tribe.[ citation needed ] The sachems reigning at the time were recorded by the English in the early 17th century and "entered history". The sachem of the Agawam was Masconomet.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Manchester-by-the-Sea is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 population census, the population is 5,395.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middleton, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Middleton is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,779 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A residential community with a vibrant tourism industry, the town is famous for its clams, celebrated annually at the Ipswich Chowderfest, and for Crane Beach, a barrier beach near the Crane estate. Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Topsfield, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Topsfield is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,569 at the 2020 census. Topsfield is located in the North Shore region of Massachusetts. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Topsfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wampanoag</span> Native American tribes in Massachusetts

The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and formerly parts of eastern Rhode Island. Their historical territory includes the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusett language</span> Indigenous Algonquian language spoken in the Northeastern United States

The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four Wampanoag communities. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusett</span> Historic Native American tribe from Massachusetts

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 overlooking Boston Harbor from the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passaconaway</span> Pennacook chieftain

Passaconaway was a 17th century sachem and later bashaba of the Pennacook people in what is now southern New Hampshire in the United States, who was famous for his dealings with the Plimouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies.

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 network of politically and culturally allied communities. Penacook was also the name of a specific Native village in what is now Concord, New Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachem</span> Paramount chief of certain North American tribes

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 from different Eastern Algonquian languages. Some sources indicate the sagamore was a lesser chief elected by a single band, while the sachem was the head or representative elected by a tribe or group of bands; others suggest the two terms were interchangeable. The positions are elective, not hereditary. Although not strictly hereditary the title of Sachem is often passed through the equivalent of tanistry.

The Pawtucket tribe were a confederation of Eastern Algonquian-speaking Native Americans in present-day northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. They are mostly known in the historical record for their dealings with the early English colonists in the 17th century. Confusion exists about the proper endonym for this group who are variously referred to in European documents as Pawtucket, Pentucket, Naumkeag, Wamesit, or Mystic Indians, or by the name of their current sachem or sagamore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nashaway</span> Indigenous tribe from Massachusetts

The Nashaway were a tribe of Algonquian Indians inhabiting the upstream portions of the Nashua River valley in what is now the northern half of Worcester County, Massachusetts, mainly in the vicinity of Sterling, Lancaster and other towns near Mount Wachusett, as well as southern New Hampshire. The meaning of Nashaway is "between," an adverbial form derived from "nashau" meaning "someone is between/in the middle" = adverbial suffix "we" Gustafson, Holly (2000), "A Grammar of the Nipmuc Language," University of Manitoba.</ref>

Nanepashemet 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 now coastal Northeastern Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naumkeag people</span> Historic Native American tribe in Massachusetts, USA

Naumkeag is a historical tribe of Eastern Algonquian-speaking Native American people who lived in northeastern Massachusetts. They controlled most of the territory from the Charles River to the Merrimack River at the time of the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640).

Masconomet, spelled many different ways in colonial deeds, was sagamore of the Agawam tribe among the Algonquian peoples during the time of the English colonization of the Americas. He is known for his quitclaim deed ceding all the tribal land, which extended from Cape Ann to the Merrimack River, as far inland as North Andover, Massachusetts and Middleton, Massachusetts, and as far to the southwest as the Danvers River, to John Winthrop the Younger, his heirs and all the settlers of eastern Essex County for a sum of 20 pounds, about 100 dollars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chickatawbut</span> Massachusett leader

Chickatawbut was the sachem, or leader, of a large group of indigenous people known as the Massachusett tribe in what is now eastern Massachusetts, United States, during the initial period of English settlement in the region in the early seventeenth century.

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 Nanepashemet, the sachem of the entire region occupied by tribes of the confederation.

The Massachusett dialects, as well as all the Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA) languages, could be dialects of a common SNEA language just as Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible languages that essentially exist in a dialect continuum and three national standards. With the exception of Massachusett, which was adopted as the lingua franca of Christian Indian proselytes and survives in hundreds of manuscripts written by native speakers as well as several extensive missionary works and translations, most of the other SNEA languages are only known from fragmentary evidence, such as place names. Quinnipiac (Quiripey) is only attested in a rough translation of the Lord's Prayer and a bilingual catechism by the English missionary Abraham Pierson in 1658. Coweset is only attested in a handful of lexical items that bear clear dialectal variation after thorough linguistic review of Roger Williams' A Key into the Language of America and place names, but most of the languages are only known from local place names and passing mention of the Native peoples in local historical documents.

Massachusett Pidgin or Massachusett Jargon was a contact pidgin or auxiliary language derived from the Massachusett language attested in the earliest colonial records up until the mid-eighteenth century. Little is known about the language, but it shared a much simplified grammatical system, with many features similar to the better attested Delaware Jargon spoken in the nearby Hudson and Delaware watersheds. It was mutually intelligible with the other Southern New England Algonquian languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusett Pidgin English</span> English-based contact language

Massachusett Pidgin English was an English-based contact language that had developed in early seventeenth century New England and Long Island as a medium of communication between the Native speakers of Algonquian languages and the English settlers that began to settle the coastal areas in 1620s. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English co-existed in Massachusett-speaking communities with their original dialects as well as Massachusett Pidgin, another contact language that was Massachusett-based. Unlike Massachusett Pidgin, which was confused with the Massachusett language by the English colonists, attestations of Massachusett Pidgin English are quite numerous. As few of the colonists were able to or willing to master either Massachusett or its Pidgin variety, those that traded and lived directly next to Indian villages communicated in Massachusett Pidgin English. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English supplanted the use of Massachusett Pidgin and likely even overtook the native language in community. In a process likely to decreolization, the speakers of Massachusett Pidgin English began to adjust their language to the English of their neighbors, and since the nineteenth century, all the descendants of the Massachusett-speaking peoples have been monolingual English speakers.

References

  1. Piotrowski, Thaddeus M. (2002). The Indian heritage of New Hampshire and northern New England. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. pp. 87–88. ISBN   0-7864-1098-1.
  2. 1 2 Perley, Sidney (1912). The Indian Land Titles of Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Book and Print Club. p. 3, 25-30 (paper edition).
  3. Douglas-Lithgow, Robert Alexander (1909). Dictionary of American-Indian place and proper names in New England; with many interpretations, etc. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Salem, Mass., Salem Press. p. 96.
  4. 1 2 John Winthrop, James Kendall Hosmer (1908). Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649. University of Virginia. C. Scribner's sons. pp. 70 (online), 50 (paper edition).
  5. Douglas-Lithgow, R. A. (2001) [1909]. Native American Place Names of Massachusetts. Bedford, Massachusetts: Applewood Books. p. 87. ISBN   1-55709-542-6.
  6. Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. (1907). "Agawam". Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30. Vol. Part I. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. p. 21. Some variants: Agawaam, Agawomes, Agissawamg, Agowaum, Agowaywam, Aguwom, Angawom, Anguum, Augawam, Augawoan, Augoam, Augoan, etc.
  7. 1 2 H.P. Biggar (1922). The Works of Samuel De Champlain. Internet Archive. pp. 334–337.
  8. Winthrop, John (1908). Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649. C. Scribner's sons. p. 160.
  9. Russell 1980 , p. 22

Bibliography