Massaco was a native settlement near the present-day towns of Simsbury and Canton along the banks of the Farmington River. [1] The small, local Algonquian-speaking Indians who lived there in the 17th and early 18th centuries belonged to the Tunxis, [2] a Wappinger people. [1]
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii and territories of the United States. More than 570 federally recognized tribes live within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term "American Indian" excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaskan Natives, while "Native Americans" are American Indians, plus Alaska Natives of all ethnicities. The US Census does not include Native Hawaiians or Chamorro, instead being included in the Census grouping of "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander".
Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 23,511 at the 2010 census. The town was incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670.
Canton is a town, incorporated in 1806, in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,840 at the 2000 census and 10,292 as of the 2010 census. It is bordered by Granby on the north, Simsbury on the east, Avon and Burlington on the south, New Hartford on the west, and Barkhamsted on the northwest. Running through it is the Farmington River. The town includes the villages of North Canton, Canton Center, Canton, and Collinsville. In September 2007, Collinsville was ranked in Budget Travel magazine as one of the "Ten Coolest Small Towns In America".
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The Massaco were first encountered by Dutch settlers at the beginning of the 17th century, who referred to the river where they dwelt as the Massaco. Over time, the term Massaco came to refer to the indigenous peoples, the river, the village they occupied, and the land adjacent to the river.[ citation needed ]
The area known as Massaco was transferred to European settlers, when a local Native man, Manahanoos, burnt a large quantity of tar belonging to John Griffin. Manahanoos was arrested and fined 500 fathoms, or 914.4 meters, of wampum. The local Indians did not possess that vast quantity of wampum, so the sachem, or political leader, of the native community deeded the land to Griffin. The "Massaco Division" included the lands around the towns of Canton and Simsbury, as well as parts of Granby, Connecticut. [3]
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to 6 feet (1.8288 m), used especially for measuring the depth of water.
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes white shell beads hand fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam. Before European contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events, such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty or The Hiawatha Belt. Wampum was also used by the northeastern Indian tribes as a means of exchange, strung together in lengths for convenience. The first Colonists adopted it as a currency in trading with them. Eventually, the Colonists applied their technologies to more efficiently produce wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately its obsolescence as currency.
Sachem and Sagamore refer to paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of the northeast. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages. The Sagamore was a lesser chief than the Sachem. Both of these chiefs are elected by their people. Sagamores are chosen by single bands to represent them, and the Sachem is chosen to represent a tribe or group of bands. Neither title is hereditary but each requires selection by band thus led.
