Bolton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Bolton is in central Massachusetts, located 25 miles west-northwest of downtown Boston along Interstate 495. It is within Greater Boston and MetroWest regions. The population was 5,665 at the 2020 census.
Boylston is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,849 at the 2020 census.
Sterling is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in the United States. The population was 7,985 at the 2020 census.
Clinton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,428 at the 2020 census.
The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian language. Their historic territory Nippenet, "the freshwater pond place," is in central Massachusetts and nearby parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians, also known as the Chaubunagungamaug, Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck, Pegan or Dudley/Webster Indians, is a cultural heritage group that claims descent from the Nipmuc people. They are a state-recognized tribe by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Chaubunagungamaug Reservation refers to the small parcel of land located in the town of Thompson, Connecticut, close to the border with the town of Webster, Massachusetts, and within the bounds of Lake Chaubunagungamaug to the east and the French River to the west. The reservation is used by the descendants of the Nipmuck Indians of the previous reservation, c. 1682–1869, that existed in the same area, who now identify as the Webster/Dudley Band of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck. Together with the Hassanamisco Nipmuc, both have received state recognition under the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs.
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 "river with a pebbled bottom".
Simon Willard (1605–1676) was an early Massachusetts fur trader, colonial militia leader, legislator, and judge.
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.
Cutshamekin was a Native American leader, who was a sachem of the Massachusett tribe based along the Neponset River and Great Blue Hill in what is now Dorchester, Massachusetts and Milton, Massachusetts before becoming one of the first leaders of the praying Indian town of Natick, Massachusetts. He is the possible namesake of Jamaica Plain.
John Wompas was a Nipmuc Indian man born around 1637 in Nipmuc Country, in what would become the state of Massachusetts. He spent the first half of his childhood among his Native kin and the second half living with an English family in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony. This dual upbringing gave him fluency in the languages and customs of both Nipmuc and colonial English worlds. He used his cross-cultural knowledge largely for personal economic and political gain, but at the end of his life he also turned it to the benefit of his Nipmuc kin.
Peter Jethro was an early Native American (Nipmuc) scribe, translator, minister, land proprietor, and Praying Indian affiliated for a period with John Eliot in the praying town of Natick, Massachusetts.
Black James was a Nipmuc constable and spiritual leader of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck at the Chaubunagungamaug Reservation in colonial Massachusetts and Connecticut. Daniel Gookin appointed James to be a constable for the praying towns after he had become a Christian. In 1675, James signed a treaty agreeing not to assist King Philip, but may have supported him during King Philip's War. After the War, Black James deeded various parcels of land to settlers in Nipmuc country including at Quantisset and Maanexit in what is now eastern Connecticut near Rhode Island. His dying speech was recorded by Rev. Daniel Takawambait and later published and by 1686 a deed was signed by his heirs indicating that Black James was deceased, but another Indian used the name "Black James" until 1708.
Maanexit was a Nipmuc village on the Quinebaug River and Old Connecticut Path in Connecticut. The town was located near what is now Fabyan in Thompson, Connecticut and Woodstock, Connecticut. The name of the town means either "where the road lies" or "where we gather" which may have been "alluding to a settlement of Christian Indians in the immediate vicinity." The village became an Indian praying town through the influence of John Eliot and Daniel Gookin.
Quaiapen was a Narragansett-Niantic female sachem (saunkskwa) who was the last sachem captured or killed during King Philip’s War.
The Wunnashowatuckoog, sometimes referred to as Showatucks, were a native American tribe in Massachusetts who lived in southern Worcester County, Massachusetts. The name of the tribe, translating to 'people at the fork of the river', alludes to them residing on the Blackstone River. They were known to cohabitate with the Monashackotoog.
John Talcott was a politician and military leader in early colonial Connecticut.
Wattaquadock Hill is a 640-foot (200 m) hill and ridge in southwest Bolton, Massachusetts and the site of a 15-acre (6.1 ha) wooded conservation area containing hiking trails and wetlands. It is the highest point in Bolton.
George Tahanto was a leader of the Nashaway tribe within the Pennacook confederation in what is now Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Tahanto was the nephew of Sachem Sholan.
