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 acknowledged tribe.
Members claim to trace their ancestry to the historic Dudley/Webster Nipmuc tribal entity.[2] 87% of the membership of the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug were able to document their descent from the Dudley/Webster Nipmuc when they (unsuccessfully) petitioned for federal acknowledgement.[3]
Contact with English settlers began in the 1630s, as the colonists began following the Indian trails to new settlements in the Pioneer Valley or the Pequot War (1634-1638). By the 1670s, the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck came under the nominal control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and under the expanding missionary influence of the Rev. John Eliot, leading to the establishment of a 'Praying Town of Chabanakongkomun' in 1674.[4] After the ravages of King Philip's War (1675-1676), the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck were awarded a reservation in 1682. This reservation was sold in 1870, following the passage of the Massachusetts Indian Enfranchisement Act the year prior, forcing the tribe to disperse and assimilate into the surrounding communities.[1]
The Webster/Dudley Band incorporated in 1981. Private land in Webster, Massachusetts and Thompson, Connecticut is used by the group as its homebase.[5] Members worked closely with the Hassanamisco Nipmuc under Nipmuc Nation, especially in regard to federal recognition, but the group split from Nipmuc Nation in 1996. Many of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck remain affiliated with Nipmuc Nation, where they are counted among the Hassanamisco Nipmuc. The group was denied federal recognition as an Indian tribe in 2001, 2004, and 2007 decisions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs due to their failure to meet three of the seven mandatory criteria for federal acknowledgment.[6]
Ethnonyms
Modern shoreline of Webster Lake. The lake's shorter Indigenous name, Chaubunagungamaug, serves as the namesake of the tribe.
The Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck prefer the spelling Nipmuck as opposed to Nipmuc. The term derives from nippamaug, "freshwater fishing pond."[citation needed] This has cognates in the closely related Massachusett language (with revived Wampanoag spelling in parentheses), such as the base nippa-[7]/(nup-),[8] 'freshwater,' and -âmaug[9]/(-ômâk),[10] 'fishing pond.'[11]
Chaubunagungamaug, one of two official Indigenous names for Webster Lake which occupies much of the southern half of the town, signifies "divided fishing place" or "fishing place at the boundary," because the lake was once divided into exclusive fishing zones with the Nipmuck at the northern part of the lake living in a village also known as Chabunagungamag and a related Nipmuck group living at Monuhchogok (Manchaug) to the south of the lake.[citation needed] The lake's full name is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg and includes roots cognate to Massachusett [chad]chapun-[12]/([cha]châpunum-),[13] 'to divide,' and -âmaug/(-ômâk), 'fishing pond.' Eliot used a variant, Chabonakongkomun, for the Praying town established near the site of the old village and its inhabitants.[14]
Throughout most of the 18th century, the Nipmuck of Chaubunagungamaug were commonly referred to as the Pegan Indians (not to be confused with Piegan Blackfoot) because of the prevalent nature of the surname Pegan amongst its members, many of whom had ancestral ties to Natick. It is found in local place names as pegan- or pahegan- meaning 'clear'—as in something cut down or thin to let light through, and by extension, 'bare,' 'barren,' or 'treeless.' It is cognate to Massachusett pohk-[15]/(pâhk-),[16] 'clear.'[17][18]
English settlers, and later other immigrant groups, generally referred to the Nipmuck near the lake by the name of the location of the reservation. As Praying Indians, they were originally known as the Praying Indians of Chabanakongkomun. The reservation lands granted by Massachusetts were included in the town of Dudley, Massachusetts, and moved to a section of town later ceded and incorporated as the town of Webster, Massachusetts. As a result, they were known as the Dudley, Webster-Dudley, Dudley-Webster and Webster Indians.
In 1996, the group adopted the formal name Webster/Dudley Band of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians.[19]
The principal village of Chaubunagungamaug was located north of the lake in what is now Webster. The reserve lands were dwindled away and later surrounded by the town of Dudley. The reservation lands were moved back to the area around the lake which was later split off and incorporated as the town of Webster, where a few acres remain in the tribe's use as the reservation.[18]
Group Membership
Membership in the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians is open to those who claim lineal descent to the "Dudley Indians" enumerated in the 1861 Report to the Governor and Council concerning the Indians of the Commonwealth (Earle Report) conducted by Indian Commissioner John Milton Earle or the 1890 Worcester Probate Court lists of beneficiaries to the funds from the reservation land sales.[19] Surnames of Dudley Indians on the Earle Report of 1861 include Bakeman, Beaumont, Belden, Cady, Corbin, Daley, Dorus, Esau, Fiske, Freeman, Henry, Hull, Humphrey, Jaha, Kyle, Nichols, Oliver, Pegan, Robinson, Shelley, Sprague, White, Willard and Williard.[20] In 2004, the group had 354 members.[1]
In 2004, 277, or 53 percent, of the Nipmuck identifying with the Nipmuc Nation and listed in the Hassanamisco Nipmuc tribal rolls at the time were Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck that remained after the 1996 exit of the Webster/Dudley Band, mostly from the Jaha, Humphrey, Belden, Pegan/Wilson, Pegan and Sprague families listed on the Earle Report. This also indicated that at that time, 43 percent of the total known population of descendants of the Dudley Indians, to which the Webster/Dudley Band are a successor, were not included in tribal rolls.[21]
Government
Since 1996, the group has its own elected council.[19] The council is elected to serve three-year terms, with elections occurring at the end of December. As of November 2013, the council consists of Chairman/Treasurer Kenneth White, Vice-chairman David White, Secretary Sherry Davis, Enrollment Committee Chairperson Stacey Kelleher, Resident Agent Tom Morse, Claudia Zatorski, Barbi Gardiner, Charles T Morse Sr and Melissa Greene. Councilors are restricted to certain family lines, such as the Dorus/White, Sprague/Henries and Nichols/Heath branches.[19][22]
Although relations between the Webster/Dudley Band of the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck and the Hassanamisco Nipmuc (including Nipmuc Nation Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuc) were formerly strained, the close kinship ties and shared cultural pursuits have helped to heal old wounds. The two tribes are currently working together to revive the Nipmuck language, get Nipmuck involved in archaeological projects such as Project Mishoon and make use of land identified by the East Quabbin Land trust as a possible site for a Nipmuck cultural centre.[25] Other Nipmuck groups, without state recognition, include the Connecticut Nipmuc, who claim to be descendants of Nipmuck from the Praying towns that were located in what is now Connecticut and Nipmuck that relocated there,[26] as well as the Quinsigamond Nipmuc, including many members who claim descent from the original Quinsigamond Nipmuc[18] or later migrants into the areas around Worcester, Massachusetts. Nippamaug of all bands regularly attend the powwows, Indian fairs and social gatherings of the others.[27] The Webster/Dudley Band of Nipmucs works with the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs to provide support for Native peoples.[25]
Oxford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,347 as of the 2020 United States Census.
Webster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,776 at the 2020 census.
King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands against the English New England Colonies and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Pokanoket chief and sachem of the Wampanoag who adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Plymouth Colony. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678.
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.
Praying Indian is a 17th-century term referring to Native Americans of New England, New York, Ontario, and Quebec who converted to Christianity either voluntarily or involuntarily. Many groups are referred to by the term, but it is more commonly used for tribes that were organized into villages. The villages were known as praying towns and were established by missionaries such as the Puritan leader John Eliot and Jesuit missionaries who established the St. Regis and Kahnawake and the missions among the Huron in western Ontario.
The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian language, probably the Loup language. Their historic territory Nippenet, meaning 'the freshwater pond place', is in central Massachusetts and nearby parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Lake Chaubunagungamaug, also known as Webster Lake, is a lake in the town of Webster, Massachusetts. It is located near the Connecticut border and has a surface area of 1,442 acres. Since 1921, the lake has also been known by a much longer name having 45 letters comprising fourteen syllables: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The lake has become famous beyond Central Massachusetts for having the longest name of any geographic feature in all of the United States.
The Nipmuc Nation was a non profit entity of the state-recognized tribe Hassanamisco Nipmuc, an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in South Grafton, Massachusetts.
The Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band is the sole state-recognized tribe in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They were recognized in 1976 by Governor Michael Dukakis via Executive Order 126. They were briefly known as the Nipmuc Nation, a union of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc and the Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck bands, during their attempt to receive federal acknowledgment as a Nation. The Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band owns three and a half acres of reservation land in what is present day Grafton, Massachusetts. The Nipmuc are native to Central Massachusetts, Northeastern Connecticut, and parts of Rhode Island.
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.
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>
Native American tribes in Massachusetts are the Native American tribes and their reservations that existed historically and those that still exist today in what is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Narragansett term for this region is Ninnimissinuok.
Ayer is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871, and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home to Camp Stevens, a training camp for Massachusetts volunteers during the American Civil War. Later, Fort Devens was established by the federal government to train New England soldiers for World War I. Fort Devens is a major influence on the area, although it is considerably smaller than when it was first closed in the mid-1990s. The town's population was 8,479 at the 2020 census.
Quinsigamond is a place in Massachusetts.
Zara Cisco Brough, also called Princess White Flower, served as the Chief of the Nipmuc Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Massachusetts, from 1962 until 1987. She is best known for her work to preserve Nipmuc heritage.
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.
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 Manchaug, 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.
The Praying Indians of Natick were a community of Indigenous Christian converts, known as Praying Indians, in the town of Natick, Massachusetts, one of many Praying Towns. They were also known as Natick Indians.
↑ Blumenthal, R. Connecticut Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, Indian Affairs. (2002). Comments of the state of Connecticut and the northeastern Connecticut council of governments on the proposed findings on the petitions for tribal acknowledgment of the Nipmuc Nation and the Webster/Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians. Retrieved from http://www.ct.gov/ag/lib/ag/press_releases/2002/indian/nipmuc_brief.pdf.
↑ Trumbull, J. H. (1903). Natick Dictionary. (pp. 85, 243. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
↑ Hicks, N. (2006). A list of initials and finals in wôpanâak. (Master's thesis). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 26.
1 2 3 Galvin, W. F. Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC), (2007). Historic & archaeological resources of central massachusetts: A framework for preservation decisions. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society.
1 2 Obituaries: Edwin Morse, Jr., chief red fox. (2013, June 07). Webster Times, p. O2.
1 2 Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs (2013, June). In Peters, J. (Executive Director). Minutes from the June 11, 2013 meeting. 100 Cambridge Street Conference Room 2A. Massachusetts commission on Indian affairs meeting, Boston, MA.
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