Nauset

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Residential area of ​​the Nauset and neighboring tribes around 1600
Cape Cod satellite image

The Nauset were Algonquin- speaking Indians of eastern North America who formerly inhabited the Cape Cod peninsula in southeastern Massachusetts and who spoke a variant of Massachusetts . They were closely related to the Wampanoag , Narraganset, and Niantic , and their culture and way of life were little different from that of their neighbors, with the exception of their greater dependence on seafood. Their identity is now extinct, as the last tribesmen mingled with other groups in the 18th century.

Surname

The name of their main village was also the tribal designation, as was the case with many tribes in southern New England. However, the meaning is unknown. There were also about 24 other Nauset villages known by name on southern Cape Cod, whose inhabitants lived around 1680 in five prayer towns called Coatuit , Mashpee (Marshpee), Mattakesset (Mattachiest, Mattakees), Meeshawn (Mushawn) and Waquoit (Wakoquet, Weequakut) the region lived.

history

First European contacts

During the sixteenth century, numerous European explorers, traders, fishermen and adventurers appeared on the New England coast each year. Due to their exposed residential area on Cape Cod, the Nauset had early contact with Europeans, and these meetings were not always peaceful in nature. English ships came home from the Caribbean on the Gulf Stream north to the coast of New England. Sometimes captains captured Indians to sell as slaves in Europe. For this reason, the Nauset were more hostile to the Europeans than the neighboring Wampanoag was. Samuel de Champlain also experienced this when he visited Cape Cod in 1606 with his French expedition. In 1614, Captain Thomas Hunt captured seven nausets and twenty patuxets to later sell them as slaves in Spain. One of the Patuxet was Squanto , who later became known as the Helper of the Pilgrim Fathers. But far more tragic was the disease, which was probably brought into the Nauset and Wampanoag by Thomas Hunt's team. The epidemic spread in three waves, killing approximately 75 percent of all Native American people in New England and Canada's maritime provinces between 1614 and 1617.

The Mayflower

Mayflower in Plymouth , by William Halsall (1882)

The destination of the Mayflower , which appeared six years later with 102 passengers off the coast, was probably the mouth of the Hudson River . Storms at sea and lack of food caused the captain to sail into Cape Cod Bay in November 1620 and drop anchor on the west coast of Cape Cod near what is now Provincetown. Some people were sent out to look for food. They found a Nauset burial site covered in the dead from the recent epidemic. The English discovered corn near the graves and began to dig up the ground, suspecting more supplies there. The Nauset responded to the desecration of their burial site with furious attacks from their warriors and the English fled back to the ship. The Mayflower then sailed across the bay and unloaded her human cargo at what is now Plymouth . The Pilgrim Fathers had bad experiences with the Nauset, but the advocacy of the Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit improved relations between the English and Indians.

In early 1621 a young boy from Plymouth got lost in the thick woods of the area. Hunting Nauset found him there and brought him to their Obersachem Aspinet in a village across the bay near today's Truro. The English heard of the boy's whereabouts and asked the commaquid sachem Iyanough to arrange a meeting. Relations with the Nauset were still strained, but after the English apologized and paid for the stolen corn last November, Apinet had the boy brought back. Thereafter, the relationship between Nauset and the English improved and in the winter of 1622, it is believed, Aspinet had food brought to Plymouth and saved many of the pilgrims from starvation. Initially, the Nauset were spared English settlements in their Cape Cod residential area. The small community in Wessgusset, which was founded in 1622, was an exception. Unfortunately, this place was the starting point of a new epidemic that killed both Aspinet and Iyannough in 1623. The area now known as Hyannis was named after the Nauset-sachem Iyannough.

Pilgrim Fathers on the Way to Church by George Henry Boughton (1867)

Prayer cities

→ Main article City of prayer
During the Pequot War (1637) an Indian boy was captured by the colonists and learned the English language on this occasion. Now that this youngster mastered both his Algonquian language and English, John Eliot , a Puritan minister in Roxbury, brought him to his home as an interpreter. This cooperation soon led to one of the bemerkenswertesten missionary projects, to the prayer cities (Engl. Praying Towns) in Massachusetts, Wampanoag and Nauset. The Nauset prayer cities were called: Coatuit, Mashpee, Mattakesset, Meeshawn and Waquoit.

John Elliot began his missionary work around 1640 and had converted most of the Nauset to Christianity when King Philip's War (1675–1676) broke out. Unlike many of the praying Indians (Engl. Praying Indians) from the other tribes of the region did not participate in the Nauset in the uprising, but remained loyal to the British. The colonists, however, distrusted all Indians, whether they were Christians or not, the Nauset settled in a camp they called the Plantation of Confinement and was located on an island in the Boston harbor. In the final year of the war, many Nauset warriors served as volunteer scouts in the British Army. The Christian Indians interned on the island in Boston Harbor were left to their fate. At the end of the war, many had starved to death and they had to realize that the English would never recognize them as equal brothers in faith.

After the war ended, some prayer cities were repopulated. But only in Mashpee on Cape Cod and Gay Head on Martha's Vineyard , where land was set aside for reservations , could the residents remain permanent and maintain a kind of tribal unit.

Mashpee

In Massachusetts, Mashpee on Cape Cod was the largest of the reservations. The Indians there were allocated about 50 square miles (129.5 km²) in 1660 and ruled themselves from 1665. The area was incorporated into the district of Mashpee in 1763, but in 1788 the state revoked self-government, which it deemed a failure. and set up a committee of five white members to oversee it. Some self-government was reintroduced in 1834. Although the Indians were far from real independence, one could judge the experiment as more successful this time. Their land was partitioned in 1842 by dividing 2,000 of their 13,000 acres (8,092 and 52,598 km²) into plots of 60 acres (242,760 m²) to each family. Many laws from this period bear witness to constant problems with attacks by whites who stole wood from the reserve. It was a large area, once rich in forest, fish, and game, and therefore desirable to the whites. The Mashpee Indians therefore had more conflicts with their white neighbors than other Indian settlements in the state.

Acculturation

The years from 1700 to 1900 were marked by slow acculturation and changes in the economic, cultural and religious life of the Indians of southern New England. Agriculture in the style of the English settlers was rejected by the Indians for a long time. Instead, most of the reservation land was leased to white farmers and the Indians lived on the money they received for it. They also had income from the sale of timber from their lands, although occasional clear cuts diminished the value of the land and the prospect of preserving a productive forest. Hunting on a large scale was no longer possible, but some groups fished for a living and made sugar. The manufacture and sale of handicrafts, such as brushes, brooms and baskets with and without patterns, were an additional source of income for many reserve Indians. On the other hand, jobs were hard to come by, and Native Americans and blacks often only had unskilled jobs at low wages.

The traditional wigwams were abandoned for English style houses. English clothing and housewares were readily available and the shift to English materials culture, which began in the 17th century, was practically completed in the 19th century. In the intervening two centuries, the indigenous languages ​​almost completely disappeared. English was learned in schools and at jobs, and by the early 20th century only a few elderly people remembered a handful of Native American words.

The dwindling population and the mix of blacks and whites often resulted in the loss of Indian identity. Epidemics and wars were the main causes of the high death rate, and contemporary reports often highlight the devastating effects of drinking. Since then, intermarriages with non-Indians inevitably accelerated due to the lack of Indian men.

The missions established in the 17th century were hit hard in King Philip's War and missionary work stalled for many years. New communities such as Stockbridge and Brotherton were as important religious as social experiments, and great efforts were made to incorporate Christianity into the Native American lifestyle. Schools were established on most reservations, although many of them were eventually abandoned for lack of government support and Indian interest. In many reservations, churches were built, which often became central points for the community's feeling of togetherness. The strong missionary drive of the 17th and early 18th centuries died away as religious zeal waned, but most New England Indians were members of Christian churches at the time, but retained some aspects of their earlier ceremonies and religion.

Demographics

Before the devastating epidemics of the early 17th century, there were probably no more than 1,500 tribesmen. In 1621 the Nauset was estimated to have only about 500 members and this number remained almost constant until 1675. After the King Philip's Wars ended, the Nauset took in survivors from neighboring tribes who either fled the war or were driven out by English settlements. The mixed group of around 600 people was found at the end of the 17th century in the prayer city of Mashpee , but its population shrank to 300 members around 1710 due to an epidemic. In the meantime, the inhabitants of Mashpee were collectively referred to as Wampanoag, regardless of the fact that some of them were descendants of the Nauset. Today there are around 1,100 mashpee wapanoag.

year number annotation source
1600 1,200 estimate James Mooney
1621 500 - John R. Swanton
1698 515 after the King Philip's War Swanton
1700 500 calculation NAHDB *
1767 292 - Swanton
1800 300 calculation NAHDB *
1900 300 calculation NAHDB *
1920 230 Estimate, all mixed race Frank G. Bacon
2000 1,000 calculation NAHDB *

* Native American Historical Data Base

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nauset History
  2. ^ Nauset History
  3. ^ Nauset History
  4. Alvin M. Josephy Jr.: The world of the Indians. Page: 189ff. Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1994. ISBN 3-89405-331-3
  5. Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15. Northeast. Chapter: Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Late Period, pp. 179ff. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16-004575-4
  6. Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15. Northeast. Chapter: Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Late Period, pp. 179ff. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16-004575-4
  7. ^ Nauset population

literature

  • Alvin M. Josephy jr .: 500 Nations , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1996 ISBN 3-89405-356-9
  • Alvin M. Josephy jr .: The world of the Indians , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1994 ISBN 3-89405-331-3

Web links