Squanto
Squanto (* 1590, † the 30th November 1622 Chatham , Massachusetts Bay), also Tisquantum called, was a multilingual Patuxet - Indians . He lived on the southeast coast of what is now Massachusetts , was brought to Spain as a slave and later returned to North America via a stay in London . Without his help, the first English colonists would probably not have survived.
Live and act
Squanto was born in Patuxet, a Wampanoag village, and the on the coast of Plymouth Bay in what is now US was -Bundesstaat Massachusetts. He grew up in the language area of the Wômpanâak (Wampanoag), a dialect of the Massachusett languages . In 1605, Captain George Weymouth led an expedition ship to North America on behalf of some London merchants. He sailed the Maine coast south to Massachusetts and went ashore there. In order to show his clients the appearance of the Indians, some indigenous people were captured and dragged onto the ship. One of them was Squanto, a handsome young man, almost naked and with long black hair , according to a report.
Squanto was brought to England to live with Sir Ferdinand Gorges (1565–1647), whose Plymouth Company had invested a lot of money in the commercial development of the New World . Gorges taught Squanto the English language and eventually sent him as a guide and interpreter to his ship captains who were to explore New England's shores.
He returned to America in 1614 and helped some of Gorges' employees map the Cape Cod coastline . The earliest contacts between the local Indians, Nauset and Patuxet, and the Europeans date back to the 16th century, when merchant ships and fishing boats sailed along the New England coast . Most of these encounters were friendly. There were exceptions, as some of the captains of these ships were known to improve their income by capturing Indians and selling them as slaves. For example, Captain Thomas Hunt . When about twenty Nauset and seven Patuxet came on board his ship to act, Squanto was called in to act as an interpreter. The Indians, including Squanto, were tied up to be sold as slaves in Spain. In Malaga Squanto came to monks who wanted to convert him to Christianity.
He stayed with the monks until 1618 when a ship from Bristol arrived in Malaga . The captain needed an interpreter and took Squanto to Newfoundland . Here Squanto met Captain Thomas Dermer (1590-1620), an employee of the Plymouth Company, whom he knew from England. Dermer and Squanto sailed together to New England and arrived there in 1619. But in the meantime epidemics had ravaged the tribes there and the population of Squanto's home village Patuxet had been completely wiped out. He went to the neighboring village of Pokanoket , the residence of Massasoit , the Upper Sacher of the Wampanoag. Captain Dermer had meanwhile moved on, was attacked by Nauset on Cape Cod and taken hostage. Squanto heard about it and obtained Dermer's release. Dermer was later attacked again by Wampanoag on Martha's Vineyard and died of the injuries sustained in Virginia .
Arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers
About a year later, on November 11, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers came to the Massachusetts coast and anchored near present-day Provincetown on the outermost headland of Cape Cod.
The colonists decided to settle here, but after a while they discovered that the sandy soil here could not feed them. So a group of them decided to sail to the other side of Cape Cod Bay. On December 21st they landed near what is now Plymouth , Massachusetts. Most of the remaining settlers followed five days later. They called their small coastal settlement God's Own Country , a term that is still widely used today.
For the next few months they lived here in poor huts, hungry, sick and expecting their imminent death. Half of the newcomers did not survive the first winter. The Indians watched the English, but avoided them as much as possible. Abenaki - Sachem Samoset from what is now Maine, who had previously learned some English from some English fishermen in the short-lived Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River, was with the Wampanoag and greeted the Pilgrim Fathers with Hello Englishmen . He surveyed the situation and came back with Squanto the following day. This helped the English to survive for the near future and also acted as an intermediary between the Pilgrim Fathers and Massasoit .
The Narraganset , neighbors to the west of the Wampanoag, had suffered the least from the epidemics due to their isolated residential area on the islands in Narragansett Bay , and therefore developed into the most powerful tribe in the region. They are now demanding tribute payments from the weakened Wampanoag. So Massasoit hoped that the English might support his people against the domination of the Narraganset. In March 1621, Massasoit, accompanied by Squanto, visited the colonists in Plymouth, signed a friendship treaty and gave them permission to take over around 12,000 acres (48.5 km²) of land for the Plymouth Plantation. The treaty contained both a non-aggression and assistance pact.
Squanto stayed in the Plymouth Colony for the rest of his life . He showed the pilgrim fathers how the Indians of this area tilled the land, caught fish and gathered seafood and served them as an interpreter and tour guide. Without Squanto's help, the English settlers would most certainly have starved again next winter and lived in constant fear of their Indian neighbors. When they learned of the Indian custom of a harvest time ceremony, they decided to hold a harvest festival as well . The Obersachem came with 90 warriors and the guests contributed five deer to the common festival. There were three days of celebration and English games alternated with Indian competitions. In the end they agreed to celebrate this common festival every year from now on.
On a trip to the Massachusett in November 1622, Squanto developed a fever, developed severe nosebleeds and died. Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony, his best friend among the whites, wrote the following lines about his sudden death:
- In this place Squanto fell ill with Indian fever, had severe nosebleeds and died after a few days. He asked the governor to pray for him that he might go to heaven for the English. He leaves behind various things that should be given to his English friends in memory of him. His death is a great loss for all of us ...
Movie
- 1994: Squanto - The Great Warrior [1] American film by Xavier Koller
- 2015: Saints and Strangers
literature
- Alvin M. Josephy jr .: 500 Nations , Frederking & Thaler GmbH, Munich 1996 ISBN 3-89405-356-9
Web links
- Squanto
- History of Tisquantum ( Memento from December 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short biography of Tisquantum from MayflowerHistory.com.
- ^ Charles C. Mann: Native Intelligence. Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005
- ^ Continental Drift (November 29, 2006). "Squanto". Revised May 10, 2012.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Squanto |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tisquantum |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Pawtuxet Indians |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1590 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cape Cod |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 1622 |
| Place of death | Chatham , Massachusetts Bay |