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Early Plymouth Indian Relationships

This brief overview does little justice to the Native American viewpoint. While Massasoit was friendly to the newcomers, the continuing encroachment of the settlers had enormous consequences, ultimately nearly fatal to Native Americans.   There are increasingly excellent sites on the web. For additional coverage, view our sister site the 

"Colonial Gazette."

(Stratton) Relations with the Indians, at least the nearby Wampanoags under the supreme chief, Massasoit, were good. Samoset, who was not a Wampanoag, but came from Maine, had learned some English from fishing ships, and he walked in on the settlers shortly after their arrival at and offered to help them. Through Samoset, they learned also of Squanto, who was "a native of this place," but who had been taken by a ship to England.

Samoset stayed his first night at Stephen Hopkins's house, probably because Hopkins had had familiarity with Indians when  he was in Virginia years earlier. Through Samoset, the colonists made initial contact with Massasoit and shortly after signed a peace treaty with him, which continued until after Massasoit's death in 1662.

One of Massasoit's men, Hobbamock, came to live with the settlers in, and, along with Samoset and Squanto, became of great assistance to them. The Narragansetts, who lived to the west of the Wampanoags and were their enemies, were more numerous and powerful.

During the summer of 1621 Bradford and his men kept hearing rumors from friendly Indians of an impending Narragansett attack, and following the arrival of the Fortune, the Narragansetts sent the settlers a warning in the form of a bundle of arrows wrapped up in the skin of a rattlesnake. After consultation with his advisers, Bradford answered the challenge by returning the skin to the Narragansetts full of powder and shot. Under Captain Standish, they took due military precautions, including dividing the men into four companies and assigning them defensive positions, and there was no attack.

(Excerpt from Plimoth On The Web--See links to visit)

Hobbamock, a counselor to Massasoit--the sachem of Pokanoket--came with his family to live in Plymouth in the spring of 1621 after a peace treaty with the colonists.A guide and interpreter for the colonists, he lived on the south side of Town Brook between the fields allotted to the Hopkins and Howland families. Hobbamock lived with the colonists until his death in 1641.

"Only without our pales dwells one Hobbamock, his wives and his household (above ten persons), who is our friend and interpreter. . .

Emmanuel Altham, 1623

Hobbamock, counselor to the sachem Massasoit of Pokanoket (Warren, R.I.) moved to Plymouth with his family as an ambassador from his people. They were the only Wampanaog family known to have lived with the colonists in the 1620s. There were many Wampanoag communities, but none within 15 miles of Plymouth.

The name "Wampanoag" means "eastern people," or "people of the dawn." Some of these Native American Peoples still live on or near the fields, forests and waters where their ancestors settled thousands of years ago. In the seventeenth century they were known by the names of their separate territories, such as Pokanoket, Patuxet and Nauset. Each community had authority over a well-defined territory from which the People derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting, harvesting and hunting. The Wampanoag way of life fostered a harmonious relationship between the People and their natural environment, both physical and spiritual. They were united by a common language and a shared respect for the traditions and the elders of their nation.