The Massachusett Tribe

The Massachusett Tribe. Wessagusset Historic Woodlot. , Algonquin speaking hunter-gatherers arrived in southeast New England thousands of years ago. The Massachusett tribe inhabited the land along the Mystic, Charles, Nesponset, Montiquot, and North Rivers, and much of the interior territory. Their name translates roughly as "People of the Great Blue Hill". They lived in villages, and migrated seasonally to plant, hunt and fish. In Weymouth, they settled along the coast, calling the land "Wessagusset", or "place where the rocks meet the water", and inland along the rivers and ponds. There were probably 20,000 Massachusett Indians at the time of first contact with Europeans. The people grew maize, beans, pumpkins and squash. Women gathered nuts, berries, and legumes, and did much of the farming. They wove baskets and blankets, cooked and cared for children. Men hunted turkey and deer, fished in the ponds, gathered shellfish at the shore, and netted herring and alewives. They ate a balanced diet, and the diversity of food sources prevented malnutrition., The coming of Europeans was a catastrophe for the native people. Lacking immunity to European diseases, about ninety percent of those exposed died from smallpox and other communicable diseases in the first years of contact, from 1616-1619. After the plagues the indigeneous Massachusett Nation continued to be led by their traditional bloodline Sachems, until the intervention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with the Indian Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The indigeneous Massachusett Nation continues today through their lineal descendants the Massachusett tribe at Ponkapoag., The Massachusett lived in wooden domed houses walled with bark and thatch. Tribal leaders, called sachems, inherited their position but listened to their councils. In the area around Quincy and Weymouth, Chickatawbut was the sachem when English settlers first arrived. The people worshipped the forces of nature, celebrated birth and burial rituals, and were good stewards of the land., [Caption:] , In 1965, a mishoon dugout canoe was discovered at Great Pond, dating back to before the arrival of Europeans. It is now displayed at the Weymouth Tufts Library.