The following is taken from a series of articles published in the INDEPENDENT, commencing on May 16, 1928. It was transcribed by a fabulous lady named Jane Mercier for the Barnstable County MA mailing list, and is recorded here with her gracious permission.
HISTORY AND LEGENDS OF THE CAPE COD INDIANS
by one of their descendants, "Red Shell, Cape Cod Indian Historian"
INTRODUCTION
For years, the writer has been trying to discover the origin of the American Indian. Naturally the origin of the Cape Cod Indian was the same as the rest of his race. No records have been kept to prove anything, and very few legends deal to a very great extent with this matter. The Cape Indians did have a legend similar to other people dealing with an eastward migration in ages past, which leads us to believe that these Indians were driven here by Indians in the west. However, it is a positive fact that all Indians of the United States had the same common ancestry as all the other nations who were formerly inhabitants of North and South America.
There are many theories dealing with this matter and many different views expressed regarding it. Nevertheless, it is a well known fact that these Indians in New England were once one people, who, as population increased, became separated into various tribes.
Many partly understand their conditions and form of government. But those who do, including the educated Indian of today, know only the "white man's side" of the story, as there has been no written word left by the ancient redskin.
However, I am endeavoring to combine the legends, the stories of the white man and the Indian history since 1620, as told by those Indians whose facts were not obtained from books, but handed down from one generation to another by word of mouth. By combining those facts with histories, especially some written about one hundred years ago, by well informed authors, I believe I have secured at last the long missing, complete story of the Indian not only of Cape Cod, but also Bristol and Plymouth Counties and even eastern Rhode Island.
RED SHELL
Cape Cod Indian Historian
CHAPTER ONE
THE NEW ENGLAND TRIBES
East of the Mississippi River, 300 years ago, were four divisions of Indians. In each division were a number of tribes. Each division had a language, mode of dress and various customs of its own, while every tribe had a dialect of its own of the division language. However, there were no chiefs over the divisions, they being composed solely of tribes who were similar to each other. Each tribe, however, had its chief sachem and at every village was a mugwomp or captain who ruled that individual village.
The four divisions were namely: Cherokee, Muskhogee, Iroquois and Algonquin. The Muskhogee were the most southerly, and the Cherokee also dwelt in the south. The Iroquois were the most powerful and strange to say, their territory was smaller than the others. They were composed of the famous six nations, their territory being now the states of New York and Pennsylvania. The territory now Canada, Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut was all occupied by the Algonquin tribes. The New England Algonquins were in two divisions, namely the Tarratines and Mohicaneuks. The Tarratines, or Etetchemins, were ancestors of the present day Passamoquoddy tribe, near Eastport, Maine, as well as the Penobscot tribe, near Old Town, Maine.
The Mohicaneuks were traditional ancestors of the Penacook, Massachusetts Nipmuc, Mohican, Pequot, Narrangansett and Wampanoag tribes.
The Penacook Indian tribe lived in the southeastern part of what is now New Hampshire. Long before white men visited that region, Passaconaway was chief of the Penacooks. So great was he, and so powerful, that at one time he was called the "Bashaba of Mohicaneuk" and was supreme ruler, not only of the Penacooks, but the other six tribes as well. He was the greatest medicine man and conjurer known among the Indians of New England. Passaconaway lived to be well over 120 years old, dying about 1660. Legend has it that he never died, but embarked in a canoe, to be last seen floating westward and upward through the clouds, far above the mountains of New Hampshire.
The Massachusett Indians were always a small tribe from time unknown. Their tribal name was derived from massi, "great", achooset, "hilly place". They were known by several names, according to their place of residence, as Shawmuts, Neponsets, Naticks, etc. Their last name was Ponkapoag, meaning "dry pond", and named for a pond near their last settlement. The last chief of this tribe was Jeremiah Bancroft, who died in 1924.
The Niantics were a tribe closely related to the Narragansetts, and sometimes called a part of the latter. King Tom Ninigret was the most noted of the chiefs, being related to the Narragansetts by marriage and not by blood. Chief George Ammons of the Niantic and Narragansett Indians was thought to be the last descendant of Ninigret and the last hereditary chief of those tribes. He died in 1924 in the woods of South County, Rhode Island. Narragansett is derived from Nahiganeuk or "people of the point".
CHAPTER II
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
Almost every person native of the Cape knows some Indians resident here, but they know little of the history surrounding them. There are Indians scattered throughout Cape Cod from Herring Pond to Provincetown. Those at Herring Pond call themselves Pondville Indians. What do they know of their tribal history? Those at Mashpee call themselves Mashpee Indians, while some call themselves Nausets, some Pequots. But do they know who their real ancestors were? Do they know their tribal history, down from 1620 to the present day? I must say they know little of it!! And what about those people of Indian descent who live within the confines of the town of Barnstable, and the towns of Yarmouth, Brewster or Chatham? Do they know who they are? They know they are Indians and that is all.
The story is a long one. It deals with the days when white men were unknown on this continent, as well as the present time, and proves to the student of these people that they are no better off in some ways then 308 years ago.
Most historians call every settlement, every Indian village, a distinct tribe - with a distinct ruler of it. They speak of their being originally some fifteen tribes resident on Cape Cod. It is true there were that number of villages, but was every one a distinct tribe with its own individual form of government? In reply to that I will ask you, is the town of Sandwich today a distinct state or country, independent from the officials of other communities? Readily you would answer, "it is Not!"
In much that same way was the Indian form of government based. They had their towns, their governors, their rulers and their country, similar to our country of today.
Is there today, or was there ever, according to Indian lore and tradition, according to the laws of the people resident here before the year 1600 any such thing as the Pondville "tribe?" The Mashpee "tribe?"
No, and the reason that the Indians of today call themselves by those names is simply because of the place in which they reside. Because a person lives on Cape Cod does not tend to make him a member of a separate government from the people resident of Boston or those resident in Chicago. On that same principal, but on a much smaller scale, was the government of those original people formed.
Every Indian village on Cape Cod consisted of a people, each and every one a member of one and the same tribe. This tribe did not, however, live just on Cape Cod, but all the way to Narragansett Bay.
Imagine a country by itself, with one supreme ruler. Imagine that the western boundary of this country ran from the northeast corner of Narragansett Bay in eastern Rhode Island, in an irregular line northeasterly to the shores of Massachusetts Bay, near the present Boston. Then imagine that all the territory east of that boundary to the tip of Cape Cod, the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard were included in this territory. If you can imagine this as being a country with a supreme ruler and some forty or fifty villages in it, then you can imagine the little country which was here when the Pilgrims landed.
This great Indian tribe, in some half a hundred scattered settlements, on and off Cape Cod, called themselves Pokanok. This name was derived from pet-ok-a-nok, meaning "people of the bays." Many historians, including the illustrious Reverend William Apes, have confused the name Pokanok with Pequot, thinking both to be one and the same tribe, although today many Pokanok descendants have a strain of Pequot, Ponkapoag, Penacook, or some other tribe in their blood. However, Indian tribes often intermarried. Had a Pokanok Indian journeyed to the place now eastern Connecticut and married a Pequot, then lived there according to tradition and Indian law and lore, he would have become an adopted Pequot and his children Pequot after him. But should a Pequot Indian leave his tribe, which dwelt in that region and journey to Cape Cod or other part of Pokanok territory, and wed a native Indian of this region, he would always be of Pequot descent, yet he would at once become a member of the Pokanoks, and his children would not be Pequots, although the blood of those people were in their veins, but Pokanoks.
Now, these Indians, resident of Cape Cod and surrounding territory, called themselves Pokanoks, meaning "people of the bays." The name of the tribal territory or country, of the Pokanoks was Pokanoket, from petok-ninok-et, which means "place of the people of the bays." The people resident where Cape Cod now is were also Pokanoks and the Cape was a part of the Pokanoket country. This point of land was not then called Cape Cod, but the Pokanoks, both on and off the Cape, called it Nauset, or "place of the bend." The water inside of this bend, now Cape Cod Bay, they called nai-sun-ket-og, meaning "bay within the bending place." The main village of the Cape Cod Pokanoks was called Nauset, as the sagamoh, or division leader, lived there. All the fourteen villages on the lower Cape, from Bass River to the present Provincetown, were his subjects, but he in turn was, with all other division leaders and with all others either under or over him, one of the subjects of the supreme ruler of all Pokanoks.
To the west of the Pokanok tribe were the Nipmucs, Narragansetts, Pequots and Mohegans. These tribes called the Pokanok Wampanoags, or waban-noak, meaning "easterners", or "people of the east." Waban, from which wampan is derived, means "east," and noak is "they live" making the name "they live east (of us)." By that name the Pokanoks were known to the Pilgrims and other early settlers as the "great Wampanoag nation."
When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, the chief of these people was Ousamequin, or "Yellow Feather." His home, and naturally headquarters, was on Narragansett Bay, at a place called Sowams. It is estimated that there were almost seventy thousand members of this great tribe then.
In the native Indian dialect the words Massi-sowet mean "great chief", and that was the name given to the supreme ruler of all Pokanoks, or Wampanoags - whichever one chooses to call them. The term sagamoh meant "second chief", and denoted the leaders of the divisions - Mattakeese and Nauset on Cape Cod; Nope at Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Seconet, Pocasset, and one or two others. The name Mugwomp signifed "captain" - the ruler (or chief) of an individual Indian village. Some mugwomps and sagamohs were the Massi-sowet's councillors, or leaders on the war path.
Besides these various chiefs were a class of men called poh-wohs, or "medicine men," who were a combination of doctor and magician. Many wonderful cures they made among their tribesmen with roots, seeds, barks, berries, flowers and herbs, as well as snakeskins, snake-oils, bear's liniment, and various other forms of Indian medicines. They were great doctors of blood, believing earnestly the age-old theory that "blood is life." Their conjurers or magicians were much on the type of the present day stage magicians, and tradition has it that some of the original redskin magicians could out-do Houdini, Tarbell, Thurston or any of the other famous magicians of our day.
The braves or warriors of the tribe were called Sannaps, the boys nah-pum-pah-soo, the women squaws, and girls pee-squa-soo.
All in their various communities, under the leadership of their mugwomps, sagamohs and massi-soet...the first government of Cape Cod.
CHAPTER III
THE HOME OF THE NATIVE INDIAN
The Cape Cod Indians lived exactly as the other members of the Wampanoag tribe off the Cape and in much the same manner as the neighboring tribe of Massachusetts.
There were some fifteen neighboring villages on Cape Cod. In the Mattakeese, or upper Cape section were the villages of Commosakumkanit, Shawme, meaning "south-going trail," Massapee (the Mashpee of today's ancestor), meaning "great river," Mattakeese, Pokesit, Sognatis or Succonesett, Coatuit, and several others. In the Nauset, or lower Cape section were the Potanamaquets, or "village on the herring river," Nobsquasets; Tawahquatuks, meaning "where the brooks meet," a section of land since called Sanquatucket and Setucket by the early settlers, and the villages today of West and North Brewster; Monomoyet, or "place where he carries a burden along the pathway," now Chatham, Nauset, or "near the bend," now Eastham and Pamet, now Truro.
In different parts of places now the United States, the type of Indian dwelling differed. In the central region around the Great Lakes the Ojibways lived in a tepee, constructed of ten poles, tied at the top. This framework was covered with birch-bark. The poles of these tepees reached above the top of the tepee in a small circle. In the far west on the plains, the Blackfeet and Sioux lived in their tepees also constructed of ten poles. However, although their tepees were practically the same size as the Ojibway, yet their poles were longer and protruded farther above the top of the tepee. However, the Blackfeet, Sioux and other tribes of that region had their tepees covered with buffalo hide.
Here in the east, tepees were practically as scarce then as now. The Muskhogees of the south had their own type of dwelling. The Iroquois six nations (Oneidas, Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Senecas) dwelt in long houses, as they call them. These dwellings were made of birch bark and had separate rooms partitioned off, sometimes as much as twenty rooms and naturally, 20 fires with 20 smoke holes in the roof.
The Wampanoag tribe, including the Indians of Cape Cod, lived in huts which they called wee-tu-ohs. From the word wee-tu-oh, meaning "house," came the name wee-kee-kum or wigwam as this kind of habitation is called.
The wigwam (wee-tu-oh) was made of long poles, fixed firmly into the ground, but bent and fastened together at the top. The wigwams were round, the roof being oval or abour-wise. These wigwams were tight and warm. The outside of the wigwam (wee-tu-oh) was covered with birch bark, in winter the walls and ceiling were lined with mats.
In the center of the floor was the fireplace, usually six or eight inches deep and lined with rocks to insure against fire. Directly above the fireplace, in the center of the roof, was the smoke-hole, with a small mat for use as both flue and cover and worked by a rope from below. The floor in some wigwams was covered with mats, some with mats covering over boards, made by splitting lengthwise small saplings, while others would have the matting spread over pine hemlock, or spruce boughs, making a soft cushion-like floor which must have been considered quite a luxury in those days.
Beside the fireplace was a couch, or bed, about a foot above the ground. Over the framework were laid split-rail boards on which were small boughs, serving the purpose of a mattress. On top of the boughs was spread as many mats as necessary, and then over them was a deer skin, used as covering. However, in severe weather it was necessary to have one or two bear skins over all. These beds ranged from six to seven feet in length and from six to eight feet in width.
A mat hung at the doorway, and in winter an outer door was made of birch bark to keep out the snow and cold.
Their kettles, pots and similar utensils were of clay, but after the year 1632, iron, copper and brass from the settlers took the place of clay. Then ladles, spoons, dishes and bowls were of wood. The pails, which could be made in less than an hours time, were of birch bark and would hold from two to three gallons.
Their mats were made of rushes, straw, sweetgrass and flags.
Their baskets were made of maple, oak or ash strips, sweetgrass, wild hemp, rushes, tree barks, corn husks and rough limbs. Pictures of birds, fishes, animals and flowers were often used as beautiful designs, interwoven in the baskets. The mats and baskets were usually made by the women and the dishes, pots, spoons and similar articles by the men.
Their food consisted of numerous kinds of fishes and animals, besides the regular vegetables. Some of the vegetables they raised before white men were known here - pumpkins, potatoes, squashes, corn, watermelons, musk-melons, beans, cucumbers, pompions, Jerusalem artichokes, ground-nuts, and various others. Many people are under the impression that potatoes originated with the white men in Ireland. Potatoes, however, had their origin among the American Indians long before America was discovered and were introduced to England by Sir Walter Raleigh, who was one of the settlers here. Nor was tobacco seen among the white race until Raleigh introduced it. Thereby, few are the people of today who realize that the potatoes they eat and tobacco they smoke originated in this country with the American Indian. The Irish were practically the first to raise potatoes after their introduction to Europe.
Now to return to the subject of the Indian home life. The Indian men made canoes of hollow pine or chestnut trees by burning, scraping, smoothing and shaping. These canoes were sometimes quite wide, according to width of tree, and a great deal more safe than the famous birch canoe. These log canoes, or mistoons, were sometimes 40 or 50 feet long, and would carry 20 persons. Sometimes they were much smaller, carrying from one to four people. Their other canoes were made of birch bark, seamed and smeared with turpentine of the pine tree. These were very neatly made, and strong, but very light. One man could carry a birch canoe on his back for several miles, while in the water it would carry five or six people., It was, however, more unsteady than a log canoe.
The men also made their weapons, powerful bows and arrows, tomahawks and war clubs.
Most of their pipes were purchased from the Mohawks. Some were clay and some wood, more or less carved or decorated.
Their money was called wompompeag, and made from shells. Wompompeag was the name of the white shell money, while sukauhok was the name given the black shell money, the value of which was twice that of the white. This shell money was often strung and made into belts and many other beautiful works of art.
Their corn meal, ground with tah-ku-nik-wesk-hunk, or mortar and pestle, on huge rocks, was called "nocake." Corn and beans were also made into a dish called "succotash."
Their name for the pine tree was ko=et or cowett. The oak was pangantemish; chestnut, wampimish and the cherry tree was quaskonimeanog.
Chapter Four (the next chapter) deals with the dress and customs of the
original Indians.
THE POKANOK
I met a man, a dark-skinned man
Upon the Cape Cod shore.
Upon inquiring what he was,
"My folks were here before!"
In vain I wondered what he meant.
Could he be redskin true?
I stopped in great astonishment,
And asked, "My friend, what are you?"
"If I was to tell you the truth,"
He softly answered me,
"You'd think it was a falsehood,
But it could stranger be.
Back in the days of long ago
When all the Cape was ours,
Our girls grew up like buds on trees
And blossomed out like flowers.
The early settlers hereabouts
Did love the Indian maids.
They took them from our small wigwams
And took them off to fade.
In almost every family,
Descended from the first
White men to settle on Cape Cod,
The Indian blood does burst.
Today the Wampanoag tribe is small
And scattered here and there
You may find, to amaze yourself,
A full-blood redskin, rare.
Our chiefs were known from coast to coast:
King Philip, Massasoit,
Aspinet, Caleb Popmonet,
Few of you who don't know it.
Our tribe we call now Wampanoag
We called it Pokanok,
But history and our records can
Show of our tribe, a lot."
CHAPTER FOUR
NATIVE INDIAN CUSTOMS AND DRESS
The supreme chief was the ruler of all the Wampanoag tribes. History tells us that Yellow Feather (known as Massasoit) was supreme chief in 1620. His place of residence was at Sowams or "south village" on Narragansett Bay, where Bristol, Rhode Island, is today. The next supreme ruler was Black Dog, Yellow Feather's oldest son, whose home was mainly at Pocasset, now Tiverton, Rhode Island. The next great chief, King Philip, had his home at Mount Hope.
However, Poppononett, or "Great Chief Partridge", had his wigwam among the "Praying Wampanoags" at Mashpee and that is generally regarded as the last home of the supreme chief of the Wampanoags.
Massasoit was the title given the supreme ruler of all the Wampanoags. This name came from Masi, meaning "great" and Sowet, "chieftain".
When dressed in ceremonial attire, the Massi-Soet wore a beautiful headgear of brown eagle or turkey feathers. These feathers were between two layers of buckskin. The outer buckskin strip was ornamented with wampum, down or painted shells. These head-dresses circled the head with one or two back trails reaching the ground. Usually the hair hung loose, but well combed and greased when the headdress was worn. Leggings of beautiful skins, variously ornamented with bands of wampum or shells and fringed with moose hair or skin fringe, were worn. A belt of soft skin circled his waist, holding his breechclout and its variously decorated "end aprons". Sometimes a doeskin coat or shirt was worn, sometimes a mantle of feathers or a blanket of tanned buckskin; but always a necklace of white bone beads adorned the neck. On his feet were a pair of exquisitely worked moccasins worked with wampum or porcupine quills. Sometimes a beautiful band of wampum encircled the neck and almost always a beautifully and artistically wrought belt of wampum, very wide, encircled his waist. The arms were usually decorated with armlets, and his wrists with bracelets or cuffs.
In time of war his face was painted in red and black. However, in time of war it was hard to distinguish him from the lesser chiefs or even the warriors.
THE SAGAMOKS AND MUGWOMPS
The Sagamok (from which Sagamore comes) were leaders of the divisions. Two of the Wampanoag divisions were on Cape Cod. One was the Mattakeese and the other Nauset. In each of these divisions were seven villages, more or less called tribes by most historians. The Sagamok ruled all the villages in his division, and in turn was under the rule of Massi-Soet, ruler of all Wampanoags. The Nope division was Martha's Vineyard Island. Usually the sagamoks wore two broad bands of ornamented skin around the head, between which were feathers of the wild turkey. Sometimes mantles of feathers or skin coats or shirts were worn. Other than this, they differed little from the common men.
The Mugwomps or "captains" were chiefs of the individual villages. There were also a number of Sagamoks and Mugwomps on the council of Massi-Soet. They differed little in dress from a sagamok, usually being "half-way between" (in attire) the brave and the sagamok. In time of war, sagamoks, mugwomps and braves all dressed alike.
THE SANNOPS
Sannop was the name for warrior or brave - the term applied to all men of the tribe other than mugwomp, sagamok and Massi-soet.
In times of peace, during the spring, summer and autumn, the sannops were naked to the waist, other than a necklace of claws or similar ornaments, around the neck. If single their arms were bare. If married, armlets were worn above the elbow. Usually their hair hung loosely about the shoulders with four feathers or so in back of their head. No head bands were worn, except when no feathers were used, and then seldom. Leggings of fringed skin were worn, but discarded in very warm weather. A breechclout, belt and moccasins were a complete warm weather attire.
In war the head was sometimes shaved, with a strip of hair about three inches wide running from forehead to back of the neck, or else a long scalp lock. The faces were painted black, red, white or yellow.
THE WOMEN
The chief's wives or daughters usually wore a beautiful head band of wampum beads. Their hair was in two long braids, circled at the bottom by rings of shell or wampum. Sometimes their hair was decorated with wampum, shells or similar ornaments and two feathers were placed inside the band, in back. Their dresses, leggings and moccasins were ornamented with shells, porcupine quills, ermine tails or wampum. Several necklaces encircled their necks, of black and white wampum and brightly hued shells. In their ears, sometimes, were earrings of bone and their arms were more or less covered with bracelets.
The middle-aged women, or older, wore a blanket of skin over their heads tied below the chin with a strip of rawhide.
The Indian maids wore a head band around their heads with the two long braids of their hair more plain than a princess. No feathers were worn by single women. If married, one feather was worn in back of the head. Their dresses in summer were sleeveless and very short, scarcely reaching the knee. Leggings and moccasins completed their dress. In winter more clothing was worn, and a yoke of skin usually covered the arms.
The mothers always nursed their young and the "wealthier class" had nurses to attend them.
THE SEASONS
Spring was called sequan; summer was neepun or quasquesquan; autumn was taquonk and winter papone.
A coal-black man was called sukautacone, from suki which is "black" and wautacone or "one who wears clothes". Wautaconanog means "coat men".
There was originally no name for letter. Letters they called wusukwonk, which was the name of their bark-writing, from wusukwhonin, "to paint".
THE HOME
Wee-tu-oh was the original name for the wigwam or hut. The wahtapuisuk or "long poles" were firmly set in the ground, bent and tied together arborwise. The outside covering was wooch-ik-ah-penk or "birch-bark".
Food was served on a wunnaug or "tray" and eaten with kunam, "spoon" and a chauquok or "knife".
The moon was called nanepausket or munnonok. The sun was nippawus.
Wabung aunung was the name for the "star of the east, or morning star". This name was derived from Wabun, meaning "east" or "where the sun comes up" and Anokquis or "star". Mishanok also meant "morning star".
The different names for the native Indians were nahpumpahsoo or "boy"; peesquasoo, "girl"; mugwomp, "captain"; sagamoh, "chief"; pohwoh, "medicine man" and Massi-soet, "great chief".
