Massachusett people
Also known as Massachuset, Massachuset Indian, Massachuset people, Massachusett, Massachusetts Indian, Massachusetts people, Natick, Natick Indian
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills overlooking Boston Harbor from the south.
Key facts
- Ethnic group.group
- Massachusett
- Ethnic group.image
- 250px|center
- Ethnic group.image_caption
- Location of the Massachusett and related peoples of southern New England.
- Ethnic group.popplace
- Massachusetts
- Ethnic group.rels
- Christianity (Puritanism), Indigenous religion, Algonquian religion.
- Ethnic group.langs
- English, formerly Massachusett language
- Ethnic group.related
- Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Narraganasett, Mohegan, Pequot, Pocomtuc, Montaukett and other Algonquian peoples
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
25 sectionsContents
- Name
- Endonyms
- Exonyms
- Territory
- Divisions
- Language
- Early subsistence
- History
- European exploration of the 16th century
- 17th-century epidemics
- Relations with the Plymouth Colony (1620–1626)
- Relations with the Massachusett Bay Colony (1629-1676)
- Demographic changes
- Adoption of Christianity
- Praying towns (1651–1675)
- Humiliation of the Indians
- King Philip's War (1675-1676)
- Guardianship of the Indians
- 19th century
- 20th and 21st centuries
- Cultural organizations
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills overlooking Boston Harbor from the south.
As some of the first people to make contact with European explorers in New England, the Massachusett and fellow coastal peoples were severely decimated from an outbreak of leptospirosis circa 1619, which had mortality rates as high as 90 percent in these areas. This was followed by devastating impacts of virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, influenza, scarlet fever and others to which the Indigenous people lacked natural immunity. Their territories, on the more fertile and flat coastlines, with access to coastal resources, were mostly taken over by English colonists, as the Massachusett were too few in number to put up any effective resistance.