GLOSSARY OF KEY INDIAN PEOPLE AND PLACES
Abenakis: Algonquian-speaking peoples of southern Maine and northern New England. Part of the wider Wabanaki people.
Acushnet: Wampanoag community in the neighborhood of modern New Bedford, MA.
Aquinnah: Also known as Gay Head. A Wampanoag community on a peninsula on the southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Became the official name of the town of Gay Head in 1997. Home of the federally recognized Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah.
Aspinet: Sachem of Nauset on eastern Cape Cod in the 1620s.
Assawompset Pond: Body of water near the head of the Taunton River, to which it is connected by the Nemasket River. Within the Nemasket sachemship (modern Middleboro and Lakeville). Site of the death of the linguist/scribe John Sassamon.
Awashonks: Sunksquaw of Sakonnet in 1670s and 1680s. Wife of Wawweeyowitt. Mother of Samponock and Mamaneway.
Canacum: Sachem of Manomet, just south of Plymouth, in the 1620s.
Canonicus: Sachem of the Narragansetts until his death as an old man in 1647. Uncle of Miantonomo. Father of Mixano.
Cassacinamon, Robin: Sachem of the Western Pequots of Nameag, Noank, and Mashantucket from the 1640s until his death in 1692.
Chappaquiddick: A Wampanoag sachemship on easternmost Martha’s Vineyard.
Cheepi: The Wampanoag god of the dead. Associated with the color black, underwater places, the moon, night, cold, the horned winged serpent, and panthers. Source of the power for pawwaws (shamans) and pnieseosok (counselor-warriors).
Christiantown: A praying town and then reservation in the sachemship of Takemmy (now West Tisbury) on Martha’s Vineyard.
Corbitant: Sachem of Pocasset (modern Tiverton, RI) during the 1620s. Father of Weetamoo and Wootonekanuske.
Coweset: Tribute-paying community of the Narragansetts on the west side of Narragansett Bay.
Cummaquid: A Wampanoag community of Cape Cod, on the site of modern Barnstable Harbor, under the sachem Iyanough.
Epenow: Wampanoag from Martha’s Vineyard, taken captive by Edward Harlow in 1611. Returns home in 1614. Leads attack on Thomas Dermer and crew in 1619. One of several Wampanoags to sign a treaty with Plymouth in 1621.
Gay Head: Also known as Aquinnah. A Wampanoag community on a peninsula on the southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Becomes the official name of that community when Massachusetts incorporated it as a town in 1870, until switching back to Aquinnah in 1997.
Haudenosaunees: People of the Longhouse. Also known as the Iroquois League. A five-nation confederacy including the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Featured prominently in southern New England as a military force and market for wampum beads produced on the coast.
Hobbamock: Another name for Cheepi. Also the name for a Wampanoag pniese who assisted Plymouth as an interpreter and counselor.
Iroquois League: See Haudenosaunees.
Iyanough: Sachem of Cummaquid and Mattakeesett (Barnstable and Hyannis) on Cape Cod during the 1620s.
Kiehtan: Also known as Cautantowwit. Wampanoag, humanlike spirit associated with the sun, corn, and the land of the afterlife in the Southwest.
Mamaneway: Son of Awashonks.
Manisses: The Indians of Block Island. Tribute payers to the Narragansetts. Implicated in the murder of John Oldham in 1636. Courted by Pumetacom in the late 1660s.
Manomet: A Wampanoag sachemship just south of Plymouth.
Mashpee: A Wampanoag community on Cape Cod. Designated a praying town in 1665. Incorporated by Massachusetts as a town in 1870. Home of the federally recognized Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Massachusett Indians: A people centered on Massachusetts Bay with close cultural and political connections to the Wampanoags. Decimated by the epidemics of 1616–19, 1622, and 1633. Residents of several of the praying towns associated the with missionary John Eliot.
Massasoit: The chiefly title of Ousamequin.
Matawaûog: The word for warriors in the Narragansett language, a close relative of the Wôpanâak (or Wampanoag) language.
Mattapoisett: A peninsula just east of Montaup. Sometime residence of Corbitant, sachem of Pocasset.
Metacom: The short name of Pumetacom, son of Ousamequin and paramount sachem of the Wampanoags.
Mi’kmaq: Native people of Nova Scotia. Part of the broader Wabanaki people.
Mishoon: Dugout canoe.
Mittark: Sachem of Aquinnah during the mid- to late seventeenth century.
Mohawks: One of the five nations of the Huadenosaunees (or Iroquois League). Located on the Mohawk River, just west of the Hudson River and modern-day Albany. Figured prominently in southern New England as a military force and market for wampum beads produced on the coast.
Mohegans: A tribe or paramount sachemship in what is now southeastern Connecticut. Led in the seventeenth century by the sachem Uncas. Allies of the English in the Pequot War and King Philip’s War. Rivals of the Narragansetts. Federally recognized today with a reservation in Uncasville, CT.
Monomoyick: Wampanoag sachemship on southeast Cape Cod on the site of modern Chatham.
Montaup: Pumetacom’s village after which the Mount Hope peninsula is named. On the site of the modern town of Bristol, RI.
Mooanum: Wamsutta’s earlier name.
Moshup: An ancient giant featured in the lore of the Vineyard Wampanoags.
Namumpum: See Weetamoo.
Narragansetts: A tribe or paramount sachemship centered on the west side of Narragansett Bay. Led in the early seventeenth century by the sachems Canonicus and Miantonomo. Collected tribute from communities stretching from Long Island in the south to Nipmuc country in the north. Contended with the Wampanoags during the early to mid-seventeenth century. Allies of the Wampanoags during King Philip’s War. Federally recognized today with a reservation in Charlestown, RI.
Nauset: Wampanoag sachemship on eastern Cape Cod on the site of the modern town of Eastham.
Nemasket: Wampanoag community twelve miles west of Plymouth.
Nipmucs: Native people of what is now known as central Massachusetts. Particular communities paid tribute to the Mohegans, Narragansetts, or Wampanoags.
Ousamequin: Wampanoag name meaning “yellow feather.” Born probably in 1590s. Sachem of Pokanoket and paramount sachem of the Wampanoags. Father of Wamsutta (or Alexander) and Pumetacom (or Philip). Ally of Plymouth colony. Dies in 1661.
Pamantaquash: Sachem of Assawompset. Predecessor of Tispaquin.
Patuxet: A Wampanoag community on the site where the English later built Plymouth town. Home of Tisquantum. Decimated by the epidemic of 1616–19.
Pawtuxet: Native community on the west side of Narragansett Bay that paid tribute to the Narragansett tribe. Courted by Pumetacom in late 1660s. Located between the English towns on Warwick and Providence. Led by the sachem Socononoco.
Pequots: A tribe or paramount sachemship from what is now southeastern Connecticut. Shattered by the English and their Native allies in the Pequot War of 1636–37. Reconsolidated in the mid-seventeenth century under the sachem Robin Cassacinamon. Allies of the English in King Philip’s War. Western Pequots are federally recognized today with a reservation in Mashantucket, CT.
Pocasset: Wampanoag sachemship on east side of Narragansett Bay (modern Tiverton, RI) under sachem Corbitant and then sunksquaw Weetamoo.
Pokanoket: Name of the sachemship led by Ousamequin and then his sons, Wamsutta and Pumetacom. Sometimes used as the name for the entire Wampanoag tribe. Included territory now within the modern towns of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, RI, and Seekonk, Swansea, and Rehoboth, MA.
Pomham: Sachem of Shawomet (modern-day Warwick, RI) and a tributary of the Narragansetts.
Pumetacom: Also known as Metacom, Metacomet, Philip, and King Philip. Son of Ousamequin, brother of Wamsutta, and husband of Wootonekanuske. Sachem of Pokanoket and paramount sachem of the Wampanoags. Led his people to war in 1675–76.
Quadaquina: Brother of Ousamequin.
Quaiapen: Narragansett sunksquaw. Also known as Matantuck, Magnus, and the “Old Queen.” Sister of Ninigret. Wife of Mixano. Mother of Scuttup. Killed by English-Indian forces on July 2, 1676.
Quantisset: A Nipmuc community of the Quinebaug River valley.
Quinabaag: A Nipmuc community of the Quinebaug River valley.
Socononoco: Sachem of Pawtuxet and a tributary to the Narragansetts.
Sakonnet: Sachemship at the southeast tip of Narragansett Bay. Led by the sunksquaw Awashonks in the 1670s and 1680s.
Samoset: A Maine Wabanaki from around Boothbay Harbor and Monhegan Island. Spoke some English by virtue of his interactions with fisherman and possibly captivity in Europe. Brokered the first diplomacy between the Wampanoags and the English of Plymouth.
Samponock: Son of Awashonks and Wawweeyowitt.
Sassamon, John: Harvard-trained interpreter, scribe, and preacher. Father of Assaweta (Betty). Worked for Wamsutta and Pumetacom in the 1660s, then preached at Nemasket and Assawompset. The trial over his supposed murder sparked King Philip’s War.
Satucket: Wampanoag sachemship on Cape Cod on the site of modern Brewster.
Seeknout: Sachem of Chappaquiddick in the mid-seventeenth century.
Sengekontacket: A Wampanoag sachemship in what is now the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
Shawomet: Native community of what is now Warwick, RI. Tributary to the Narragansetts. Courted by Pumetacom in the late 1660s.
Sowams: Ousamequin’s home village within the sachemship of Pokanoket. Located on the site of modern Barrington, RI.
Squanto: See Tisquantum.
Takemmy: A Wampanoag sachemship in what is now the town of Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard.
Tatacomancaah: Son of Awashonks of Sakonnet.
Taunton River: Or Titicut River. The main inland waterway of the Wampanoag people, running from just west of Plymouth to Pokanoket on Narragansett Bay.
Tispaquin: Also known as the “Black Sachem.” Sachem of Assawompset. Father of William Tispaquin.
Tisquantum: Patuxet Wampanoag taken captive in 1614 by Thomas Hunt. Traveled to Spain, England, and Newfoundland. Returned to Wampanoag country in 1619. Served as interpreter and political go-between for Wampanoags and Plymouth until his death in 1622.
Titicut: A mixed Wampanoag-Massachusett Indian community on the upper Taunton River under the sachems Chickataubut and Josias Wampatuck.
Tokamahamon: A Wampanoag appointed by Ousamequin in 1621 to be a “special friend” to Plymouth.
Wabanakis: Like the term Wampanoag, means “People of the Dawnland” or “Easterners.” Refers to various Native people of what is now Maine and the southern Canadian Maritimes, including Abenakis, Maliseets, Mi’kmaq, Penobscots, and Passamaquoddies.
Wamsutta: Also known as Mooanum and Alexander. Son of Ousamequin. Brother of Pumetacom. Husband of Namumpum. Succeeded father as Wampanoag paramount sachem in 1661. Dies in 1662 from what some Wampanoags suspected was English poisoning.
Wawweeyowitt: Husband of Awashonks.
Weetamoo: Also known as Namumpum. Daughter of Corbitant. Sunksquaw of Pocasset. Wife of Wamsutta, Quiquequanchett, Petonowowet, and Quinapin. Prominent Wampanoag leader during King Philip’s War. Found dead on August 6, 1676.
Wootonekanuske: Daughter of Corbitant. Sister of Weetamoo. Wife of Pumetacom. Captured and probably sold into slavery by the English in King Philip’s War.