Squanto

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Squanto (1585?-1623) was the guide for many of the Pilgrim settlers of the Plymouth Colony.

Squanto is remembered as the interpreter, guide, and agricultural advisor who shepherded the Pilgrim settlers of Plymouth Colony through their precarious early existence in the New World and did more than anyone else to secure the survival of the settlement.

Squanto was a member of the Patuxet band of the Wampanoag tribe, which dominated the area in which the colonists eventually settled. He first enters written history in 1614, as one of 20 Patuxet Indians kidnapped by English explorer Thomas Hunt. Hunt carried his captives to Spain, where he sold them into slavery. Squanto, however, was one of a number who were rescued by Spanish friars, and he eventually made his way to England, where he next surfaced in the employ of John Slaney, whose interests extended to exploration in the New World. He sent Squanto along on an expedition to Newfoundland in 1617; there the Indian met explorer Thomas Dermer, with whom he returned to England the following year. Squanto's relation to Slaney and Dermer may have been in the nature of indentured servant; he may have hoped to earn his passage home. In any event, he traveled once again to the New World with Dermer in 1619, coming to rest in the Patuxet region of his birth.

In 1617, during Squanto's absence, a great epidemic - perhaps the plague - swept the Indian populations in the Massachusetts Bay region, and the Patuxet band was particularly hard hit. Indeed, they were virtually wiped out. Squanto returned to find the village of his youth abandoned. He left Captain Dermer to go in search of survivors, but returned to his aid when Dermer ran afoul of hostile Indians. Squanto remained with Dermer until Dermer was mortally wounded in a skirmish with the Pokanoket Wampanoag. Squanto was then taken prisoner.

Some historians have theorized that when Squanto was dispatched in 1621 as emissary to the English settlers, he may have still been living with the Wampanoag as a captive. This would explain the later reports of antagonism between him and Massasoit, who had become Sagamore, or civil chief, of the Wampanoag confederation in the wake of the epidemic. It was Massasoit who sent Squanto to the English at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they had settled on the former lands of the Patuxet in November of 1620.

The English - weakened from their journey, hungry, and ill - kept their distance from the Indians during the first winter of their residence; half of the Pilgrims died before spring. The Wampanoag, who had had mixed experiences with Europeans, watched the newcomers with a wary eye. In March, Massasoit felt the time was right to approach the English and sent Squanto and a companion to reassure them of the friendly intentions of the Indians. The two arranged for a conference between the English leaders and Massasoit. That meeting resulted in the historic treaty in which the Wampanoag and the English pledged mutual peace and friendship.

"Sent of God"

Squanto was sent to live with the English settlers. His guidance proved so indispensable to them that Plymouth Governor William Bradford was moved to declare him a "spetiall instrument sent of God for [their] good."

Squanto's role in introducing the English to neighboring tribes was particularly crucial. His extensive travels had provided him with unique qualifications as intermediary between the cultures. Thus it was possible for the colonists to establish vital trade relationships, thereby enabling them to secure seeds and other supplies necessary to life in New England, as well as animal pelts which they sent to England to repay investments and secure English goods.

Tradition has it that Squanto taught the English, most of whom had not been farmers in their native country, to plant Indian corn and other local vegetables, and to insure the success of the crop by the use of fish fertilizer. The English believed the practice of fertilizing with fish to be traditional among the Indians. In recent years, however, this has come into question among historians, some believing that Squanto learned the practice in Europe or in Newfoundland.

Steeped in Conflict

Squanto's career was not without controversy. There are reports that he sought to increase his status among the Indians by exaggerating his influence with the English and alarming neighboring Native American groups with reports that colonists kept a plague (he may have meant gunpowder) buried underground that could be released at any time. There is also evidence that he tried to undermine Massasoit's relationship with the English. A crisis developed in 1622 when Squanto perpetrated an elaborate ruse to try to convince the English that Massasoit was plotting with the hostile Narragansett tribe to destroy the Plymouth Colony and that an attack was imminent. The deception was quickly discovered; however, Massasoit was sufficiently incensed to demand Squanto's life. The Plymouth settlers were very angry with Squanto in the wake of the fiasco, even to the extent that Governor Bradford admitted to Massasoit that Squanto deserved death for his act of betrayal. It was a measure of the colonists' dependence on him that they nevertheless protected him from Massasoit's vengeance.

In November of 1623, with the arrival of additional English settlers who came ill-prepared for the approaching New England winter, Squanto guided an expedition from Plymouth to trade with Cape Cod Indians for corn. He fell ill with what William Bradford, who led the foray, described as an "Indianfever" and died within a few days. According to Bradford, as quoted by John H. Humins in New England Quarterly, the dying Squanto expressed his wish to "go to the Englishmen's God in Heaven" and "bequeathed his little property to his English friends, as remembrances of his love." Some observers, including Humins, contend that Squanto's legendary role as the Pilgrims' savior has been largely exaggerated. "His struggle for power with Massasoit… has not been adequately noted in histories about the period," noted Humins, "[and] in fact jeopardized the plantation's relationship with the Indians." However, Squanto remains a key figure in American folklore - and the classic symbol of Thanksgiving.

Further Reading

Salisbury, Neal, Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643, New York, Oxford University Press, 1982.

Thacher, James, History of the Town of Plymouth from its First Settlement in 1620, to the Present Time, third edition, Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, Parnassus Imprints, 1972.

Vaughan, Alden T., New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675, Boston, Little, Brown, 1965.

Ceci, Lynn, "Squanto and the Pilgrims," Society, 27, May/June 1990; 40-44.

Humins, John H., "Squanto and Massasoit: A Struggle for Power," New England Quarterly, 60, March 1987; 54-70.

Fictional 1911 illustration of Tisquantum or Squanto teaching the Plymouth Colonists to plant maize.

Tisquantum (better known as Squanto) (c. 1580s – November 1622) was a Patuxet Native American who assisted the Pilgrims after their first winter in the New World and was integral to their survival. The Patuxet tribe was a tributary of the Wampanoag Confederacy.

Contents 1 Biography 2 References 3 Primary Sources 4 Secondary Sources 5 External links

Biography

Tisquantum first came in contact with English explorers in 1605, when he and other Patuxet: Manida, Skidwarres/Skettawarroes, Nahanada/Dehanada, and Assacumet, were captured by the party of George Weymouth. Exploring present-day Maine, Weymouth thought to take indigenous people back to England to show his sponsor as proof of his work. He returned with the Patuxet and turned them over to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Tisquantum is believed to have been taught English to serve as a translator in New England. In 1612 he returned to North America with Captain John Smith, who after some service time released him to return to his village.

On his way back to the Patuxet in 1614, Tisquantum was kidnapped by another Englishman, Thomas Hunt. Hunt was one of John Smith's lieutenants. Hunt was planning to sell fish, corn, and captured natives in Málaga, Spain. There Hunt attempted to sell Tisquantum and a number of other Native Americans into slavery in Spain for £20 apiece.^{[citation needed]}

Some local friars discovered what Hunt was attempting and took the remaining Native Americans — Tisquantum included — in order to instruct them in the Christian faith.^[1] Tisquantum convinced the friars to let him try to return home. He managed to get to London, where he lived with and worked for a few years with John Slany, a shipbuilder who apparently taught Tisquantum more English. Slany took Tisquantum with him when he sailed to Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland.^[2] To get to New England, Tisquantum tried to take part in an expedition to that part of the North American east coast. When that plan fell through, he returned to England in 1618.^{[citation needed]}

At last in 1619 Tisquantum returned to his homeland, having joined an exploratory expedition along the New England coast. He soon discovered that the Patuxet, as well as a majority of coastal New England tribes (mostly Wampanoag and Massachusett), had been decimated the year before by an epidemic plague, possibly smallpox.^{[citation needed]} Native Americans had no natural immunity to European infectious diseases.

Tisquantum finally settled with Pilgrims at the site of his former village, which the English named Plymouth. He helped them recover from an extremely hard first winter by teaching them techniques to increase food production: by fertilizing crops. He also showed them the best places to catch fish and eels. He was critical to their survival.

In 1621, Squanto was the guide and translator for settlers Stephen Hopkins and Edward Winslow as they traveled upland on a diplomatic mission to the Wampanoag sachem, known today as Massasoit. In a subsequent mission for Governor William Bradford that summer, Squanto was captured by Wampanoag while gathering intelligence on the renegade sagamore, Corbitant, at the village of Nemasket (site of present-day Middleborough, Massachusetts.) Myles Standish led a ten-man team of settlers from Plymouth to rescue Squanto if he was alive or, if he had been killed, to avenge him. Squanto was found alive and well. He was welcomed back by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, where he continued in his vital role as assistant to the colony.

Although he worked at alliances, Squanto ended up distrusted by both the English and the Wampanoag. Massasoit, the sachem who first appointed Tisquantum as liaison to the Pilgrims, nevertheless did not trust him in the tribe's dealings with the settlers. He assigned Hobamok (whose name may have been a pseudonym, as it meant "mischievous"), to watch over Tisquantum and act as a second representative.^{[citation needed]}

On his way back from a meeting to repair damaged relations between the Wampanoag and Pilgrims, Tisquantum became sick with a fever. Historians speculate that he was poisoned by the Wampanoag because they believed he had been disloyal to the sachem.^[3] Peace between the two groups lasted for another fifty years. Squanto died a few days later in 1622 in Chatham, Massachusetts. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Plymouth's Burial Hill cemetery.^{[citation needed]}

Governor William Bradford, in Bradford's History of the English Settlement, wrote regarding Tisquantum's death:

Here [Manamoick Bay] Squanto fell ill of Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose, which the Indians take as a symptom of death, and within a few days he died. He begged the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishman's God in heaven, and bequeathed several of his things to his English friends, as remembrances. His death was a great loss.

References

1. ^ Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England" (London: 1622)
2. ^ 1491. Mann, Charles C.
3. ^ Philbrick, Nathaniel: Mayflower, p. 138. Viking, 2006.

Primary Sources

• Bradford, W. Governor William Bradford's Letter Book. Boston: Applewood, 2002 (reprint from 1906).
• Bradford, W. Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647. New York: Modern Library 1981 (1856).[1]
• Gorges, Ferdinand. "A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England," in Baxter 1890, I:203-40 (1622).
• Morton, T. New English Canaan, or New Canaan. London: Charles Green, 1637.
• Winslow, E. Good Newes from New-England: or A True Relation of Things Very Remarkable at the Plantation of Plimoth in New-England. London: William Bladen and John Bellamie, 1624

Secondary Sources

• Cell, G.T. "The Newfoundland Company: A Study of Subscribers to a Colonizing Venture", William & Mary Quarterly (WMQ) 22:611-25, 1965.
• Deetz, J. and P.S. Deetz. The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. New York: Random House, 2000.
• Mann, Charles. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, New York: Random House, 2005.
• Nash, Struggle and Survival in Colonial America, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 228-45, 1989.
• Salisbury, N. "Squanto: The Last of the Patuxets," in D.G. Sweet and G.B. Nash, Struggle and Survival in Colonial America, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 228-45, 1989.
• Salisbury, N. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
• Weston, Thomas. History of the Town of Middleboro Massachusetts 1669-1905, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906.

External links

• Who Was Squantum?
• Modern History Sourcebook: William Bradford: from History of Plymouth Plantation, c. 1650 · Treaty with the Indians 1621
• Caleb Johnson's MayflowerHistory.com

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