USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Deerfield > History of Deerfield, Massachusetts: the times when the people by whom it was settled, unsettled and resettled, vol 1 > Part 6
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Frontenac, governor of Canada, called them the Socoquis or River Indians; but this power may well be called the Pocum- tuck Confederacy, for the Pocumtucks were the leading tribe and her chieftains the acknowledged head of its warlike ex- peditions.
The subordinate clans or allies of this confederacy were the Naunawtuks-as they were called by William Pynchon in 1648-situated on both sides of the river at Hadley and Northampton ; the Agawams, in Springfield, Suffield and En- field ; the Warranokes, on the Westfield river and its branches ; the Podunks, about Windsor; and the Tunris, on the Farm- ington river. On the north were the Squakheags, occupying the Paquayag valley, and jointly with the Pocumtucks, the territory of Northfield, Vernon and Hinsdale. There is rea- son to think that the Squakheags were a fugitive band, settled here under the protection of the Pocumtucks-probably a fragment of the Mahicans on the Hudson, driven off by the Mohawks, about 1610. They were called Souquakes by the Dutch. The Pocumtucks proper were located in the Deer-
50
THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
field river valley, and were thickly settled on both sides of the Connecticut and the Deerfield about their confluence.
As the Pocumtucks rarely appear in history, save in their wars with other tribes, a brief view of the latter will aid us to a better estimate of the former. The period is about 1633. 1. The Narragansets, occupying what is now the State of Rhode Island, was the largest tribe in New England. Esti- mates of their numbers range wildly from two to five thou- sand warriors. Their chief Sachem was Canonicus; but Mian- tonomo, his nephew, was the ruling spirit of the nation.
II. The Wampanoags, or Pokanokets, were located east of the Narragansets, about Buzzard's Bay, and toward Cape Cod. The "Good old Massasoit " was at the head of this tribe. He was succeeded by Wamsutta, his son, who, dying in 1661, left his brother, Pomctacon-better known as King Philip-chief Sachem.
III. West of the Narragansets, and having their chief seat about the Mystic river, and extending along the coast to the Niantic, lived the warlike Pequots. Their head Sachem was Wapegwooit. According to a tradition among them at this time, the tribe fought their way to the coast from the north- west. They were then holding as conquered territory, the Connecticut valley as far up as Windsor, and had subdued and held tributary, the Niantics, the Block Island Indians, and other clans as far westward as New Haven, and also some upon Long Island.
IV. The Mohegans, living north of the Pequots, were an offshoot of the latter. Uncas, their chief, was of the royal blood, his mother, Meckumump, being aunt to Wapegwooit, and he heir apparent to the sachemship of the Pequots, through the female line. At this period Uncas had but a seanty following. Events to be narrated show how he ob- tained a power which, for more than forty years, was a lead- ing element in the affairs of New England. For half of that time Uncas may almost be considered the arbiter of its des- tiny.
v. Previous to 1633, there is reason to believe, the clans living on the Connecticut below Hartford had been in a con- federacy under Sachem Altarbacnhoot, whose power had been broken by the Pequots. His son and successor, who had at this time no land nor followers, was Sequasson.
51
POCUMTUCKS AS FARMERS.
VI. The Mahicans, then in a broken condition, lived on the Hudson, below Albany. This tribe has often been confound- ed with the Mohegans, but I have failed to discover even the most distant connection. The Mahicans held friendly rela- tions with the Pocumtucks and were at times allied with them in their wars against the Mohawks and the Mohegans.
VII. The Nipmucks, were scattered in small clans over the central part of Massachusetts and the northeast part of Con- necticut. The Quabaugs, at Brookfield, were claimed as sub- jects by both Uncas and the Pokanokets, but they were final- ly absorbed by the Nipmucks.
VIII. The Mohawks, located on the river of that name, west of Albany, were one of the Five Nations. They were the most warlike of all the tribes enumerated. Brave, enter- prising and rapacious, with all the power of the Five Na- tions to back them in an emergency, they were feared, hated and courted, alike by English, French and natives.
For estimating the population of the Pocumtucks at any given time a few slender data only are found.
In 1658 a fine was imposed by the Commissioners of the United Colonies upon certain allied tribes for damages done at Niantic. In the distribution of the amount, the Pocum- tucks were assessed the same as the Narragansets. The lowest estimate of the population of the Narragansets met with, is that of Gookin-probably the best authority in the matter-who places it at 5000 souls as late as 1674. Again, in the winter of 1637-8, on account of the interruption of agricultural pursuits by the Pequot war in Connecticut the summer before, the English there were suffering for bread. The General Court, foreseeing that a supply could be obtained only of the Indians up the river, passed an order, Feb. 9th, that "Noe man in this River, nor Agawam shall goe vpp River amonge the Indians, or at home at their houses, to trade for corne," under a penalty of 5 shillings per bushel. This was on the ground that "if euery man be at liberty to trucke with the Indians vppon the River, where the supply of Corne in all likelyhood is to bee had to furnish our neces- sities, the market of Corne amonge the Indians may be greatly advanced, to the prejudice of these plantations." To prevent this corner in corn, March 9th, a contract was made with William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, to deliver
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THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
500 bushels of corn at Windsor and Hartford at 5 shillings per bushel. For all above 500 bushels he might charge two pence more. Payment was to be made in wampum, three pieces for a penny, or in merchantable beaver, at ten shil- lings a pound. It was provided, however, that if Pynchon was obliged to pay the Indians more than "sixe sixes of wampum a pecke," then his price might be increased in pro- portion. A sort of non-importation act was also passed, for the benefit of Mr. Pynchon in this transaction. It was to the effect that no more than 4 shillings a bushel should be paid to Indians who brought their own corn down to sell, under a penalty of five shillings per bushel.
Corn was not found at Agawam, Warranoco, or Naunawtuk, and Pynchon or his agents, with generous bags of wampum, pushed up through the wilderness to Pocumtuck. This was only eighteen years after the Mayflower dropped her anchor in Plymouth Bay. The Pocumtucks had plenty of food to sell, and it must have been a busy and exciting day when Pynchon came among them to buy 500 bushels of corn, bring- ing twelve thousand strings of wampum to put in circulation there. Doubtless files of women, with baskets on their backs, were soon seen threading the narrow pathways to the river ; for in a short time a fleet of fifty canoes, freighted with Indian corn, was on its way down the Connecticut to relieve the impending famine in the settlements below.
This great commercial event in the history of the Pocum- tucks must have taught them to recognize the advantage of a market among the English. It may have been a reason for their long continued peaceful attitude towards the strange in- truders. This large store of surplus grain, at that time of the year, tends to show that the Pocumtucks were an agricultural people, industrious and provident. By its sale they show knowledge of the law of trade and a readiness to better them- selves by its operation. It is also strong evidence of a large population at Pocumtuck-which is the main point under consideration. Furthermore, in 1652, the Pocumtucks were ranked by the Dutch at New York as among the " Great In- dians," that is, the large tribes. From existing evidence, there is proof of a dense population, or of long continued residence. Concurring testimony to habitation is found on all the bluffs about the meadows and on every spot on their surface which
53
WOMEN'S RIGHTS AT POCUMTUCK.
rises above the spring floods. The practiced eye discovers similar marks all along the banks of the Connecticut, and particularly about the mouth of the Pocumtuck river, and at the falls of Peskeompskut. If these dwelling places were occupied contemporaneously they indicate a population so dense that the estimate of the Commissioners in 1658 should not excite surprise.
This region was well adapted to savage life. The mead- ows produced abundant crops of their staples, corn, pump- kins, squash and beans. The streams and ponds teemed with fish and water-fowl. Nuts and berries abounded. Bea- ver, otter, fisher, mink and muskrat were plenty and easily secured. The bear, deer and raccoon, on the hills, fell vic- tims to the arts or prowess of the natives. "Silk Grass" and Indian hemp, for their lines and nets, grew freely about their wigwams ; surviving patches of the latter still indicate their haunts. What more could the man of nature ask ?
The soil appears to have been held in fee simple by petty chieftains, heads of families or clans, in tracts with well de- fined bounds. No evidence is found of feudal tenure, or of feudal service to the chief Sachem. Women's rights were so far recognized at Pocumtuck, that the right of squaws to own land, as well as to cultivate it, was fully acknowledged. At least four Pocumtuck women sold real estate to the Eng- lish. Mashalisk, by two deeds, conveyed large tracts in Deerfield and Sunderland. Deeds of land in Northfield were signed by Asogoa, daughter of Sowanaett, deceased ; by Nenc- pownam, with her husband, Pammook, and by Pompatakemo, with her father, Mashepetott.
It is known that nine deeds were made of territory at Po- cumtuck proper, although not one foot of land was sold un- til after the great disaster of 1664, to be related hereafter.
In 1614, Adrian Block discovered the Connecticut, which he named Fresh river. He was from Holland, and in 1633, the Dutch sent a party up the river, who bought a tract of land at Hartford, and there erected the first house ever built in the valley. The land was obtained of Wapegwooit, the Pequot Sachem, who then held it by conquest. The con- quered chief Altarbaenhoot, was forced to consent to the bar- gain. All parties, however, agreed that this purchase should be strictly neutral ground.
54
THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
While the Dutch were making a foothold at Hartford, a party from Plymouth built a trading house above them, at Windsor, and within three years English colonies were estab- lished at Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield and Springfield. Peace on the neutral ground was of short duration. War broke out between the Dutch and Pequots. Wapegwooit was treacherously slain, and Uncas laid claim to the Sachemdom of the Pequots. The bulk of the tribe, however, adhered to Sassacus, the son of their murdered chieftain, and he became its head. Proud, ambitious, cruel and aggressive, the new Sachem soon became the terror of both colonist and native. War was declared against him by the English, and in May, 1637, his principal fort was stormed and a large number of his men killed. Sassacus, with a few followers, fled to the Mohawks, but only to meet death at their hands. Scattered bands were hunted down and killed or captured, and in a few weeks the proud Pequot nation became extinct. The miserable few who escaped death, forbidden to use the tribal name, were divided between the Mohegans and the Narra- gansets, a yearly tribute being exacted from each individual.
How far the Pocumtucks became involved in the war which resulted in the extermination of the Pequots is not known. That they were implicated to some extent, is proved by the fact, that in September, 1637, a tribute of one and a quarter fathoms of wampum per man was assessed upon them by the English, toward paying the expenses of the war. The victorious Capt. Mason was sent to collect this, and it was doubtless paid with alacrity. The next year the Pocumtucks sent a present of beaver to Gov. Winthrop, on hearing a re- port that the English were about to make war upon them. The Governor told them they had nothing to fear if they had not wronged the English, and a treaty of peace was con- cluded between the Pocumtucks and the English, which was not broken by that generation which had witnessed the fate of the Pequots.
In 1638, a tripartite treaty was made by the colony of Con- necticut, the Narragansets and the Mohegans. The Indians agreed, by its terms, that no appeal to arms was to be made by either tribe, in any quarrel between themselves or against other tribes, without first referring the case to the arbitra- tion of the English, whose decision was to be binding. This
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DEATH OF MIANTONOMO.
treaty, the colonists made a poor pretense of enforcing, and the tribes appealed to it only as it suited their purposes. But, as it ultimately appeared, its consequences were important and far reaching.
Not long after, a conspiracy was planned by Miantonomo to cut off all the English settlers. In this project the Po- cumtucks appear to have been involved, but the plot was dis- covered in August, 1642, and nothing came of it.
In August, 1643, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, "For comon Safety and Peace" formed a confederacy under the title of "The United Colonies of New England." Its affairs were managed by a Congress of two Commissioners from each colony. All power of dealing with the Indians, in peace or war, was delegated to this body ; an act of wisdom if not of necessity, for the English were soon involved in the quarrels between Uncas and Miantonomo.
In 1643 Miantonomo, after several attempts to assassinate Uncas, regardless of the tripartite treaty, invaded the Mohe- gan country with an army of 1000 men. After Miantonomo had declined the challenge of Uncas to settle the condition of both tribes by a personal combat, a battle followed, in which the Narragansets were routed, and their chieftain captured. Miantonomo disdained to ask for his life of Uncas, but the most strenuous efforts were made by his tribe for his ransom ; and an appeal was made to the Commissioners in his behalf. They could not interfere to save him, for by the terms of the tripartite treaty the English were bound to favor the invaded tribe. By their consent, Miantonomo was executed by Uncas, after a short captivity. Fierce war thenceforth raged between the Narragansets and the Mohe- gans. To all remonstrances from the Commissioners the Narragansets replied : "We must avenge the death of our Prince." At length Uncas was so hard pressed that English soldiers were sent to his defense, and the colonies were fully committed on the side of the Mohegans by declaring war against their enemy. The latter soon sued for peace, which was concluded Aug. 27, 1645, on an agreement to pay the English 2000 fathom of wampum, and send to Boston four children of their chiefs, as hostages.
Quiet was hardly restored in the South before trouble arose up the river among the Pocumtucks. An Indian arrested for
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THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
burning a tar camp near Windsor, was forcibly rescued from the officers by Chickwallop, Sachem of the Naunawtuks. The commissioners at once sent messengers to demand the culprit. Not finding him at Naunawtuk, they proceeded to Warranoco, where the Indians were insolent, "vauntinge themselves in their armes, bows and arrowes, hatchets, swords, some with their guns ready charged, before, and in the presence of the English messengers, they primed and cocked them, ready to give fire, and told them that if they should offer to carry away any man thence, the Indians were resolved to fight, and if they should stay but one night at the English tradinge house, near all the country would come in to rescue any such Indian seized." The messengers returned without the offender.
In this state of affairs the Commissioners made proclama- tion, that in case any tribe refused to deliver up criminals taking refuge among them, an English force should be sent to make reprisals, and that the captives thus taken should be held as slaves, unless the fugitives be delivered up. This vigorous measure brought the Pocumtucks to terms. Noync- tachec, a Sachem of Warranoco, went before the Commission- ers, where he "denied " some things charged and "excused some part." He said no harm was intended to the English, and that "8 fathom of wampum" had been tendered in set- tlement. So harmony was temporarily restored.
Upon the murder of Wapegwooit, Sassacus, as we have seen, succeeded him, and claimed rulership over the tribes subdued by his father. Among the nominal chieftains of those tribes remaining in exile was Sequasson. When the Pequots were scattered, and Sassacus slain, he had emerged from ob- scurity, gathered a small following, and hoped to regain the power which Wapegwooit had wrested from his father, Altar- baenhoot. Upon the rise of Uncas under the protection of the English, who put under him the greater part of the Pe- quot captives, the hopes of Sequasson were blasted. He be- came the deadly enemy of the favorite, and plotted to ruin or kill him. Leave was given Uncas to retaliate, and Sequas- son was driven again into exile, taking refuge at Warranoco. Here in the spring of 1646 he engaged one of his followers, named Watchebrok, whom he had before hired to kill an In- dian Sachem, to murder either Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Haynes,
57
COMBINATION AGAINST UNCAS.
the Connecticut Commissioners, or Mr. Whiting, a magistrate of Hartford. Sequasson said to him: "I am almost ruined, and the English at Hartford are the cause of it." He gave Watchebrok three girdles of wampum, in hand, and prom- ised a "great reward" when the deed should be done. The murderer was then to flee to the Mohawks, giving out on the way that he had been hired by Uncas to "do the work for so much wampum. That would set the English against Uncas, and then he, the said Sequasson, should rise again." Watch- ebrok grew timid, and confessed the plot ; upon which Jona- than Gilbert was sent to Warranoco to demand that Sequas- son should come before the Commissioners to answer the charge. He was promised safe conduct, both ways, whatever the result of the examination should be. He refused to ap- pear, and fled to Pocumtuck. The Commissioners were de- termined to take Sequasson by force, and at their request Uncas gladly undertook the service. He could thus serve the English and revenge himself on his old enemy at the same time. With a party of Mohegan warriors, he marched to Pocumtuck, and captured Sequasson, by a night surprise, and took him to Hartford. The charge against him not be- ing fully proved, Sequasson was released, but he remained in exile until 1650, when at the intercession of the Mohawks and the Pocumtucks, he was allowed to return home.
Upon the execution of Miantonomo, Pessacus, his brother, became chief Sachem of the Narragansets. Finding that the Mohegans, backed by the English, were more than a match for him, he in 1647, made overtures to the Mohawks and Pocumtucks for assistance against Uncas. The latter tribe, who could not forgive Uncas for invading their terri- tory and carrying off Sequasson, willingly consented. A grand campaign was planned for the next year, in which the power of the Mohegan chief was to be forever broken. The Narragansets were to make their attack July 5th or 6th, 1648, and their allies, as soon as the corn was ripe, were to join in the war. The reason for this singular arrangement of the campaign does not appear, further than the "Narragansetts were to begin the war." The rendezvous for the allies was at Pocumtuck, and in July and August, reports reached the English that a thousand warriors were in arms there for the expedition. The Commissioners met early in September,
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THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
and at once sent the State interpreter, Thomas Stanton, to learn the facts. He found the Pocumtuck Valley swarming with armed men who had been busy in making preparations for the march, and building "a very large and a stronge fort," while waiting for the Mohawks. Stanton found "one thousand warriors at Pocumtuck, 300 or more having guns, powder and bullets." Assembling the Sachems, he repre- sented to them the danger of these proceedings. He told them that the English were a just as well as warlike people ; that they were bound by treaty to defend Uncas against the Narragansets, and however much they wished to keep peace with the Poctumtucks, they were equally bound to defend them against any allies of the Narragansets. He probably re- minded them of the fate of the Pequots when they incurred the hostility of the English ten years before.
Upon the representations of Stanton, and news that the French, or Eastern, Indians had attacked the Mohawks and killed two of their Sachems, the chiefs decided to give up the expedition. Uncas, who had easily repulsed the Narra- gansets, exultantly attributed this failure of the allies to their fear of him, for he had "darcd the Mohawks, threaten- ing, if they came, to set his ground, with gobbets of their flesh." He felt himself a powerful chief, and it would seem that Pessacus shared this view, for the next year, instead of attacking him in open war, he attempted to assassinate his hated enemy.
In 1650 the Narragansets were brought to terms by a threat of the Commissioners to invade and lay waste their country, and a few months of quiet followed. In 1652, a scheme was on foot between the Dutch of New York, and the New England Indians, for a secret rising to cut off the English and the Mohegans. Guns, ammunition, cloth and wampum, were sent from New York to the "Great Indian" tribes, to engage them in the plot. Among these "Great In- dians" were the Pocumtucks. The result of the application is not known, as the plot was discovered in season to frus- trate it.
In 1654 the Pocumticks were again on the war path. Ninigret-Sachem of the Niantics-had engaged them to assist in the invasion of Long Island. On reaching Fisher's Island they were told that the Long Island Indians were un-
59
THE IRREPRESSIBLE UNCAS.
der the protection of the English ; when they at once turned the prows of their canoes homeward. A small party of young braves, however, separating from the main body, went on a raid against the Potatucks, carrying off some captives and considerable plunder. In relation to this affair, the Commissioners, in Sept., 1654, write to,-
"Weerewomaag, the Pecomtock Sachem, and the rest of the Sachems there, that the Commissioners are Informed, that though Nine- grett by Misinformation drew downe the Pecumtack Sachems and Indians, as farr as fishers Island, to Invade and make warr vpon the long Islanders, yett, when they understood that the said long Islanders were frinds to the English * * * they desisted from their Enterprise and peacably Returned home, which the Commis- sioners accept as an euidence of theire respect, and shall not con- cent that the said Pocumptocks shallbee anyways desturbed or im- pressed by the Indians in Amity or Couenant with the English."
In regard to the unauthorized raid on the Potatucks, they urge that the captives and goods be returned, that the peace of the country be thereby better settled.
In 1655 or 6 the Podunks, a Pocumtuck clan near Hartford, were broken up and driven off by Uncas, contrary to the orders of the English authorities. To avenge this act, the Pocumtucks marched in force against the Mohegans, defeat- ed Uncas in battle, killing and capturing many of his men. Uncas, pretending final submission to the Pocumtucks, sued for peace through the English. Connecticut sent messen- gers, with men and wampum, from Uncas to the Pocumtucks; but the latter were in no mood for peace. Wonopequen, one of the Sachems, abused one of the messsengers, "throwing an oxe horne and the wampum att him, charging his men to kill his horses," and tried to strike another with a gun. An arrangement for peace was finally made and the Pocumtucks gave up their Mohegan captives. This half peace was of short duration. On their return, the Connecticut embassy was again assaulted by Wonopequen, and one of Uncas's envoys taken away by force. Having accomplished his ob- ject, the treacherous Uncas at once made a hostile march against the Naunawtuks. The Commissioners, fearing lest they might become involved in a war with the Pocumtucks through the acts of their troublesome ally, called him to ac- count for this breach of faith. But the Mohegan Sachem was a difficult subject to deal with, under the existing cir-
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THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS.
cumstances. He had great force of character. He was brave, fearless, and daring to rashness; fond of war and turbulent in peace ; haughty, imperious, and often cruel to those under him; artful and faithless in dealing with the natives, he was hated by them as a traitor to his race. His ambition and avarice, as well as his gratitude for protection, held him ever loyal to the English .* He was insolent and aggressive to the tribes around him and engaged in war re- gardless of opposing numbers, believing that the mainte- nance of his power was so essential to the colonists that they would come to his help in case of disaster. He judged cor- rectly in this, but the Commissioners were often placed in embarrassing circumstances, and say they feared he might "draw on mischievous effects above his power to issue :" and so it proved.
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