USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 4
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At the coming of the whites then there were four chief sagamores or sachems in authority, ruling over Chappaquid- dick, Nunnepaug, Takemmy, and Aquiniuh (Gay Head). The sagamores of these four places were at this period Pah- kepunnassoo, Tewanticut, Mankutoukquet, and Nohtook- saet respectively. These four greater chiefs or sagamores subdivided their territory into petty sachemships, who ruled within certain well-defined limits: for example; Cheesehahcha- muk was the sachem of Homes' Hole,2 and when his son Ponit succeeded to his father's authority, the bounds of his sachem- ship were declared "to have bin set by towonticut by a fut path which gose fron Weakuttockquayah unto cuttashimmoo on the other side of the neck."3 This means a line drawn
'Tisbury Records, p. 43.
2Dukes Deeds, I, 355.
3Court Records, 1685.
39
History of Martha's Vineyard
from the head of the lagoon to the head of Tashmoo pond. It appears that Cheesehahchamuk had sold land in the Chick- emmoo district as early as 1658.1 Wampamag was the sachem of Sanchacankacket in 1660 and he exercised authority over that neck, from the pond north to the Chop.2 These sachem- ships were held by inheritance; usually from the father, but occasionally through the mother, if she had acquired the title by descent. Wampamag was the son of Adommas,“ queen sachem," as she was called.
These sachems were not always natives of the Vineyard, but in what manner they acquired their rank and entered into the enjoyment of their prerogatives is not known,-prob- ably by selection of the mainland chiefs. Nohtooksaet, the sachem of Gay Head, "came from the Massachusetts Bay." 3 and Wannamanhut, the sachem of Manitou-Watootan (Christ- iantown) "came in his younger time from towards Boston to Martha's Vineyard, and settled att Takeemmee." 4
Concerning this particular importation from the main- land, it is of record that "at a great meeting of indians at Tis- bury" the sagamore "with the rest of the sachems agreed that Wonamonhoot should have all the land to the westward of a place called Nippessieh to be at his own disposal." 5
In another case involving the title to a sachemship in 1675, Mittark, the then ruling sachem, as son of Nohtooksaet, was challenged in his rights by "the person called Omphan- nut," who claimed he was the eldest son of the deceased sa- chem. A council was held, composed of the chief men of the island, and "as far as the mane land" and they decided that "Omphannut speak true." Thereupon they assigned to the latter one-quarter of all the land on Gay Head.6 Tooh- toowee was the sachem on the north shore of Chilmark in the Keephigon region, in 1673.7 The sons and daughters of all these petty magnates in succeeding years exercised authority over the tribes, and sold land within their territory as late as the middle of the 18th century.
The prominent Indian of Edgartown known by his Eng- lish name of "Tom Tyler" came to the island before 1673,
1Deeds, I, 182, 355.
% Deeds, II, 253.
3 Indian converts, 67.
Sup. Jud. Court files, No. 10, 774
5 Deeds, II, 142.
6 Deeds, VI, 369.
7Deeds, III, 201.
40
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MARTHA'S VINEYARD AS KNOWN TO THE INDIANS SHOWING ITS ALGONQUIAN NAMES
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The Aboriginal Inhabitants
and lived here many years and probably ended his days at Sanchacantacket, where Tyler's Field remains as a memory of his habitation. He was of "royal" blood, but it does not appear that he acquired any particular distinction here among them as a "prince" or sagamore. He was the "sonne of Sagamore of Agawamm (Ipswich), a known man in the coun- trey; he that sold the Town of Ipswich," whose name was Masconomet.1
APPEARANCE, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INDIANS.
Brereton thus describes the personal appearance of the savages as seen by him on the Vineyard and the surrounding islands :-. "These people as they are exceeding courteous, gentle of disposition, and well conditioned, excelling all others that we have seene; so for shape of bodie and lovely favour I thinke they excell all the people of America; of stature much higher than we; of complexion or colour much like a dark Olive; their eie-browes and haire blacke, which weare long tied up behinde in knott, whereon they pricke feathers of fowles, in fashion of a crownet: some of them are blacke thin bearded; they make beards of the haire of beasts; and one of them offered a beard of their making to one of our sailers, for his that grew on his face, which because it was of a red colour, they judged to be none of his owne." But few of the women came under the observation of Brereton, and none of their children, if we may thus interpret his silence about them. Of the former he says: "Their women (such as we saw) which were but three in all, were but lowe of stature, their eie-browes, haire, apparell, and manner of wearing, like to the men, fat, and very well favoured, and much delighted in our compane; the men very dutifull towards them."
Of the manners and customs of the Indians, much that is interesting and authentic has come down to us from the writings of the early explorers, to show their characteristics and habits before the white settlers disturbed their life and robbed it of its picturesque features. It is stated that the Indians of the Vineyard lived "in several villages," and again "in severall Townes."2 Properly interpreted, this means that there was a village for each sachemship, and possibly smaller settlements at convenient points. The principal
1Essex Deeds, VIII, 106.
*Glorious Progress, 1647; comp. Records Com. United Col., II, 242.
4I
History of Martha's Vineyard
village in Nunnepog was on the shores of the Great Herring pond, near Mashacket, which name, as will be hereafter shown, has a special significance. In Takemmy, the settlement was on the Great Tisbury pond, while Chappaquiddick and Kuhtuhquetuet (Gay Head) each had its village. It is prob- able that smaller communities made abiding-places within the limits of the territorial authority of each petty sachem. In this way, I believe, we may infer that Wekwetuckauke (the lagoon), Sanchacantacket, Onkokemmaug (North Tis- bury), and Nashowakemmuck (Chilmark) were the locations of such subordinate villages. Of the character of these settle- ments it can be said that they had no permanency. Com- posed as they were of loosely constructed wigwams, they were easily transported from place to place, as the require- ments of the season demanded. In the summer they were doubtless picketed about the inlets of the coast, while in winter they were removed to the protection of the woods and hills from the icy blasts of the north. The circumscribed terri- tory, however, prevented extended migration, and within a small compass the various companies owning fealty to the local great men, moved from place to place, when the refuse heaps became too large or the game grew too wary.
Their dwellings were known as wigwams, a corruption of the Algonquian word "wekuwomut," meaning, in our lan- guage, a house.1 The younger Mayhew described these structures as "made with small poles like an arbor covered with mats, and their fire is in the midst, over which they leave a place for the smoak to go out at." 2 This was in 1650, and probably is a correct description of them as they were used be- fore the coming of the whites. The island Indians did not use skins for a covering like those on the mainland, as there were not any animals numerous enough to supply them for that purpose. The mats were woven from the common marsh flag, or flower-de-luce, and probably long, native grasses were added for binding.3 The name of Scrubby Neck, or a portion of it, in Algonquian, was Uppeanash-Konameset, meaning the "covering mat place," where the cat-tail flags grew in profusion, and were woven into coverings for their wigwams.
'Trumbull, English-Natick dictionary, 279. It is written weetuomet at times (El- iot, Bible, Isaiah: 40; 22), of which wetu is probably the third person singular indic- ative of a verb that means approximately "he makes his home."
2Light appearing, etc. (London, 1651), page 5.
3In a deed " mapsho grass that is suitable for matts" is mentioned (Dukes Deeds, IV, 45).
42
The Aboriginal Inhabitants
LANGUAGE OF THE VINEYARD INDIANS.
The language spoken by our Indians was a dialect of the great Algonquian tongue, and was the language of the Indians of Massachusetts, with slight differences, as testified to by all early students, but it is probable that those variations were largely due to the interpreters themselves. Experience May- hew, perhaps the greatest philologist in this language after Eliot, has left a brief statement of the Vineyard dialect, which is here quoted as the only authoritative one we have on the subject :
The Martha's Vineyard Indian Dialect and that of Natick according to which Mr. Eliot translated the Indian Bible, are so very much alike that without a very Critical observation you would not see the dif- ference ...... Indeed, the difference was something greater than it now is, before our Indians had the use of the Bible and other Books translated by Mr. Eliot, but since that most of the Little differences that were be- twixt them have been happily Lost and our Indians Speak but especially write much as those of Natick do. 1
My Grand Father in his time composed a large and Excellent Cate- chism for the Indians of this Island, agreeable unto their own Dialect; but not being printed, the original is, I think, utterly lost, and there only re- mains of it about forty pages in octavo, transcribed as I suppose by some Indian after his death.
I learnt the Indian Language by Rote as I did my Mother Tongue, and not by Studying the Rules of it as the Lattin Tongue is commonly learned, besides, as you know, I am no Gramarian. .I shall then ob- serve :
I. That all the articulate sounds used by the Indians in these Parts may be spelt with several Letters fewer than are used by the English; for I know of no word in the proper dialect of the Indians of the island but what may be very well written without any of these Consonants, viz; b. d. f. g. l. r. x. Indeed, some of them are frequently to be seen in our Indian books, but in words that are purely Indian, I think unnecessarily; in words derived from the English they are frequently needed.
2. That the Indian Vowels are the same with the English, save that the y. is never used with them as a vowel, and that o. is frequently pronounced through the Nose, much as one would pronounce it with the mouth close shut.
3. That Dipthongs or Duble sounds are of very frequent use with the Indian Language, as ae, au, ei, ee, eu, eau, oi, oo. Especially "00" dipthong is of most frequent use, there being often two of them together in the same word.
1When Judge Sewall visited the island in 1702, he was told by Mayhew and the Indian preacher Japhet that "tis hardly feesible to send any [ministers from the Vineyard] to the Eastward to convert the Indians, their Language is so different." (Diary, III, 397).
43
History of Martha's Vineyard
4. That Some Indian words have so many consonants sounded in one and the same sillible as render the word somewhat difficult to pronounce.
5. That In the Indian Language there are so few if any proper partciples that it is unnecessary to Reckon the Partciple as one Part of their Language. .
6. That the Indian Pronoun is not declined or varied except where it is used in composition with other words or parts of speech.
7. That the variation of Nouns is not by Genders or Cases, as in some other Languages, but in other accounts as the Numbers singular and Plural; Their Nature, whether Animate or inanimate; Their Magni- tude, Great or small; Their being in present existence, or being past and gon ..
8. That the Noun Adjective or adnown, is declined as well as the nown substantive to which it relateth.
9. Respecting Verbs, several things may be observed; (1) there is no compleat and intire word for the verb substantive, as am, art, is, etc ..... (2) Other verbs there be both active and passive. ... (3) The most Indian verbs are personal, yet there are some impersonals .... (4) Indian verbs have both modes and tenses belonging to them .... (5) Verbes in Indian are both positive and negative ...... Generally, concerning Indian verbs, I may say; That in the various conjugations or different formation of them, a very great part of the Indian Language does consist.
IO. Indian Adverbs are words attending on their verbs, and shew the Quallity of the actions signified by them, also their character, extention, duration, cessation, etc., such as in English end in -ly, comonly in Indian end in -e.
II. I may further observe that Indian words, especially the names of persons and things, are generally very significant, by far more so than those of the English, as the Hebrew also are; For with them, the way used was to call every place, Person, and thing by a name taken from some thing remarkable in it or attending of it. Thus the place where I dwell is in Indian called Nempanicklickanuk, in English, The place of Thunderclefts, because there was once a Tree there split in pieces by the Thunnder.
12. I shall observe to you that the Indian Language delighteth great- ly in compounding of words; in which way they frequently make one word out of several, and then one such word will comprehend what in English is four, five, or six; but as by this means they often have much in a little room, so it is also true that this sometimes makes their words very long, the rules of their Language calling for it ........ I will give you an Instance of one: Nup-pahk-top-pe-pe-nau-wut-chut-chuh-quo-ka-neh- cha-nehcha-e-nin-na-mun-nonok. Here are fifty-eight letters and twen- ty two syllables, if I do not miss count them. The English of this very long word is: Our well skilled Looking glass makers ..
I shall at present ad no more concerning the Indian Language, save in general that I think it good and regular. That it may seem otherwise to some is, as I judge, because ther is not yet a good Gramer made for it, nor are the Rules of it fully understood. .. Nor are the Indians yet
44
The Aboriginal Inhabitants
so much beholden to other Nations, for words borrowed of them as the English are, or otherwise would be much poorer than now they be.1
In order that those interested in a further investigation of the language may have a concrete example of it as it looks when written out, the following document, taken from the land records, dated 1669, is here reproduced for diligent exam- ination and study. There are many such deeds recorded in the original Algonquian, mostly by the Rev. Experience May- hew, and they must remain a valuable contemporary evi- dence of the language of our island Indians as translated into English symbols by the diligent and painstaking mission- aries.
DUKES DEEDS, VI. 412.
Wachtook wame Kenao woskatomppaog Tayu ohguompbi Nen In- diane Sachim Wompbamaog yug uessooog muttumsisog mache Chup- bohtoogahkuh Taogkashkupbeh Neatkittammuk guanaimmuh Wutche Nen Wompbamag Noowekont ammooomk Nohmaktamckit aspoowesit Ales Setum wutchubpaoom ne ankuhque Rishkag Nessinnehehak Wonn napanna Radtoo Noh Nohtoe Ussoowegoo Keziah Setum neankuhque kishkug Wuttisham piog Nupomppunna Rudtoo Neankuhque kishkag nessee Tannkkanmoouk Neunnukkuhque kishkaiEnsompe quehpee hum- miyu Pache Deagit oo bonus Watiskin Nen Wompamog Nissingu Minnuh- ki wussombpohtaunnau newutche mache Nutohup bmuummauonnooyu Tahshin ahkuhen Ales Setum Wona Keziah Setum (Wuttonnessuh Thomas Setum) wuttinnau nissinwona wame Uppemeteuukkunooout mikene asah Wattauwatuonkkanoout Wounnahtoae ahtauhiitich Michime yu Tahsin ahsk Newutche mattape Nupbappennoowehtoooun asahowan kannootammanshittogknoussontummoonk matpe wuttiss wnnau See- wunaahteaonk kune ahtauhuttit yu Tahehin ahkuh Ales Setum Keziah Setum Wona wame Ummeehummonk yo ahk March 14 Daye 1669.
Nen Wompammag Indian Sontum Numminnehkehtaum yu deede
Nen bonid Wauwaenin. noo X mark.
(Seal) 00 X mark
Onen Isack Omppanne Wannaenin. noo X mark.
When he wished to express himself, however, in English, the native was not so verbose, as witness the following deed, written directly to the point :-
1 Extracts from a letter of Experience Mayhew to Judge Paul Dudley, dated Chilmark, March the 20th, 1721-2.
"Josiah Cotton, in his vocabulary, compiled about 1727, says that he 'had some of his father's (Rev. John Cotton's) words, and he learned Indian at Nope, and these Indians (Plymouth) don't understand every word of them Indians.'"
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History of Martha's Vineyard
DUKES DEEDS, I, 18.
Awannamuck and Kesuckquish of Unnunpauque we have bargained: I give him my land at Pahaukanit from the pointward to the headward, twenty-two rodde and half in length, and all toward the shore hee hath. I, Awannamuck, say so.
This is my hand. n .- Awannamuck hath five shillings .- I, Kesuckquish, say it .-
Wittinesses, WAMPAMUCK S.
PATTUCKQUITTAALICK G. MANITTOCKET O.
Indeed, Brereton found them in 1602 speaking some English, if we may credit his roseate view of all the things he saw. He said:
They pronounce our language with great facilitie; for one of them one day sitting by me, upon occasion I spake smiling these words: "How . now (sirha) are you so fancie with my Tobacco; which words (without any further repetition) he suddenly spake so plaine and distinctly, as if he had beene a long scholar in the language.1
THEIR MYTHS AND TRADITIONS.
Like all primitive races, the savages of North America had their myths and traditions, as respected their origin, the development of their surroundings, and the supernatural being who ruled all things for good or evil. Each division of these aboriginal peoples treasured the stories of the wonderful do- ings of this mighty spirit, to which a local coloring was given to invest the tales with human interest. These traditions had one common origin, and are closely correlated to the folk-lore of other races in distant lands and of widely sepa- rated stock. In the Amerindian lore, the all-powerful being who presided over their destinies was called Mich-a-bo, the Great White Hare, and from the remotest wilds of the north- west to the Atlantic, and from the southern savannahs of Georgia to the cheerless shores of Hudson's Bay, the Algon- quians were never tired of circling around the winter fire in their wigwams and hearing the story of Michabo, whom all the tribes, with great unanimity, regarded as their common an- cestor. He was recognized by them as the maker of all things on the earth, and had his abode in the heavens. He was the founder of the medicine hunt, in which, after appropriate ceremonies, the Indian sleeps and Michabo appears to him in his dreams and tells him how and where to find his game.
"" True Relation," II.
46
The Aboriginal Inhabitants
He devised all their implements, nets, weapons, and charms, and handed them down to his children for use in peace and war. In the autumn, the "moon of the falling leaf," he filled his great pipe and enjoyed a mighty smoke, ere he composed himself for the winter, and the clouds of balmy odor float over the hills and dales, filling the air with the haze of the Indian summer. Michabo was, in short, their omniscient, omnipotent one, who ruled the destinies of their world, and who entered into the smallest concerns of their daily lives. "Indeed," says the old missionary Brebœuf, in a tone of dis- gust with such puerilities, "without his aid, they think they could not boil a pot."
"It is passing strange," says Brinton, in his Myths of the New World "that such an insignificant creature as the rabbit should have received this apotheosis." In its various forms we may see the analogue of the "Bre'r Rabbit" stories of the negroes, which are constructed upon the same founda- tion. It is not a simple animal worship, although the name Michabo, in all its different local forms, lends emphasis to that hypothesis, as it is a compound word, which has been translated by the Indians themselves as meaning "great," and "hare" or "rabbit." Brinton, however, shows that these words had a deeper significance, an esthetic sense, which admits of a different interpretation, and "discloses at once the origin and the secret meaning of the whole story of Michabo, in the light of which it appears no longer the incoherent fable of sava- ges, but the true myth, instinct with nature, pregnant with matter nowise inferior to those which fascinate in the chants of Rig Veda, or the weird pages of Edda."
The word "michi" (mashi, machi, etc.) signifies "great," and "abos" a hare, while the initial syllable of this last word, meaning "white," from which is derived their words for the east, the dawn, the light, and the morning. "Beyond a doubt" says Brinton, "this is the compound in the name Michabo, which therefore means the Great Light, the Spirit of Light, of the dawn or the east, and in the literal sense of the word, the Great White One, as indeed he has sometimes been called." Max Muller says that "the whole theogony and philosophy of the ancient world centred in the dawn, the mother of the bright gods, of the sun in his various aspects, of the morn, the day, the spring, herself the brilliant image and visage of immortality." In effect, the folk lore of the Algonquians, of which the Martha's Vineyard tribe had their share, was but
47
History of Martha's Vineyard
the crude form of a divine worship veiled under a local garb of fanciful coloring. In the few myths which have come down to us from the tribe which inhabited this island, we shall see the story of Michabo credited to Maushope (pro- nounced in three syllables), and his wonderful works here are but variants of the same tales told by other tribes on the Great Lakes, the shores of Nova Scotia, and the swamps of the Carolinas.
The following legend relates to the beginnings of the aboriginal life upon the Vineyard :-
"The first Indian who came to the Vineyard was brought thither with his dog on a cake of ice.1 When he came to Gay Head he found a very large man, whose name was Mo- shup. He had a wife and five children, four sons and one daughter, and lived in the den. He used to catch whales, and then pluck up trees, and make a fire and roast them. The coals of the trees and the bones of the whales are now to be seen. After he was tired of staying here, he told his chil- dren to go and play ball on the beach that joined Nomans Land to Gay Head. He then made a mark with his toe across the beach, at each end, and so deep that the water followed and cut away the beach; so that his children were in fear of drowning. They took their sister up and held her out of the water. He told them to act as if they were going to kill whales, and they were all turned into killers (a fish so-called). The sister was dressed in large stripes; he gave them a strict charge always to be kind to her. His wife mourned the loss of her children so exceedingly that he threw her away. She fell upon Seconnett, near the rocks, where she lived some time, exacting contribution of all who passed by water. After awhile she was changed into a stone. The entire shape remained for many years, but after the English came some of them broke off the head, arms, &c, but the most of the body remains unto this day. Moshup went away nobody knows whither. He had no conversation with the Indians, but was kind to them, by sending whales &c ashore to them to eat. But after they grew thick around him he left them."2
"This is common to many legends of the origin of different tribes. As an exam- ple of its widespread character, the Sarcee Indians of Alberta, Canada, have the same story of the first of their people floating from the north on a cake of ice .- Journal of American Folk Lore, 1904, page 180.)
2 I Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I, 139.
48
The Aboriginal Inhabitants
This tale was told over a hundred years ago to Benjamin Bassett, of Chilmark, by Thomas Cooper of Gay Head, who was born about 1725, and who learned it from his grandmother who, to use his own expression, "was a stout girl when the Eng- lish came to the island." This legend is a fragmentary out- line of the national myth of the Algonquians, Moshup being an obvious dialectic or Anglicized corruption of Michabo, while the deeds of this great being partake of local coloring, as was the character of all their tales about his wonderful powers. The four sons are the four cardinal points, and the daughter the Light of the Dawn, her "stripes" representing the rays of the sun. Among other tribes this legend would vary with their surroundings; at the Great Lakes, those bod- ies of water were his beaver dams; cataracts were torn up by his hands, and large depressions on the surface of the earth were his footsteps, which were eight leagues in length; and such like stories, told by the powwaws to their listeners made up the miracles of Michabo, the Great White One.
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