USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Winthrop > The history of Winthrop, Massachusetts ; 1630-1952 > Part 4
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Of the Islands in the harbor, Des Monts speaks particularly, saying that they were occupied by Indian villages surrounded by fields of corn, beans, squash (pumpkins) and tobacco. Great
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fleets of canoes swarmed out of the various inlets of the harbor to examine the little ship of Des Monts (it weighed but 17 tons) and the French admiral, awed by the display of Indian might, determined that fair and rich as Boston was, it could not be settled in face of the fierce Indians. So he turned north, after visiting Cape Cod, and settled the French in Acadia. Thus In- dian curiosity over a white man's ship prevented the French taking possession of New England.
Captain John Smith, the great English adventurer, when he visited New England in 1614-15, had this to report to his backers of Boston and vicinity. "The country ... is the paradise of these parts, the sea coast as you pass shows you all along large corn fields and great troops of well proportioned people. We found the people in these parts kindly but in their fury no less valiant."
A year later, a French trading vessel, probably very small by modern standards, anchored off Lovell's Island. A war party attacked the ship and killed the crew with the exception of four men who were taken as wild animals might be captured. Under careful guard, the unlucky Frenchmen were taken from one In- dian village to the next and exhibited to the curiosity of the savages. Undoubtedly, the squaws were not kind. The fate of the slaves is not known; likely enough it was not merciful for the four were seized in retaliation for a raid by a Captain Hunt in 1614. Hunt seized about twenty Indians and took them to Spain where he sold them into slavery.
Had John Winthrop, and the Pilgrims at Plymouth for that matter, attempted settlement during these years, the fate of the two first towns might have been very different. It seems un- likely the proud and able Indians of eastern Massachusetts would have allowed white men to seize their land and level their forests. However, about 1617 or 1618, a fierce pestilence swept through the Indian villages. Possibly it was smallpox ; probably it was a European disease which was communicated to the Indians by some fisherman or sailor. In any event, the Indians were very nearly wiped out of existence; only an impotent handful remaining.
And these few suffered further destruction at the hands of a very fierce tribe from Maine, the Tarrantines. The Tarran- tines and the Massachusetts tribe were traditional enemies. For many years, the Massachusetts had been strong enough not only to hold the Maine Indians at arm's length but also had inflicted serious harm by almost annual raids. When the Tarrantines learned of the pestilence, they swept down and completed the ruin of the once very powerful Indians, particularly those along the coast of Massachusetts. Probably not three hundred fighting
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men were left of all the Massachusetts tribe in 1620 when the Pilgrims came and in 1630 when the Puritans arrived.
Winthrop was certainly one of the choice items of Indian real estate but there is no knowledge of any particular activity here. In fact, there never was any Indian trouble within the limits of the town.
Certainly Indians lived here and probably in the Summer months, this was an Indian summer resort for members of friendly Indian groups. Indians commonly established two resi- dences. During the warm months, they resorted to the sea shore, where they lived on fish and clams and lobsters. In the Fall, they returned inland, harvested the crops which they had planted in the Spring and then settled down deep in the forest to live the cold, starving months away with the help of wild game. When Spring returned, they planted their gardens and left once more for the seashore. Probably Winthrop was one such resort although there were unquestionably Indians in permanent resi- dence here-not very many, because there was not sufficient forest area to support a large village.
The Winthrop Indians at about the time of the pestilence were under the chieftainship of Nanepashemet (variously spelled). He probably ruled from a tribal village in Lynn or Saugus but after the Tarrantine attack had completed what the pestilence began, this chief moved his headquarters inland and erected a forified village on the banks of the Mystic just north and west of the present Medford Square. This was tidal area then, for the lock at the Square had not been built-of course. Here the chief was attacked by raiding Tarrantines in 1619, and although he and his men fought valiantly, they were all slaughtered.
He left a widow, the Squaw Sachem, and three sons; Nono- haquaham, Montowampate, and Winepoykin, or as they were better known to the English, Sagamore John, Sagamore James, and Sagamore George, respectively. The widow more or less retired to Salem and left the government of the stricken tribe to her three sons. Winthrop's Indians came at first under the jurisdiction of John, who was a kindly man and admired the English. He wore English clothes and was apparently converted to Christianity.
James, who took over after John's death, was much less friendly to the settlers. It is reported, although no confirma- tion can be found, that James led an attack upon Samuel Maver- ick's farm in Chelsea. He was the first settler in Winnisimmet, preceding the Puritans. Maverick was a stalwart soul and he repulsed the Indians so fiercely that there was never again any trouble with the Indians in this area. That may be the reason
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for no Indian trouble here but it would be more pleasing to be- lieve another explanation. This one runs that the Indians here were attacked by an epidemic of smallpox in 1633. The victims were abandoned by their own people but the white settlers moved in and nursed the Indians at the risk of their own lives. Despite stories to the contrary, Indians do feel gratitude and did exhibit that virture. Hence this may explain why there never was any trouble here. Of course, Boston was too big for an Indian at- tack and Winthrop was under the shadow of the big town. Also, there were very few Indians left hereabouts when serious Indian troubles came.
Anyhow, James did not like the English at all, feeling that they would complete the ruin of the Massachusetts tribe that the pestilence and the Tarrantines had so well begun. His ani- mosity failed to amount to anything, however, for he died very soon. The third brother, Sagamore George, then took over the reins of Indian government and he at once began to make trouble for the settlers at Rumney Marsh and Pullin Point. Being com- paratively well educated, he substituted the courts for the toma- hawk and for some ten years he kept the settlers in an anxious state. George contended the settlers held their land by illegal title. He brought suit after suit in the inferior courts and filed petition after petition with the General Court. These were all eventually dismissed but at the time the legality of the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony itself was in question in Parliament.
Undoubtedly, the English kings had been careless with their gifts and charters-but then no one had the least idea of the ex- tent of America. After all, gifts and charters were just words on paper concerned with a miserable wilderness three thousand miles overseas. So the settlers at Pullin Point, just in case, gave in to Sagamore George for the sake of security and purchased their lands from him, for trifles, on June 4, 1685. Soon after- wards, the suit was dismissed in the British courts and the valid- ity of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter affirmed. So the Pullin Point settlers once again received new titles to their lands from the colony and so rested secure.
There is eyebrow lifting over the small payments the whites gave the Indians for the lands. However, there is no evidence that the settlers dealt unfairly, in this particular at least, with the Indians. The Indians were satisfied with what they accepted ; they had to be, for under the General Court all men, red or white, were treated with impartiality. Any Indian could recover property unjustly held by a settler.
It must be remembered too that the Indians were the object of official as well as much individual and private concern and
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loving-kindness, to use the old word now unhappily out of use. Indeed, it was one of the objects of Boston to Christianize the Indians. The bringing of the Gospel to the Indians was as earn- estly projected as were the missionary labors of the Catholic Church in Spanish dominions to the south. Methods differed be- tween Mexico and Boston but zeal was the same. It was duty to bring the word of God to the heathen and the Puritans did what they could.
However, the Boston Indians were different in character from the limp and indifferent Indians of Mexico and Peru. The New England savage was a brave and stalwart person who would rather fight than do most anything else. They were stub- born and conversion proceeded slowly indeed. Aside from the character of the Indians, the Puritans faced an impossible task.
Just for an example, Christianization meant adopting the white man's ethics. This meant work, hard work and regular work, for idleness was a very grave Puritan sin. The Indian would labor long and hard when hunting or fishing. Then he rested, between feasts and games and dances. Now and then he took time off to enjoy a little fighting with an enemy tribe. It was their way of life. Regular employment was utterly abhor- rent. The Indian, once he was crushed into impotence, was finally allowed more or less officially to go his own way.
The fear and hatred of the Indian still persisted, however, and in King Philip's war-the final attempt of the In- dians to push the whites back into the sea-it was thought ad- visable to herd the Indians together in a safe place so there would be no depredations, however friendly and spiritless the Boston Indians professed to be. So, in November of 1675, the General Court established what amounted to a concentration camp on Deer Island. Here several hundred Indians were un- ceremoniously confined. Neither food nor fuel was provided .; they had to make the most of what the little Island offered. For two years the Indians were thus kept out of harm's way, at the cost of their great privation and downright suffering. It is not a pleasant picture.
During the years of joint habitation by whites and reds, no settler ever thought of making any record or preserving any tools and materials of the Indian. They were merely tolerated and soon were liquidated-those left alive joining larger villages to the north and west. Then for many years the Indians were completely forgotten. During the past 100 years, particularly during the past two decades, under the inspiration of Sidvin Frank Tucker, custodian of the Town Museum in the Public Library, some amount of Indian relics have been collected and preserved.
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One of the outstanding "finds" was made in 1888 when, under the direction of Channing Howard, town engineer for many years, Indian graves were uncovered while grading was in progress for the construction of the Boston, Revere-Beach and Lynn Railroad. The site was at about the platform of the Center Station, where today Jefferson Street runs into Woodside Avenue. Harry Whorf, then a boy recently brought to Winthrop by his family, was intensely interested, and joined Mr. Howard in photographing the graves' contents. These consisted of some ten graves, each about three feet deep. In addition to the skele- tons of men, women and children, some pottery, arrowheads, stone tools and the like were preserved. One Indian did not die in his bed for an arrowhead was found imbedded in his spine. The materials were turned over to the Peabody Museum at Har- vard for preservation.
Sometime later another skeleton was found when the foun- dation was dug for the Edward B. Newton School on Pauline Street. Of interest is also the fact that an old deed gives as one boundary the old Indian fort, which was about where the present Baptist Church is located. This was not a fort at all in the modern sense; probably being nothing more than a wooden pali- sade with, perhaps, a ditch on the outside.
Just how the Indians in Winthrop lived must be surmised since there is no record. However, it is probable that they lived like the other Massachusetts Indians in nearby areas.
In appearance, the Massachusetts Indians were of "decent aspect." They were between five and six feet in height and had the characteristic aquiline features. The bust of an Indian used by the National Shawmut Bank of Boston is considered a reasonably good, although idealized, portrait of a local Indian. The Indian women were hardly handsome, by European stand- ards, but "reasonably attractive." Some of the settlers, following the example of the earlier seasonal fishermen from Europe, en- tered into relations with these squaws and described them as being "handsome and well-formed, well-mannered and con- tinent."
Contrary to popular opinion, these Eastern forest Indians did not wear feathers to any extent-certainly not like the war bonnets of the Sioux. Boys wore their hair long until manhood and then cut it off variously, leaving the scalp-lock. It is likely that the shape of the "hair cut" was something of a tribal badge so that one scalp could be distinguished from another.
Both men and women were fond of decorating themselves in various ways. In the green of the Summer forest and the black and white of Winter, color was highly prized by these primitives. While some of the warriors chose to burn patterns
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of scars on face and abdomen by means of irons heated in a fire, most decoration consisted of the application of various pigments, usually native earths. Much of this painting was done on the face. Men excelled at this art and any really serious decoration was their masculine prerogative. The various reds and blacks and yellows, as well as the patterns used, had religious, military and social significance. Black was reserved for war while red was more or less social. Whites, blues and yellows were also used. Women used black for mourning alone. To make themselves at- tractive, they commonly used blue upon their cheeks, instead of the rouge our women use.
Clothing ran through a wide latitude; it was chiefly a mat- ter of the weather. In Summer, and indoors when the huts were warm enough, commonly nothing at all was worn. Usually, how- ever, both men and women seem to have considered a sort of breech garment as the foundation of their apparel. These "pants" were made of various animal materials, such as buck- skin, tanned until soft and pliable. Very frequently, the skins of various wild animals were employed, either shaved of fur or with the fur left in place. When going into the woods, as hunt- ing, the men wore leather leggings to protect their shins. These, as most tanned garments, were often painted with more or less geometrical designs in blue and red and yellow.
On their feet, men and women usually wore the Indian moccasin. The style of these varied from tribe to tribe. In warm weather the moccasins were low-cut but in the Winter they were higher, something like the snow-pacs familiar in Canada today. When snows were deep, leggings were worn by both men and women, often being held in place by leather straps which fastened upwards to the bottom of the breech clout like garters. This strapping was peculiarly a woman's attire, however; men usually scorning such limitation of freedom of action.
We hear much about buckskin shirts. Apparently the In- dians did not use them until they came to copy the shirts worn by the settlers. Instead, when the weather was cold, the Indians simply draped the upper part of their bodies in a robe-like wrap made of fur. These robes hung about the shoulders and were belted in at the waist. For outdoor wear, they were short enough to reach to the knees but indoors the robes were long enough to actually trail upon the ground. Racoon skins were highly prized for these robes and wild-cat was also popular. Only wealthy Indians could afford such garments.
Usually the robes were of deerskin or moosehide, tanned to a remarkable whiteness which afforded a good background for the ornamental Indian paintings. The robes were not stitched on the right side at all and only a little on the left. Thus the right
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arm was usually bare and the left arm could be bared quickly when need for action arose. In coldest weather, robe was piled on robe. The Indians, inured to even New England weather from birth, were doubtless comfortable enough-for the settlers often remarked that they would appear nearly naked in chilly weather and yet be thoroughly warm.
Probably the Indians were like birds and animals; they obtained body heat by eating heavily in cold weather and more lightly when the season was warm. However, the Indians, like all wild creatures, seldom stinted themselves. They ate what there was when it was available. Then they would sleep until hunger woke them again. Then they would gorge themselves and sleep. This process continued until war or the need for ob- taining more food spurred them into activity.
The settlers often referred to the Indians as dirty. This was only the careless use of a derogatory adjective, for the In- dians as a whole were cleaner about their person than the aver- age settler. They bathed freely and frequently and brushed their teeth mornings with a "brush" made by chewing the end of a twig until it was frayed. The men did not shave. Indian men do not have heavy beards, like white men, to begin with, and what hairs did sprout were carefully, if painfully, plucked out one by one. The hair of the heads of women (men wore just a scalp lock) was worn long and was naturally black, thick and coarse in texture. This hair was frequently dressed with animal fat to make it glossy like the plumage of a crow. It was odorif- erous.
Contrary to the usual idea, these Massachusetts Indians did not live in tepees or wigwams. Instead they lived in very unro- mantic huts. These were of two kinds-the long house and the round house.
The long house, usually the Winter abode, was rectangular in shape and was about 25 feet in width and as long as was necessary to accommodate the several families who built it and shared it. Some may have been as much as 100 feet in length. The idea of these community dwellings was that since each family maintained a fire, the long house, for all its flimsy con- struction, was usually fairly warm. These were the original American tenements, although horizontal instead of vertical. Sanitary arrangements were very simple; the whole outdoors was just outside.
These long houses were built by setting up parallel walls of frame-work of poles lashed together. The roof united the walls and held them firmly in place, being built of limber poles bent in an arch so as to give a round arch form to the cross- section. The framework was covered not with skins but with
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sheets of bark. Birch was the best, since it peeled off easily in great sheets. The bark, cut into convienient squares, was dried under pressure and then sewn to the framework with leather thongs.
Round houses, which were for Summer use as a rule, were much smaller, since they were usually used by individual families or, at the most, two or three closely related families, such as married children come home to live with the old folks. These round houses were hemispherical, being made by setting a circle of limber poles in the ground and then bending them inwards to the center where they were lashed together. Bark was used to sheathe them often although mats woven of marsh grass and reeds were also employed. These same mats were sometimes used indoors in Winter as floor coverings at the point where people sat or slept-usually the same place.
The round houses had two doors; usually one to the south- west and one to the north-east. Thus in warm weather, the pre- vailing south-west wind could blow right through. When the weather was foul, the doors could be closed. Long houses usually had as many doors as there were families living inside-and each family used its own door. These doors were just holes in the walls which were covered by a curtain of skins.
In the Summer, the Indians kept all fires outside, for they were used only for cooking. In the Winters, in the long houses, each family had its own fire. A hearth was made by building a low platform of stones in the middle of the family's space. There was a hole directly above in the roof and some of the smoke found its way out-eventually. The rising current of warm air effectually kept rain and snow out of these holes.
The government of the Indians was very simple and very strict-violation of the code was punished by fines of furs or by the imposition of servitude to the injured person for a fitting period of time. Theft was considered a very grave matter-if it was from a member of the village. Theft from an enemy was considered an admirable matter. Murder was not regarded too seriously and could be paid off by fines as a rule, if members of the victim's family did not take immediate and private revenge. One murder was considered wiped out by another.
As a rule the village, or tribe, was ruled by two great chiefs, with subordinate chiefs in other villages subject to the largest one. One of these chiefs was a sort of political leader, a sachem. He was the arbiter of most things and held stern rein over all his subjects. Commonly, this chief held office by right of heredity, although, in case of a vacancy, a political leader could be chosen out of the ranks-the choice usually being made on the basis of demonstrated wisdom and ability.
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The other chief was the war leader. He was chosen not by heredity but by his demonstrated ability. He must be a skilled warrior, of course, and have plenty of scalps to attest his prowess. More important, however, was his skill in organizing and leading a raid, plus his ability to plan and maintain the de- fenses of the villages. Sometimes these two types of chiefs were united in a single person but usually the heredity, political chief was not considered able to lead the warriors.
Under the chieftains were the elders of the tribe, who sat as a sort of council. With them sat the warriors, who could take part in councils. It is not clear how voting upon a decision was made, if at all. However, every least detail of the community life was determined in these councils with the political chief or sub-chief, in the case of a subsidiary village, as a sort of moder- ator. All Indians were passionately devoted to oratory and the council would sit for hours listening with delight as various members expounded their opinions in prose of inordinate length and ornamentation. A gift for oratory was priceless to the In- dians and their great orators were, commonly, their great leaders; the gift of fluency and articulateness was the passport to advancement within the tribes.
To the settlers, the Indians were savage heathens. Never- theless, the Indians did have a very real and a very serious re- ligion which they lived devoutly. Indeed, few white men were ever so conscious of the other world as were the Indians. Of course, the Indians had no formal theology or church. They all believed, instinctively, in a Supreme Being-who was for all His indefiniteness, a very real influence in their lives. He was vague and far away but was the ultimate arbiter of their future in the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Just as real, was the Indians' sense of evil. This was not personified as Satan, for the Indians did not employ anthropo- morphism in their religion.
Both these forces, the first for good, and the other for bad, were operating for the Indian through minor units. For the sake of simplicity and understanding these forces were associated with the forces of Nature and with wild animals. Each Indian had a guardian spirit who was always with him and was ready to help him in peril or in case of real need. At the same time, evil influences were constantly waiting to attack him, to lay traps for his unwary feet. To gain the support of the good, the Indian commonly resorted to prayer, not necessarily formal in the Christian sense. Also, since there is alway a good deal of magic entering into a primitive religion, they resorted to carry- ing amulets of one kind or another. There should be no mistaking the religious personality of the Indian, however. Voices spoke
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to him in the winds, in the forest and on the water. The behavior of birds and of animals was always indicative of warning or, equally so, advance word of good fortune.
And according to their lights, the Indians observed their religion faithfully. It was not a one-day a week religion at all; it was constant all his life. Certainly he burned, murdered and tortured his enemies; that was the Indian way. But he was honorable, decent, kindly and even heroic-to members of his family and of his tribe. Beyond that pale, he was at eternal war and in war everything went-if he chose to behave as a veritable demon against his enemies, that was laudable. If he failed and was captured, he underwent his tortures stoically-for he would have done precisely the same to his prisoners, if the case was reversed.
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