Tisquantum (c. 1585-1622), better known as Squanto, was the Wampanoag Indian who taught the Pilgrim Fathers how to live in North America. He is easily one of the most famous Natives of US history, up there with Pocahontas, thanks to his part in the Story of Thanksgiving, a White American foundation myth.
Pilgrim governor William Bradford:
“Squanto continued with them, and was their interpreter, and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities [maple syrup, deer, pumpkins, eels, etc], and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died.”
He also tried to teach them how to bathe – the Pilgrims smelled – but with little success.
The Three Sisters: He taught them how to plant maize, squash and beans. That came from Mexico by way of the Mound Builders. He also taught them to use fish as fertilizer – a trick he learned when he was in Europe. Which just shows how little the Pilgrims knew about farming.
Peace: He helped to make peace between the Pilgrims and neighbouring Native Americans, a peace that the First Thanksgiving celebrated in 1621 and which held more or less till 1675.
Amazingly:
- Squanto spoke fluent English, having lived in England for several years. He was a man of both worlds, Native and White.
- A plague had wiped out 90% of Native Americans within 65 km of the New England coast between 1616 and 1619, allowing Whites to get a toehold (previous attempted colonies, even by Champlain, had been driven out).
The plague struck just when Tisquantum was in England. And he was in England only because Catholic priests saved him from being sold into slavery in Spain in 1614 by an English fisherman. By 1610 the English were regularly fishing off the coast of New England in the summers.
In 1619, when Tisquantum at long last arrived back at his home town of Patuxet after five years, no one was there. Nearly everyone he knew had died of the plague. Only later did he meet the few who had lived to flee inland.
In 1620, a year later, a ship arrived at Patuxet from England: the Mayflower. On Christmas Day the Pilgrims started to build their first house – right in his old town of Patuxet, which they called Plymouth.
In 1621 in March Tisquantum appeared. He had been sent by Massasoit, head of the Wampanoag confederacy, to make an alliance. Massasoit was not sure where Tisquantum’s loyalties lay – with the Wampanoags or with the English. He was right to be suspicious: Tisquantum later tried (but failed) to use the Pilgrims to overthrow him.
In 1622 Tisquantum “fell sick of an Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose”, according to Bradford. A few days later he was dead, having asked for prayers “that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven”, a god widely seen as a potent deity because of the plague.
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Thanksgiving
- Wampanoags
- Pilgrim Fathers
- Mound Builders
- Pocahontas
- maize
- North America: a brief history
536
Smh, nothing but death and disease wherever these folk go…
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@ Abagond
Under “See also,” since you don’t have a post yet on the Mound Builders, maybe underneath that you could put the links to your posts on Cahokia and the Natchez?
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@ Solitaire.
Thanks.
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