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Unit Three:
Masconomo: Sachem of the Agawam Tribe
We are Wampanoags, People of the Breaking Day. Nippa’uus, the Sun,
on his journey through the sky, warms us first a he rises over the rim of the sea.
At his birth each new morning we say, “Thank you, Nippa’uus, for
returning to us with your warmth and light and beauty.”
(from People of the Breaking Day by Marcia Sewall)
Background
The Agawam tribe lived in an area from the Merrimac River (equivalent to today’s New Hampshire border) to Salem, Massachusetts. They were one of three (3) sub-tribes of the Wampanoag Indians on the North Shore. The Agawam Sagamore, Sachem, or Chief is historically known as “Masconomo.” A seaman who touched Cape Ann in 1602 observed “a people of tall stature, broad and grym visaged, their eye browes paynted white” and wore long black hair. Masconomo was known for his friendliness with Europeans. It was he who, shortly after meeting with John Winthrop (first Governor of Massachusetts) aboard the ship Arbella in 1630, agreed to a treaty with the English. The Arbella is believed to have sailed into Manchester harbor (called “Jeffrey’s Creek” until 1645), and sent John Winthrop and his party ashore to meet Sachem Masconomo, either at Lee Island at Smith’s Point or across the harbor at Norton’s Point. Further inland would not have been possible due to the very shallow, tidal harbor.
The Agawams were a mobile, or nomadic people, settling inland during the winter months and moving to the shores of the lakes, ponds, oceans and estuaries during the warmer months. Therefore, there were no permanent Indian residents in Manchester. Ipswich was the cold weather home for the Agawams, and Manchester was one of many coastal areas visited in the warm weather for hunting and fishing. Legend has it that the Indians came here to pick wild strawberries and to catch shellfish. This explains the scarcity of Indian relics.
Note: (Manchester of the past was geographically different than today—the harbor and downtown were marshland and estuary. It has been filled-in off and on during the last 200 years. In fact, 10,000 years ago before the last ice age receded, the coastline was c.90 miles farther into the ocean, connecting to Nantucket and Martha’s Vinyard, hence the logic of the Indian settlement there.)
Relations between the local Indians and the settlers of Manchester were relatively peaceful. By 1617 European diseases nearly wiped out the Agawams (300 fighting men survived from 30,000). With only a handful of followers remaining, and suffering from continual raids by the aggressive Tarratine Tribe of Maine, Sachem Masconomo signed a treaty with the English in 1644. In return, the Agawams expected and received (for a while) protection from their foes—both Indian and European. By 1658 Masconomo sold his Tribe’s lands to the settlers in Ipswich and Manchester, most likely in part because of the dwindling number Agawams.
Eventually, differing religious, trade, and ownership beliefs caused a friction between all Indians and Europeans, resulting in a hatred erupting into violence. Although Manchester was free from Indian attack, its men did rally to help other communities when there was need. In the end, even
Sachem Masconomo fared badly at the hands of the “White Man.” When he died in 1658, it was recorded he was “poor, disheartened and friendless, and a ward of the state.” Masconomo was buried on what is now known as “Sagamore Hill” in Hamilton. By 1730, a century after the Englishman John Winthrop arrived in the New World, the Agawam Indians were all but extinct.
Native American sites in Manchester
We really do not know very much about the Agawams who visited Manchester. However, partial evidence does exist of where the Indians lived and used the land here. Some stories or legends told by the townspeople from generation to generation have survived. In the early 1940’s, Grace Prest wrote down and shared the stories she learned from her grandfather, John Lee, who lived from 1813-1879. She wrote:
Indian shell heaps were found along the shore of “Day’s Creek”.
Nearby “Neck Fields” (now Old Neck Road area), and the further
inland “Plain Fields” (now known as “The Plains” at the end of
Old Essex Road), were the places where Indians raised their corn,
beans, pumpkins, tobacco and other crops using fish for fertilizer.
(The soil in these sections of town are similar and easy to cultivate.)
In 1844 Miss Prest’s uncle, then a young boy, was taken by his grandfather to see a family of Indians living in the hollow at the junction of Sea Street and Old Neck Road.
Over the years, three Indian mounds have been discovered:
Large quantities of bones were found in an area south of the Congregational Meeting House overlooking the inner harbor. This mound was 150feet in diameter and 8 feet above the adjoining marsh.
One was found when land was prepared for Union Cemetery off School Street. There were many places where the earth was burnt by fires indicating this was where an Indian settlement had been located.
And the third was discovered in what was then a field across from the Lee house on School Street near Bell Court . Four entire skeletons were buried - 3 adults and 1 youth.
Native American influences
Because relations between the Agawams and the settlers of Manchester were peaceful, it is assumed that there was an exchange of information and customs. The Indians were a valuable resource of survival techniques in this “foreign” land of the “New World.” Without the Indians’ assistance, there is little doubt that many European lives would have been lost to starvation. The Indians taught the early settlers about the climate and planting in rocky New England soil, and explained which nuts and berries were safe to eat.
Indian place names are still in use today, for example:
• Massachusetts: the name of the Commonwealth, which means at or about the Great Hill (Blue Hills of Milton)
• Naumkaeg: the original name for Salem.
• Merrimac: a town and river.
• Conomo: meaning island, as in, Conomo Point in Essex.
• Wampanaog: the large tribal group that still exits. The name means “people of the dawn” or “rising sun” or “people of the breaking day,” hence locating a name for the tribe that lived to the east.
• Agawam: the original name of Ipswich, meaning fish drying place.
• Masconomo/Masconomet/Masquenomenit: Sachem (Chief) and street name, meaning “at or about the great island(s).” This name would have been used by the Wampanoag as a place name and not as a name of a person.
There have been many artistic inspirations and interpretations of Indians. Grace Prest tells of a story of the composer, Edward MacDowell, who in his piano composition, “Sketches,” wrote a piece of music entitled “From an Indian Lodge.” To quote: “It starts in clump, clump, clumping along—very stately and solemn. It is said that it was written about an Indian warrior who had lost his sweetheart. He felt so depressed he finally left his lodge that was located on Image Hill and walked along Singing Beach to Eagle Head. The music brings out the booming of the surf on the headland. When he reached the top of Eagle Rock, he kept straight on, over the cliff and into the sea, to join his Indian maiden in the Happy Hunting Grounds. So to the Indians, the tufts of trees on Eagle Head were not the feathers of an eagle, but the feathers on the [head dress] of a [devoted] Indian warrior.”
The Manchester Hymn, composed by N. B. Sargent, also speaks of “Chief” Masconomo and the Manchester Indians. In 1938, the Manchester Elder Brethren commissioned the sculptor, George Aarons, to create a statue of Masconomo. The plaster model is on permanent display at the Manchester Historical Society, currently on view in the Harris Exhibit Room. The statue was finally cast in bronze in the 1980’s and is mounted in the foyer of Town Hall.
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