When the first Europeans arrived in Southern New England in the early 1600s, there were about 15,000 Wampanoag in about forty permanent villages in northern Rhode Island and southeastern coastal Massachusetts and its offshore islands (now known as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket). They were a large confederation of at least 24 different tribes. Their Algonquian relatives the Nauset inhabited the western half of Cape Cod, and the Narragansett were in Rhode Island.
The Wampanoag were primarily farmers, growing maize, beans, squash, gourds and tobacco, but they also hunted, fished, and gathered fruits, seeds, and the roots of wild plants. Like other Amerindian farmers, they followed a seasonal schedule. They prepared and planted their fields in the spring and summer and subsisted largely on clams, herring, and other fish. Their crops were harvested in the early fall, and the late fall and winter were devoted to hunting deer, bears, and occasionally moose.
The Wampanoag labored mightily to clear, plant, weed, and watch over their fields. The men prepared the fields for planting and then the women took over the farming. They planted three or four maize seeds in hills along with bean seeds that would intertwine the maize as it matured. The hills were spaced about three feet apart and between them were planted the squash and gourds. They used large seashells to move the soil, digging sticks to make holes for seeds, hoes to till the soil, and spades to dig roots. The corn was threshed to remove the kernels from the husk, these were then dried in the sun on mats, and then stored in pits dug in the earth.
Fishing was second to farming as a source of sustenance. Fish could be harvested all year long from rivers and the ocean. The Wampanoag made heavy dugout canoes by hollowing out logs of large trees. Shellfish were also available throughout the year, including oysters, scallops, soft-shelled crabs, and quahogs. Lobsters were used as bait. The Wampanoag fished with spears, lines with bone hooks, nets of woven plant fibers, weirs, and stakes that were driven across rivers.
Foraging by women and children was an important source of food all year. A wide variety of berries could be gathered including strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, and currents. They also gathered wild leeks and onions and dug groundnuts. In the fall they gathered acorns and chestnuts.
In the winter, everyone moved inland to hunting camps in family groups of 10 – 20. Many Wampanoag lived in oval-shaped longhouses during the winter. The longhouse villages were surrounded by fencing (palisades) and reinforced with mud. Longhouses were built up to 200 feet long, 20 feet wide and 20 feet high. The longhouses had smoke holes in the roof to allow air and light in and smoke to escape. The smoke hole had a birchbark cover to keep out the rain. The position of the cover could be moved as the direction of the wind changed. Mats for these winter homes were woven from bulrushes. The mats were used for both the outside and interior of the Wampanoag longhouse and frequently painted black and red.
The Wampanoag tribe lived in temporary shelters during the summer known as Wigwams, aka wetus or wikkums. The word ‘Wetu’ means “house”. They are small cone-shaped houses with an arched roof made of wooden frames from saplings (young trees) that are covered with sheets of birchbark. Wide sheets of bark from large, older trees covered the frames of the wetus, which were held in place by ropes or strips of wood. These summer wigwams were covered with woven mats using cattails, tall, stiff plants, growing almost ten feet tall.
The Wampanoag were ruled by hereditary sachems, who had councils of esteemed men to advise them. The Sachems settled disputes, granted land to individuals for farming, and dealt with outsiders. The extent of their power was very dependent on popular support. If the people were unhappy with their leadership, they would desert their villages and move to another. When the Pilgrims first arrived, the Wampanoag’s leader was Massasoit. He was a supreme sachem who ruled over seven lesser sachems and their villages.
Figure: Historic tribal territories of Southern New England, ca. 16th century (Wikimedia Commons)
Bibliography: Weinstein-Farson, L. (1989) The Wampanoag (Indians of North America). Chelsea House Publishers, New York
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