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Indigenous History of Essex County, Massachusetts

From the Last Ice Age to 1700

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Table of Contents

PREFACE: History of Cape Ann and Beyond

How Do We Know Indigenous People Lived Here?

  • We have physical evidence
  • The Archaeology of Cape Ann
  • We have documentary evidence
  • We have cartographic and linguistic evidence
  • Notes and References

What do our Algonquian place names really mean?

  • Place Making
  • Geographic Descriptors in Algonquian Place Names
  • Agawam
  • Agamenticus
  • Quascacunquen
  • Wonasquam
  • Wenesquawam
  • Chebecco
  • Winniahdin
  • Naumkeag
  • Wingearsheek
  • Pennacook
  • An Algonquian Pronunciation Guide
  • Notes and References

Why did we know so little about Indigenous history here?

  • Little modern archaeology has been done here.
  • Erasure narratives have misled us.
  • The Disappeared
  • Firsting and Lasting
  • Skeletons in the Closet
  • Taming the Wilderness
  • Notes and References

Who were the first people to occupy Essex County?

  • Human migration to the Western Hemisphere
  • Changing time lines
  • Pre-Clovis people
  • The Paleoindians
  • The Maritime Archaics
  • The Eastern Woodland people
  • The Algonquians
  • The Pennacook-Pawtucket
  • Notes and References

Who were the Paleoindians?

  • Migration into New England
  • The Bull Brook site
  • Other evidence of Paleoindians in Essex County
  • Changes in the land at the end of the Pleistocene
  • Catastrophic climate change
  • Notes and References

Who were the Maritime Archaics?

  • The “Red Paint People”
  • Archaic Period technologies
  • Axes, atlatls, and dugouts
  • Essex County as a Stone Age Paradise
  • Late, Terminal, or Transitional Archaics?
  • The Coffin Stream Assemblage and Shattuck Farm
  • Notes and References

Who were the people of the Eastern Woodlands?

  • Woodland Period technologies
  • Woodland pottery in Essex County
  • Uses of woods and fibers
  • Wigwams and weaving
  • Notes and References

How did the Algonquians make their living in Essex County?

  • Division of labor
  • Hunting
  • Gathering
  • Seafood industries
  • Horticulture
  • Silviculture
  • Agriculture
  • Farming methods
  • Tisquantum’s fertilizer

Who were the Pawtucket and where did they come from?

  • Who’s Who?
  • Pawtucket Homelands
  • The Iroquois
  • Pennacook Sagamoreships
  • Indigenous Trading Networks
  • Algonquian Confederacies of the Northeast
  • Notes and References

Where were the Pawtucket villages?

  • “Only their shell heaps and their graves”
  • Types of Settlement
  • Environmental Factors in Native Settlement Patterns
  • Other Locational Criteria for Village Siting
  • The Role of Mobile Farming
  • The Role of Canoe Routes and Trails
  • New Predictive Models for Locating Settlements
  • Notes and References

What did Champlain see in the “Cape of Islands”?

  • Adventures at Whale Cove
  • Le Beau Port
  • Les Sauvages
  • The “Ambush”
  • Meddling Cluelessly in Native Politics
  • Cartographer Extraordinaire
  • Notes and References

Who Else Explored Here and What Did They Find?

  • Who Else Came Here and What Did They Find?
  • The Viking Question
  • The Quest for Norumbega
  • Explorers’ Perceptions of Indigenous Peoples
  • What Happened to the Beothuk?
  • Pring, Cosnold, and Weymouth
  • Popham and Capt. John Smith
  • Smith’s “Dry Salvages”
  • Notes and References

How Were the Pawtucket Organized and Led?

  • Kinship and Totemism
  • Sachems and Shamans
  • Sachem and Sagamore Names
  • Masconomet and Nanepashemet
  • Squaw Sachem and Passaconaway
  • Notes and References

How Did the Pawtucket Make Sense of Their World?

  • The Algonquian Cosmos
  • Manitou
  • Algonquian Thanksgiving
  • Among the Stones
  • Culture Heroes
  • In the Beginning
  • Life and Death
  • Mounds and Chambers in Massachusetts
  • Mourning Paint
  • Notes and References

How Did the English Colonists Make Sense of the Pawtucket?

Chapter Questions

  • How Do We Know Indigenous People Lived Here?
  • What do our Algonquian place names really mean?
  • Why did we know so little about Indigenous history here?
  • What people lived in Essex County, and when?
  • Who were the Paleoindians?
  • Who were the Maritime Archaics?
  • Who were the people of the Eastern Woodlands?
  • How did the Eastern Algonquians make their living in Essex County?
  • Who were the Pawtucket and where did they come from?
  • Where were the Indigenous settlements in Essex County?
  • What did Champlain see in the “Cape of Islands”?
  • Who Else Explored Here and What Did They Find?
  • How Were the Pawtucket Organized and Led?
  • How Did the Pawtucket Make Sense of Their World?

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