People of the Great Blue Hill: the Massachusett

Early explorers and settlers of what is now New England often had difficulty keeping straight the various tribes and inter-tribal relationships they encountered among the Natives they met.  The Massachusett were one of several Algonquian-speaking people in Massachusetts, their traditional range being in the Boston area.  A chain of hills near Boston Harbor, known as the Blue Hills, carried special significance to these people, who were known locally by variants of the word Massachusett.  Their original designation was given an ending letter s, and became the name of the bay, colony and later commonwealth now known as Massachusetts.

English and European sailors first encountered the Massachusett during fishing expeditions along the northeastern coast of North America in the 16th century.  Unfortunately, these contacts often brought the Natives into contact with slavers, and with communicable diseases to which they had no immunity.  Samuel de Champlain explored the Massachusetts coastline in 1605, and John Smith also encountered Massachusett people, meeting two leaders, Wessagusett and Quonahasset.  With disease thinning their population, the Massachusett were vulnerable to more powerful tribes such as the Mohawk of New York and the Abenaki.  They were unable to defend themselves against English encroachment on their land.  In 1624, a skirmish between the Massachusetts and members of a short-lived colony at Wessagusett led to the death of a Massachusett sachem, Pecksuot and several warriors.  A smallpox epidemic in 1633 further decimated the tribe.

Several Massachusett accepted Christianity and moved to so-called Praying Towns, an early attempt to confined Native inhabitants to specified areas similar to later reservations.  Natives were coerced into accepting the Puritan religion and English customs and practices, forsaking ancient rituals and tribal beliefs.  It wouldn't be until 1869 that the Massachusetts legislature passed a law permitting Natives to vote in state elections as full citizens of Massachusetts.  Today, descendants of the Massachusett continue to live in Massachusetts, but are not federally recognized as a tribe.