*New Massachusetts Indians

*New

Ethnic Massachusetts Indian Surnames

(Excerpt: “Black Indians From The Beginning“)

“A remnant of a tribe of Indians now lives on the northeast side of the great Assawomset. They have mixed with the blacks”

“What is known of the troubles of the inhabitants in this war is found scattered through Mr. Hubbard’s Narrative, in Bachus’ Hist. Middleborough”

Tuspaquin

(The Black Sachem)

Wampanoag, Pokanoket in King Phillip's War

[Descendants Surname, Mitchell]

An account of incursion with these Ethnic Indians was given in the book;

“The History of the Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676, Commonly Called Phillip’s War. Also, The Old French and Indian Wars, From 1689 to 1704”

by Thomas Church, Esq. With Numerous Notes and Appendix by Samuel G. Drake, Boston 2 Jan, 1827 Revised Edition. Published by Silas Andrus and Son, 1854. Inside the book were numerous full color steel photo-engraving of the various Indian Chiefs of the Great Indian Wars (including the above rendering), relatives and descendants of Massasoit are also found inside.

These images were part of the original book by Thomas Church printed in 1716. The pictures demonstrate the clear African Ancestry of its subjects.

Regarding Massachusetts Indians Captives in King Phillips War:

“Accordingly all were taken, in number about 400.”

“About 8 or 10 were hanged as murderers, and the rest sold into slavery.”

[Excerpts, “King Phillip’s War, Church, ]

This Native American Mariner Culture were among the first eastern Tribal Nations converted to Christianity. In 1646, Father Eliot facilitated change within their traditional culture by encouraging preaching of the Gospel in the language of the Natives in Nonantum (near Newton, Massachusetts). Eventually Christian Indian Towns were located in Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, New Plymouth, New Norwich (Connecticut Colony), and in Massachusetts Colony (known as the Old Praying Indian Towns: Wamesit (Chelmsford), Nashobah (Littleton), Okkokonimesit (Malborough), Hassanamesit (Grafton), Makunkokoag (Hopkinton), Natick and Punkapog or Pakomit (Stoughton).

As Mariners in a coastal Nation, they interacted and intermarried with a variety of other sea-venturing peoples, many of whom were described as “Colored Foreigners.” Therefore, they were a diverse Native American Nation long before documented contact with Europeans. Englishmen, of course discounting the varied Ethnicity of the “Colored Foreigners” by referred to them as “Indians,” “Blacks,” “Negroes” and “Colored.”

The old Praying Indian towns in Massachusetts Colony were situated in the traditional defensive formation, as an outlying wall of defense in 1675, protecting the Tribal Nations affiliated with King Phillip (Massasoit’s son). Their position immediately cast a pall of suspicion upon them in the eyes of the Militarized Colonists.

Starting with Chelmsford on the Merrimack River, the villages lay 12-14 miles apart and made a ring around the Boston settlement. The position of the Praying Indians could also have allowed them to serve as scouts for the English. Therefore, the Praying Indians were protecting themselves against attack from Hostile Nations and Colonists.

In the midst of King Phillip’s War, on August 30, 1675, the Governor and Council of the Massachusetts Colony, in response to public demand, disbanded all Praying Indian Bands and confined these Christian Indians to their old Praying Indian towns, and restricted their travel to within one mile of the center of those towns and only then when in the company of an Englishman, If a Native American broke these rules, he could be arrested or shot on

sight.

Christian Indians were caught between two warring factions: the English and the tribes hostile to the English, fighting alongside King Philip in the War over damage to their Country, 1675-1676.

The Praying Indians pledged their loyalty to the English who refused to trust them and, at the same time, faced the enmity of their own people.

Their loyalty was rewarded with such public hatred toward them that in August, 1675, the General Council in Boston began to consider removing the Praying Indians to Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Finally, in October, 1675, the order passed for removal; by December of that year, there were over 500 Christian Indians confined to the island.

(Note: The location is the very same Deer Island now affiliated with Yale Skull and Bones).

“The enmity, jealousy, and clamors of some people against them put the magistracy upon a kind of necessity to send them all to the Island…”where they’’…lived chiefly upon clams and shell fish, that they digged out of the sand, at low water, the Island was bleak and cold, their wigwams poor and mean, their clothes few and thin, some little corn they had of their own, which the Council ordered to be fetched from their plantation, and conveyed to them by little and little…”

There they stayed until released in 1677, but the world to, which they returned was totally changed. The English had defeated the warring tribes, leaving the Native Americans strangers in their own homeland.”

Following the Great War, King Phillip’s War, many descendants of Massasoit, Wampanoags, Pokanokets and other Nations, were sold into Slavery, and even 13 years later, Colonel Church noted; “revenge remained in the breast of those tribes whose friends has been so cruelly treated.”

During the War, Colonel Church (Militarized Settler of Massachusetts) described a surprise discovery of Indian Warriors lying in ambush, as “a formidable Black Heap.”

Succeeding years brought renewed interest in the general welfare of the descendants of the Praying Indians, as well the Wampanoag Indians of Massachusetts, generating formal accountings of their members.

In 1848, the Massachusetts Senate’s Joint Committee on Claims was instructed “to report the number and condition of the several tribes of Indians that receive aid from the Commonwealth, and also to consider, and report, what further legislation is necessary for their protection and welfare.” A report by Senator George Denny, enumerated 782 Indians supported by the Commonwealth including: thirty-three persons identified as Troy or Fall River Indians, fifty-one identified as Dudley; two identified as Grafton; one hundred at Chappaquiddick and Christiantown on Martha’s Vineyard; 250 as Gay Head, also from Martha’s Vineyard; four as Punkapoag [Canton]; thirty as Herring Pond or New Bedford; and 312 as Mashpee Indians.

[Senate, No. 135, Massachusetts Legislative Reports of 1848 (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1849].

In February 1849, Commissioners F.W. Bird, Whiting Griswold and Cyrus Weeks provided to Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs a document “the Briggs Report; excluding Natives associated with Natick, the Briggs report provided an accounting of 847 Bay State Indians. The report claimed there were five or six “Indians of pure blood in the State…the rest are of mixed blood; mostly Indian and African” and “the admixture of African blood, usually predominating, in amount, over the Indian, is the only one common to all different tribes.” There were forty-eight Indians part of the “Dudley Tribe” at Webster and twenty-six Indians part of the “Grafton Tribe,” according to the Briggs Report.

[F.W. Bird, W. Griswold and C. Weekes, “Indians,” House Report #46, in Massachusetts Legislative Reports of 1849 (Boston: Wright & Potter, 4-6)]

In 1861, 1146 Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts were recorded by John Milton Earle. But they were listed as Chappequiddick, Christiantown, Edgartown, Mashpee (Marshpee), Middleborough, Fall River, Pembroke, Yarmouth, Herring Pond, Darmouth and other designations in the Commonwealth.

Through a legislative Act in 1859, John Milton Earle, politician and newspaper publisher, was appointed to investigate the social condition of Massachusetts Indians and advance recommendations whether they should be placed on the same legal footing as other residents of the Commonwealth.

His Commission was; “to examine into the condition of all Indians and the descendants of Indians domiciled in this Commonwealth, and make report to the governor, for the information of the general court,” dealing with four issues;

[a]. “The number of all such persons, their place of abode, their distribution…”

[b]. “The social and political condition of all such persons…”

[c]. “The economic state of all such persons;” and,

[d]. “All such facts in the personal or social condition of the Indians of the Commonwealth, as may enable the general court to judge whether they can, compatibly with their own good and that of the other inhabitants of the State, be placed immediately and completely, or only gradually and partially, on the same legal footing as the other inhabitants of the Commonwealth.”

His Census documentation, often called the Earle Report is Massachusetts Senate Report #96 of 1861, or REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL CONCERNING THE INDIANS OF THE COMMONWEALTH UNDER THE ACT OF APRIL 6, 1859. The actual document, submitted by Earle in 1861, consists of three sections: a 132 page report; a proposed act to enfranchise Bay State Indians; and an appendix of 78 pages, listing Native families.

Earle’s works were conserved as, :John Milton Earle Papers” at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Earle tallied 1,126 Individuals, in 291 families placed under guardianship of the Commonwealth. He also recorded 322 individuals in eighty-seven families as “miscellaneous Indians” whose heritage “was not apparent to him.” Aggregate totals in the Earle Report were 378 families comprising 1448 Indians, excluding 162 non-Indian spouses.

Including Natives and non-Native spouses, the total number of persons enumerated is 1610 in the appendix.

Earle penned the phrase “Plantation Tribes” (in a trend that would continue in “South Carolina”), including Indians “from Chappaquiddick [Martha’s Vineyard], Christian town [Martha’s Vineyard], Gay Head [Martha’s Vineyard], Mashpee, Herring Pond [New Bedford]; Natick, Punkapoag [Canton], Fall River, Hassanamisco [Grafton] and Dudley [Webster] communities.’

Surname of Wampanoags In The Earle Report

(Indicates Tribal Ethnicity)

-A-

Allen (Fall River)

Alvis (Marshpee)

Ames (Gay Head)

Amos (Marshpee)

Anthony (Christiantown, Gay Head)

Attaquin (Marshpee, Herring Pond)

Aucouch (Gay Head)

-B-

Baker (Yarmouth, Chappequiddick, Marshpee)

Bassett (Gay Head, Edgartown)

Belain (Gay Head, Christiantown, Chappequiddick)

Blackwell (Marshpee, Herring Pond)

Boston (Dartmouth)

Bowes (Gay Head)

Bowyer (Marshpee, Gay Head)

Boyden (Dartmouth)

Brooks (Yarmouth, Marshpee)

Brown (Chappequiddick, Marshpee) * Chappequiddick Plantation

Butler (Marshpee)

-C-

Carsar (Marshpee)

Casco (Middleborough)

Cash (Yarmouth)

Cesar (Marshpee)

Cetum (Marshpee)

Charles (Dartmouth)

Chase (Yarmouth)

Christopher (Tumpum) Fall River

Cobb (Yarmouth)

Cole (Gay Head, Dartmouth)

Conet (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Cook (Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Gay Head, Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Coombs (Marshpee)

Cooper (Gay Head, Marshpee)

Corsa (Gay Head)

Courtland (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Cowett (Marshpee)

Craig (Yarmouth)

Crank (Fall River) Reservation

Crocker (Yarmouth)

Crouch (Dartmouth)

Cuff (Gay Head)

Cuffe (Dartmouth)

Curtis (Chappequiddick)

Cutler (Dartmouth)

-D-

Danzell (Herring Pond)

David (Gay Head)

De Grasse (Herring Pond, Marshpee, Christiantown)

Deming (Gay Head)

Denison (Herring Pond)

Devine (Gay Head, Marshpee)

Diamond (Gay Head)

Dick (Dartmouth)

Dodge (Gay Head)

Douglas (Dartmouth)

Drummond (Fall River)

-E-

Easton (Deep Bottom)

Edwards (Marshpee)

Ellis (Attaquin, Yarmouth, Herring Pond)

F-

Fairweather (Dartmouth)

Fletcher (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Folger (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Foller (Marshpee)

Fowler (Herring Pond, Halifax, Dartmouth)

Francis (Christiantown, Gay Head, Fall River)

Freeman (Deep Bottom, Fall River, Marshpee, Chappequiddick)

Fuller (Tumpum)

-G-

Gardner (Marshpee, Fall River, Herring Pond)

Godfrey (Fall River, Marshpee

Goodrich (Christiantown, Chappaquiddick )*Chappequiddick Plantation)

Goodwin (Marshpee)

Gould (Chappequiddick)

Grant (Christiantown)

Greenough (Yarmouth)

-H-

Hammond (Marshpee)

Harris (Deep Bottom)

Haskell (Yarmouth)

Haskins (Gay Head)

Havens (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Hemenway (Middleborough)

Hendricks (Marshpee)

Henry (Gay Head)

Hersch (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation, Hyannis

Hicks (Marshpee)

Hinson (Marshpee)

Holland (Marshpee)

Holloway (Yarmouth)

Holmes (Marshpee, Gay Head)

Howard (Dartmouth, Gay Head)

Howwoswee (Gay Head)

Hyatt (Marshpee, Mamattakeeset)

-J-

Jackson (Herring Pond, Marshpee, Deep Bottom)) *Herring Pond Plantation, *Chappequiddick Plantation

James (Christiantown, Marshpee, Gay Head, Chappequiddick)

Jeffers (Gay Head, Marshpee, Christiantown)

Jerard (Gay Head, Sandwich)

Joab (Chappequiddick, Deep Bottom)

Joel (Mamattakeeset)

Johnson (Gay Head, Herring Pond, Marshpee)

Jonas (Marshpee, Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Jones (Marshpee, Dartmouth)

Jordan (Gay Head)

Joseph (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

-K-

Keeter (Marshpee)

Kennedy (Marshpee)

Knobb (Dartmouth)

-L-

Lang (Dartmouth)

Layton (Chappequiddick, Marshpee) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Lee (Marshpee, Middleborough) *1 member absent in California

Lewis (Dartmouth, Gay Head)

Lindsay (Fall River)

Lippett (Marshpee)

Low (Marshpee)

-M-

Madison (Gay Head)

Manning (Gay Head, Marshpee)

Marston (Dartmouth)

Mashow (Marshpee)

Mason (Fall River)

Matthews (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Miller (Dartmouth)

Mills (Marshpee)

Mingo (Gay Head, Marshpee, Christiantown)

Mitchell (Fall River) *Descendants of Tuspaquin

Monroe (Middleborough)

Morton (Gay Head)

Mye (Marshpee)

-N-

Nevers (Gay Head

Nicholson (Dartmouth)

Nickerson (Yarmouth)

Northup (Fall River)

-O-

Ockry (Marshpee)

-P-

Page (Fall River)

Parker (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Pells (Marshpee)

Perry (Fall River) *Reservation Fall River

Peters (Christiantown, Chappequiddick, Gay Head

Phelps (Dartmouth)

Pocknet (Marshpee)

Pompey (Marshpee)

Potts (Dartmouth)

Powell (Gay Head)

Pratt (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

Prince (Mamattakeeset, Chappaquiddick)

-Q-

Quippish (Marshpee)

-R-

Randolph (Gay Head)

Robbins (Marshpee)

Robinson (Fall River)

Rodman (Gay Head)

Rogers (Yarmouth, Marshpee)

Rollins (Marshpee)

Roman (Middleborough)

Rose (Gay Head, Fall River)

Rosier (Dartmouth)

Ross (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

-S-

Salisbury (Gay Head)

Sams (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Saunders (Christiantown, Fall river, Herring Pond, Deep Bottom)

Sewell (Gay Head)

Shepard (Gay Head

Simmons (Marshpee)

Simon (Marshpee)

Simpson (Christiantown, Chappequiddick, Fall River, Marshpee) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Slade (Fall River

Smith (Marshpee, Dartmouth, Yarmouth)

Spencer (Christiantown, Marshpee

Squin (Middleborough)

Stanley (Marshpee)

Stevens (Gay Head)

Summons (Chappequiddick) *Chappequiddick Plantation

Sylvia (Gay Head)

-T-

Talbot (Dartmouth, Troy)

Taylor (Yarmouth, Chappequiddick, Dartmouth

Terry (Gay Head, Fall River)

Thomas (Gay Head)

Thompson (Dartmouth, Marshpee, Gay Head, Herring Pond )*Herring Pond Plantation

Tilghman (Dartmouth)

Tobey (Marshpee)

Turner (Deep Bottom)

-V-

Vallou (Marshpee)

Van Renssellar (Marshpee)

Vander hoop (Gay Head)

Vincent (Dartmouth)

-W-

Wainer (Dartmouth)

Walmsley (Gay Head)

Webquish (Chappequiddick, Marshpee, Herring Pond)

Webster (Marshpee)

Weeks (Gay Head)

West (Chappequiddick)

White (Dartmouth)

Whiting (Marshpee)

Wickham (Marshpee)

Wilbur (Marshpee)

Williams (Marshpee, Gay Head)

Wing (Middleborough)

Wood (Herring Pond) *Herring Pond Plantation

-Y-

Young (Marshpee)

-End Surnames Earle Report-

1860 Indian Census Massachusetts-Surnames

Gay Head (Aquinnah)Wampanoag-Mashpee Tribes

Mixed-Foreign Colored-Indians

This Census was conducted at the behest of Massachusetts Legislature, transcript: Gay Head Tribe in Mass. Senate No. 96 publication, March 1861

(Ethnic Tribal Band)

-A-

Anthony (Gay Head)

Aucouch (Gay Head)

-B-

Bassett (Edgartown)

Belain (Chappequiddick)

Bowes

Bowyer (Married Colored Foreigner, Gay Head)

Brown (Colored Foreigner)

-C-

Cole (Gay Head)

Cook

Cooper (Marshpee, Gay Head)-Chilmark

Williams (colored foreigner)

Corsa (Colored Foreigner)

Cuff

-D-

David (Marshpee, Gay Head

Deming (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

Devine (Marshpee, Gay Head)

Dodge (Gay Head)

Diamond (Indian), Gay Head, foreigner

-F-

Francis (Christiantown, Chilmark)

-H-

Haskins (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

Henry (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

Howard (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

Howwoswee

-J-

James (Christiantown)

Jeffers (Marshpee, Gay Head, Christiantown)

Jerard (Sandwich, Foreigner. Gay Head))

Johnson (Chilmark)

Jordan (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

-L-

Lewis (Gay Head)

-M-

Madison (Gay Head)

Manning (Gay Head)

Mingo

-N-

Nevers

-O-

Ockray (New Bedford)

-P-

Peters (Chappequiddick, Gay Head)

Powell (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

-R-

Randolph (Haytian, foreigner; Gay Head)

Rodman (Gay Head, Narrangansett)

Rose (Gay Head, Fall River)

-S-

Salisbury (Gay Head)

Sewell (Gay Head)

Shepard (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)

Stevens (Gay Head)

Sylvia (Gay Head, married Portuguese Foreigner)

-T-

Terry (Gay Head)

Thomas (Gay Head)

Thompson (Gay Head, Marshpee)

-V-

Vanderhoop (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner From Suriname)

-W-

Walmsley (Gay Head)

Weeks

Williams (Gay Head, married Colored Foreigner)