On March 25, at 7:00 p.m., the Maynard Public Library will
present a Zoomed talk titled: “Before the Europeans Arrived… and After.” Registration
(required) at https://www.maynardpubliclibrary.org/may150.
This is the second in a monthly series of history lectures produced by the
Sesquicentennial Steering Committee as part of Maynard’s celebration of the 150th
anniversary of its creation on April 19, 1871. The April talk will be “How
Maynard Became Maynard.” A new history book “MAYNARD MASSACHUSETTS: A Brief
History” is for sale for $21.99 at 6 Bridges Gallery, 63 Nason Street,
THUR-SAT, 12-5.
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the native inhabitants
of what is now central Massachusetts, from around Concord to west to Springfield,
plus a northern portion of both Connecticut and Rhode Island, were the ‘Nipmuc’
estimated at 8,000 people. Nipmuc has many alternative spellings, such as
Nipmug, Neetmock and Nipnet, all generally accepted as translating to “fresh
water people.” The Nipmuc had trade alliances with neighboring groups: Pequot
to the south, Wampanoag to the southeast, Masachuset to the east, Pennacook to
the north and Pocumtuc to the west. All of these groups spoke dialects of the Algonquin
language. The Nipmuc grew corn and other crops, hunted deer, and in the spring
enjoyed the bounty of herring, alewives and shad swimming upriver to spawn.
Berries and nuts were gathered in their seasons.
There is scant evidence of residency in what is now Maynard.
The land was hilly, and not well suited for agriculture. The Assabet River was
fast-moving in the spring, then very shallow in the summer and fall, and so
less conducive to year-round fishing compared to the Sudbury and Concord
Rivers.
Wherever Europeans arrived in what became New England,
within a generation entire cultures and populations were wiped out. The initial
causes have historically been attributed to a litany of diseases including smallpox,
plague, yellow fever, measles, influenza, scarlet fever…
Leptospira, a
bacterium, has been tentatively identified as the cause of the first, worst
epidemic of 1616-19. Infection and death swept through villages so quickly that
the living did not have time to bury the dead. The natives referred to the
event as “The Great Dying.” English settlers described finding empty villages
with bones scattered on the ground. There
were epidemics from other diseases in 1631-33, 1645, 1650-52 and 1670. King James I is quoted as saying “There hath,
by God’s visitation, reigned a wonderful plague, the utter destruction,
devastation, and depopulation of that whole territory…” Pre-contact with
Europeans, the eastern Algonquin region that extended from Delaware to Maine
numbered 100,000 to 150,000 people. One hundred years later it was one-twentieth
that.
As a result, the Puritans who made up the “Great Migration”
from England, 1620-1640, found this to be ‘empty’ land that had until recent
years been partially cleared and farmed. This was easily returned to productive
farmland – a process of combining the native crops of corn, beans and squash,
with European wheat and an assortment of edible domesticated animals (cattle,
hogs, sheep, goats and chickens). With crops suitable for winter storage plus
domesticated animals to eat, the colonists did not have to rely so heavily on
hunting, nor practice the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the natives. Instead, they
owned and farmed in place.
Transfer of land from natives to English settlers was a
combination of sale, forced sale, encroachment and outright taking. From the
colonial side, the Governor and General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts
would grant a group a right to settle an area of land. The grantees were
obliged to pursue obtaining a deed of sale from Native Americans and occupy the
land. In 1635, Concord was approved, with an area of 36 square miles. The
purchase was competed in 1637. The widow of Sachem Nanapashement, Tahattawan, Wibbacowett and others accepted
payment from Simon Willard, John Jones and others. Payment included 'wampum', steel tools
and clothing. Many years later, two Native Americans – Peter Jethro and
Jehojakin – having witnessed the sale, provided testimony that it had been a
fair bargain.
In 1638, Sudbury was granted a right to create a town of 25
square miles. The deed of purchase was registered in 1648. A subsequent
expansion to the west in 1649 was referred to as “the two-mile grant.” This reached
to the Assabet River, thus including land that in 1871 became the south side of
Maynard. While granted and divided into 130 acre lots, much of this was not
occupied at that time.
A forced transfer of land of what became Maynard was between
Tantamous, also called “Old Jethro” (father of Peter Jethro), who lived at
Nobscot, now the Framingham/Sudbury border. In 1651, Tantamous was forced to
surrender claim to 1,000 acres west of the Sudbury grant to Hermon Garrett, of
Concord, in a court dispute over payment for the purchase of two horses.
Separately, a Pompositticut Plantation, west of Concord – later to become Stow
– was surveyed circa 1660 (described as “meane land”) and granted, but as not
permanently settled at that time, the grant later rescinded.
All this granting and purchasing crashed to an end with King
Philip’s War of 1675-76. Metacom, also known as Metacomet, and by the English
name Philip, was a Wampanoag chief. Attempts to maintain a truce between the
Wampanoag and the English colonists were frayed by colonial expansion and
scattered acts of violence on both sides. In the summer of 1675, the actions of
the native Americans coalesced into concerted attacks on towns across the Plymouth,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, New Haven and Connecticut colonies. Locally,
history has it that Metacom’s supporters met atop Pompositticut Hill – now
Summer Hill – to decide whether to attack Concord or Sudbury (the answer:
Sudbury).
Although the colonial militias were supplemented by
volunteers from the Praying Villages – places occupied by Native Americans who
had converted to Christianity – there was suspicion that Nipmuc were also
collaborating with King Philip. This was in part true. Nipmuc understood the
threat of colonial expansion. Additionally, Metacom’s Wampanoag warriors were
residing in Nipmuc territory much of the summer and fall of 1675. To remove
this perceived threat, natives were restricted by the colonists to five of the
Praying Villages, and then in October 1675, hundreds were relocated to Deer
Island, in Boston Harbor. Winter weather combined with inadequate housing and
shortage of food led to more than half dying there. Tantamous and his family
either escaped from Deer Island or had avoided being sent there. Although more
along the way of being a noncombatant refugee, Tantamous was captured in New
Hampshire, marched through Boston with a noose on his neck and hanged in the
Boston Common. His family, other than Peter Jethro, were sold into slavery.
Many
of the Nipmuc who survived the war moved north or west, or assimilated into
other tribes. In May 1683, the General
Court approval of a town name “Stow.” A year later, deeds to this land
and the Two-Mile Grant for northwest Sudbury were signed by a dozen or so
Native Americans who were among a post-war remnant population. This completed
the taking of the land that later became Maynard.
Land taking continued elsewhere. The Hassanamesit
Reservation had contained 7,500 acres in 1728 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
purchased most of the land. The money from the sale was to be held for the
Nipmuc in an account at a Boston bank, but it was embezzled by a state
official. Today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts recognizes the present-day
Nipmuc as constituting people a group of some 500 members living in and around
the City of Worcester, Chaubunagungamaug Reservation (in Thompson, CN) and
Hassanamisco Reservation (in Grafton, MA). The reservations are small plots of
land used by Nipmuc and other Native Americans for gatherings and celebrations.
Sword-over-Indian was on various versions of the
state seal starting in 1780. The current state seal, which was adopted in 1898, and is present on the state flag, and at every town border as part of the sign showing the name of the town. The seal is considered to be deeply offensive to Native Americans. Advocates for change claim that Massachusetts is "the last U.S. state whose flag includes representations of white supremacy" given that Mississippi replaced its Confederate emblem state flag in January 2021.
The sword was modeled on Myles Standish’s; known
for killing Native Americans. The bow was modeled on a bow taken from a Native
American killed in 1665 in Sudbury. The belt was modeled on one belonging to
Metacomet (King Philip), killed 1676 in King Philip’s War. The downward pointed arrow held in the left hand signifies a ‘pacified’
Native American. Lastly, the body proportions were taken from a Native American dug
up from a grave in Winthrup.
This website has a separate entry listing Native American websites and literature used to research this article.
