Nashaway, Nashua or Weshacum people (Amerind tribe)
Years: 1500 - 1736
The Nashaway (or Nashua or Weshacum) are a tribe of Algonquian Indians inhabiting the upstream portions of the Nashua River valley in what is now the northern half of Worcester County, Massachusetts, mainly in the vicinity of Sterling, Lancaster and other towns near Mount Wachusett.
They are often associated with the Nipmuc, which along with variants such as Nipmug or Nipnet was the general term for all bands inhabiting central Massachusetts away from the coastlines and ending before the Connecticut River valley.
The meaning of Nashaway is "river with a pebbled bottom".
[ The Nashaway's principal settlement is Waushacum (possibly meaning "surface of the sea"), a parcel of land in what is now Sterling that was located between two ponds of the same name.
The territory of the Nashaway was bounded downstream (to the north) on the Nashua River by the Pennacook, a powerful tribe with which numerous alliances were formed, to the east by tribes related to the Massachusett, to the south of the headwaters by other Nipmuc bands and to the west by the Connecticut River where the Pocomtuc settled.
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John Sassamon (the shortened and Anglicized version of his actual name, Wassausmon), a Massachuseuk, had seen his family perish along with many others during the smallpox epidemic of 1633.
It is very likely that he was subsequently adopted or indentured to the family of Richard Callicot and exposed to Christianity as well as learning to speak English, also very likely that he met and was mentored by the Christian missionary, John Eliot during this timeframe.
Sassamon had functioned as an interpreter during the Pequot War that began in 1637, and had fought on the side of the colonists alongside Richard Callicot in the service of Captain John Underhill.
John Eliot established Natick and Ponkapoag in 1651 as praying towns, communities of natives who had converted to Christianity and were willing to live a in a more traditional "English" lifestyle, i.e., permanent agricultural settlements.
Eliot had recruited Sassamon to be one of two schoolmasters to teach both English and Christianity to the citizens.
Sassamon was probably one of the Natick/Ponkapoag elite, a group of natives that had won the respect of English colonists through their acceptance of Christianity and English law.
The ability to speak English combined with apparent intelligence had given Sassamon the opportunity to attend Harvard College in 1653, two years before a special "Indian" Harvard was established.
It is not known how long he stayed at Harvard, but had probably been educated for a short time alongside such young members of the Puritan elite as Increase Mather, Samuel Bradstreet, and John Eliot Jr.
After his return from Harvard, Sassamon had drifted away from Puritan society and reentered native life, serving as a translator and secretary to several of the Pokanoket chiefs, most importantly Metacom, aka King Philip, with whom he is very influential.
Christian leaders had hoped that through Sassamon King Philip could be converted to Christianity; however, ultimately no such conversion has been made.
Sassamon returns several years later to Puritan society: he does not sever ties with the natives but it is not clear why he left.
Back in Christian society, he becomes a minister in the Plymouth colony.
Sassamon had in December 1674 warned the governor of the Plymouth Colony, Josiah Winslow, about an impending native attack orchestrated by King Philip.
The Puritans, however have disregarded this warning.
Sassamon had been reported missing soon after this incident; his body is discovered in January or February of 1675 in Assawompset Pond.
The Puritans who found Sassamon’s body had thought at first that he had drowned; soon, however, the Plymouth settlers began to think that he was murdered.
They become convinced of the fact when another native, Patuckson, claims he had seen three of King Philip’s men kill Sassamon and put him in the frozen pond.
The Puritans are convinced of Philip’s involvement in Sassamon’s death, although it is not clear what his motive may have been.
Some historians believe it was because of Sassamon’s apparent betrayal of Philip by reporting to Winslow of the future native attack while others believe it was because of Sassamon’s Christianity and his continuing efforts to convert Philip and other Indians.
On the testimony of a native witness, Plymouth Colony arrests three Wampanoags, including one of Metacom's counselors.
A jury among whom are some native members (The first in Plymouth to include a mixed jury of whites and natives) convicts them of Sassamon's murder; they are hanged on June 8, 1675, at Plymouth.
Some Wampanoag believe that both the trial and the court's sentence infringe Wampanoag sovereignty.
To the Puritans, the guilt of the three natives implies that Philip had been involved and they are outraged at this thought.
Both sides are becoming increasingly distrustful and frustrated at the other.
After the trial and executions, tensions between the natives and the Puritans are at a high.
A band of Pokanoket responds, possibly without Philip's approval,with an assault on several isolated homesteads in the small Plymouth colony settlement of Swansea.
Laying siege to the town on June 20, they destroy it five days later and kill several settlers and others coming to help the settlers.
Officials from Plymouth and Boston respond quickly; they send a military expedition that destroys the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope (modern Bristol, Rhode Island) on June 2.
The European-American population of New England totals about eighty thousand people, including sixteen thousand men of military age.
They live in one hundred and ten towns, of which sixty-four are in Massachusetts.
Many towns have built strong garrison houses for defense, and other have stockades enclosing most of the houses.
The region includes about ten thousand five hundred natives, including four thousand Narragansetts of western Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut, twenty-four hundred Nipmucks of central Massachusetts, and twenty-four hundred combined in the Massachusetts and Pawtucket tribes, living about Massachusetts bay and extending northwest to Maine.
The Wampanoags and Pokanokets of Plymouth and eastern Rhode Island number less than one thousand each.
The various tribes, though unconnected in government, speak dialects of the same language, and have a similar culture.
The war quickly spreads, and soon involves the Podunk and Nipmuck tribes.
The Native Americans attack at Middleborough and ...
...Dartmouth on July 8, ...
...Mendon on July 14, ...
...Brookfield on August 2, and ...
...Lancaster on August 9.