How did a Wampanoag man named Squanto help early English settlers in North America? He taught them how to fish the region's waters and raise certain crops. Inside, You'll Find: Roles of Wampanoag leaders; Maps, a timeline, photos-and what nearly wiped out the Wampanoag in 1616; Surprising TRUE facts that will shock and amaze you! Book jacket.

Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story. In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief), Ousamequin (Massasoit), and Plymouth's governor, John Carver, declared their people's friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the specter of starvation. Ousamequin and 90 of his men then visited Plymouth for the “First Thanksgiving.” The treaty remained operative until King Philip's War in 1675, when 50 years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come to an end. 400 years after that famous meal, historian David J. Silverman sheds profound new light on the events that led to the creation, and bloody dissolution, of this alliance. Focusing on the Wampanoag Indians, Silverman deepens the narrative to consider tensions that developed well before 1620 and lasted long after the devastating war-tracing the Wampanoags' ongoing struggle for self-determination up to this very day. This unsettling history reveals why some modern Native people hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving, a holiday which celebrates a myth of colonialism and white proprietorship of the United States. This Land is Their Land shows that it is time to rethink how we, as a pluralistic nation, tell the history of Thanksgiving.

Describes the history, traditions, and beliefs of the Wampanoag, who were one of the first native peoples to encounter the Pilgrims during the seventeenth century.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are an indigenous people on Martha's Vineyard. From their legendary giant leader Moshup, Wampanoags can trace their ancestry back more than ten thousand years. The tribe weathered colonization by missionaries in the 1600s, then endured two centuries of domination, only to have their land taken in 1870. However, over the past 140 years, the Wampanoag Tribe, which still lives in its ancestral home of Aquinnah, has shown endurance and fortitude as it continues to practice traditional crafts and its tribal heritage. Thomas Dresser captures the spirit of the tribe, tracing its survival through to recognition by the federal government in 1987, nearly twenty-five years ago. Brief interviews with elders and current tribal members offer insight into the tribe's remarkable history.

It was indeed possible for Indians and Europeans to live peacefully in early America and for Indians to survive as distinct communities. Faith and Boundaries uses the story of Martha's Vineyard Wampanoags to examine how. On an island marked by centralized English authority, missionary commitment, and an Indian majority, the Wampanoags' adaptation to English culture, especially Christianity, checked violence while safeguarding their land, community, and ironically, even customs. Yet the colonists' exploitation of Indian land and labor exposed the limits of Christian fellowship and thus hardened racial division. The Wampanoags learned about race through this rising bar of civilization - every time they met demands to reform, colonists moved the bar higher until it rested on biological difference. Under the right circumstances, like those on Martha's Vineyard, religion could bridge wide difference between the peoples of early America, but its transcendent power was limited by the divisiveness of race.

Examines the history, changing fortunes, and current situation of the Wampanoag Indians.

Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoag tribe from 1620 to 1661, was one of the most powerful native rulers of New England. He was instrumental in the survival of the early settlers at Plymouth. His faithful adherence to a treaty he signed with the pilgrims in 1621 allowed the two groups to enjoy a peaceful coexistence. History will show that these acts of kindness, however, are the beginning of the end of the Indian culture. Alvin Weeks, past Great Sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men of Massachusetts, wrote Massasoit of the Wampanoags. Weeks includes a brief commentary and sketches of other great chiefs, tribes and nations, including Samoset, Squanto and Hobamock.