Pocomtuc
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The Pocomtuc, also Pocumtuck or Deerfield Indians, were a Native American tribe formerly inhabiting Western Massachusetts, especially around the confluence of the Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers in Franklin County, but also found in parts of Hampden and Hampshire County, as well as portions of Connecticut and Vermont. Their principal village, also known as Pocomtuc, is in the vicinity of current Deerfield, Massachusetts.[1] Their language, now extinct, was an R-dialect of the Algonquian language family, most likely related to the Wappinger and nearby Mahican tribes of the Hudson River Valley.[2]
Little is known about the Pocomtuc people, but it is believed they led a similar lifestyle to other tribes of New England, engaging in semi-sedentary agriculture of maize, corn, and squash as well as taking advantage of the fish runs along the Connecticut River, which also served as a major inland transportation route.
The Pocomtuc were originally allied with the Tunxis and Narragansett against Chief Uncas and the Pequots, but all these tribes eventually united against the English colonists in King Phillip's War.[2]
At the close of the war, many of the Pocomtuc, Nipmuc, and other tribes fled to Schaghticoke, on the Hudson River, where they remained until 1754, when most joined and merged into the Abenaki tribes at St.-François-du-Lac, Québec or moved further west. The Pocomtuc were decimated by intertribal warfare with the Mohawk and by smallpox epidemics, even before European contact, and their numbers were further reduced as they served as pawns in the power struggle among the Dutch, English, and French, and their respective Native American allies. Amazingly, small bands remained in Massachusetts as late as the 1800s, but most fled north or lost their tribal identity through intermarriage with other tribes and settlers. Many of the present-day Abenaki of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada are of Pocomtuc ancestry.
Among the members of the Pocomtuc tribe was Chief Wawanotewat, better known as "Greylock", a famous warrior who continued to lead bands into Massachusetts even after most had left the state. Mount Greylock, in the Berkshires is named after him.[3]
[edit] Villages associated with the Pocomtuc
- Agawam - present-day Agawam, Massachusetts (sometimes associated with the Nipmuc)
- Mayawaug - present-day West Suffield, Connecticut
- Nameroke - present-day Enfield, Connecticut
- Nonotuck - present-day Northampton, Massachusetts
- Norwottuck - present-day Hadley, Massachusetts
- Pachasock - somewhere in present-day Hampden County, Massachusetts
- Pocumtuc - present-day Deerfield, Massachusetts
- Scitico - present-day Enfield, Connecticut (farther east)
- Squawkeag - present-day Northfield, Massachusetts (sometimes associated with the Nipmuc)
- Woronoco - present-day Russell, Massachusetts
[edit] References
- ^ Hodge, Frederick W. Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1910.
- ^ a b Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America, pp. 23-24. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
- ^ Pocumtuc
