Wowaus
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Wowaus, also known as James Printer (c.1650-1709), was an early Nipmuc writer who helped create the first Indian Bibles in the Massachusett language (an Algonquin language), which were used by English colonists in the cultural assimilation of Native Americans.[1]
Wowaus was the son of William Sudbury, a Christian Indian leader[2] from Hassanemesit (today Grafton, Massachusetts). Wowaus became fluent in English as a student at an Indian charity school. He attended Harvard's Indian College and worked as an apprentice at Samuel Green's printing press, "The Cambridge Press"[3], beginning in 1659. There, he became known by the English name, James Printer. In addition to the Indian Bible, Wowaus assisted Samuel Green in printing many of the Algonquian-language texts that were in circulation throughout theAmerican colonies from 1658 to 1710.[4]
In his late life, Wowaus was a teacher in Hassanemesit. His son, Ami, signed the deed that sold the last of the Hassanamesit tribal lands to the in 1727.[5]
References
- ^ Senier, Siobhan (2014). Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writer from New England. University of Nebraska Press. p. 374. ISBN 9780803246867.
- ^ "Literacy and the Printing Press". Peabody museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univeristy. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ "Cambridge Press". From English to Algonquin: Early New England Translations. americanantiquarian.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ "Wowaus, or James Printer (d. 1717)". From English to Algonquin: Early American Translations. americanantiquarian.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ Daniels, George F. (1892). History of the Town of Oxford, Massachusetts: With Genealogies and Notes on Persons and Estates. Oxford: Pub. by the author with the cooperation of the town, 1892. Oxford: Pub. by the author with the cooperation of the town. p. 756.
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