Squanto

Pawtuxet diplomat, interpreter, and guide

• Born: c. 1590
• Birthplace: Patuxet (by present-day Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts)
• Died: November 1, 1622
• Place of death: Chatham Harbor, Plymouth Colony (now Chatham, Massachusetts)

After his initial, unpleasant contact with English settlers, Squanto became a friend and supporter of the Plymouth Colony. The first major Native American interpreter for the colonies, his geographic knowledge of New England was invaluable to the settlers, and his hunting and fishing expertise enabled them to survive the early difficult years in North America.

Early Life

The early life of Squanto (SKWAHN-toh), or Tisquantum as he called himself, is mostly unknown. He was a member of the Pawtuxet, a small tribe of about two thousand that was part of the Wampanoag Confederation of tribes along the coast of New England. Squanto’s home village was located near the later site of the Plymouth Colony. His date of birth could have been as early as 1580, but since he was apparently very young in 1605, the time of his first contact with the English, he was more likely born about 1590. Nothing is known about his childhood years, but there is some indication that he was a sachem (chief) or at least a potential sachem.

In 1605, more than a century after John Cabot claimed North America for England, English merchants, desiring more information about the natural resources of the area, organized an expedition to explore the coast of Canada and New England. They enlisted the services of Captain George Weymouth to lead the venture. Captain Weymouth sailed down the coast from Maine, eventually stopping in what later became Massachusetts. After trading with Native Americans in the area, the captain decided to take several Native Americans back to England to show the merchants what the inhabitants were like. Several young men were apparently bribed to go with Weymouth, and two more were forcibly captured. One of these was an especially good representative of the Native American population and was the one Weymouth definitely wanted to take back to England. Based on his apparently early introduction to the English language and on other circumstantial evidence, this young man was most likely Squanto. Weymouth’s own account indicates that Squanto willingly agreed to go to England, but that is highly unlikely.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges was the head of the Plymouth Company and was planning to exploit the natural resources of North America. Upon arrival in England, Squanto was taken to live with Gorges. Squanto learned some basics of the English language, which then enabled him to serve as a guide and translator for Weymouth’s ship captains, who were sailing the coasts of New England. Despite Squanto’s presence on these voyages, however, he was apparently never afforded the opportunity to return to his home on Plymouth Bay.

In 1614, after nine years in the service of Gorges, Squanto’s return home was at last made possible when Captain John Smith , earlier of Virginia, agreed to take him on his journey to map the coast of New England. In return for Squanto’s assistance in the endeavor, Captain Smith promised in good faith to return the Pawtuxet guide to his native village. Smith had plans for a major trading settlement in New England, and peaceful and friendly tribes were an important part of this plan. When Smith returned to England, he left behind an associate, Thomas Hunt, to trade with the native tribes.

Hunt’s plans were far different from Smith’s. He soon lured twenty-four trusting Nauset and Pawtuxet men, including Squanto, aboard his ship. He sailed to Málaga, Spain, where he began selling his captives into slavery. Squanto was later rescued by friars at a monastery, converted to Christianity, and somehow made his way to England. For several years he lived in London and became fluent in the English language.

Finally, in 1619, Squanto and Captain Thomas Dermer, with whom Squanto had become friends when both worked for John Smith, led an expedition back to America. Their goal was to re-establish the trade that had ended as a result of the actions of Hunt. After separating from Squanto, Dermer was wounded fighting Native Americans at Martha’s Vineyard and later died of his wounds at Jamestown.

Life’s Work

Squanto’s return to his home village of Pawtuxet was bittersweet. During the last years of his absence, a plague, most likely smallpox brought to the New World by the Europeans, had broken out among the Nauset and Pawtuxet tribes along Plymouth Bay. Squanto found that his entire village had died. He was the lone survivor. Whatever leadership role Squanto had had before his captivity was now lost, since he had been a leader only within his own village and not in the larger Wampanoag Confederation.

For the next several months, Squanto lived with the Pokanokets and the Namaskets, other tribes of the Wampanoag Confederation. There is some indication that he was actually a captive as a result of the fighting that had wounded Dermer and of Squanto’s friendship with the English. Massasoit and his brother Quadequina led these two tribes, and they were the dominant figures in the Wampanoag Confederation as a whole.

The work for which Squanto is best remembered began with the November, 1620, arrival on Plymouth Bay of the Mayflower and its cargo of 102 passengers. The Pilgrims, as they were later called, disembarked in December and began building their village of Plymouth. Although the site of the village was on or very near the site of Squanto’s old village of Pawtuxet, Squanto did not immediately pay a visit to the settlers. During that first harsh winter, about half the settlers died of disease.

Samoset, a member of the Abenaki tribe in Maine, was visiting the Wampanoag Confederation at this time. On March 16, 1621, he walked into Plymouth, perhaps sent by Massasoit to investigate the conditions of the settlement. Samoset, who had learned a few words of English from fishermen, returned to the village on March 22. With him was Squanto, with his excellent knowledge of the English language, as well as Massasoit and Quadequina. With Squanto as interpreter, the leaders of Plymouth quickly signed a treaty and negotiated a trade agreement with the tribal leaders.

Squanto stayed at Plymouth for the rest of his life, which was about eighteen months. From the first day, he tied his life and fortunes to those of the English settlers. He taught them the basic survival skills needed to be successful in New England. He told them when and how to plant corn. The settlers followed his instructions, planting when the leaves on the trees were the size of squirrel’s ears, putting several seeds in a small hill, and including a fish for fertilizer. Squanto even taught the women how to cook the corn. Squanto helped the men build warmer houses and taught them to hunt and fish.

Squanto also greatly assisted the Plymouth Colony in their relationship with the Wampanoag Confederation. A major part of this assistance resulted from his skill as an interpreter. He guided English leaders to various villages, introduced them to the village leaders, and negotiated treaties. However, not all of his work was successful. Although the Pokanokets, led by Massasoit, were pleased with the initial treaty with Plymouth, the Namaskets felt that it gave too much power to the English. At one point, Squanto was captured by the Namaskets and had to be rescued by the settlers. His later negotiations with Massachusett towns north of Plymouth and with other Wampanoag tribes on Cape Cod were more successful. The relationship between the English settlements and the Wampanoag Confederation, which Squanto helped establish, lasted until Metacom’s War (also known as King Philip’s War) in 1675.

One of Squanto’s closest friends at Plymouth was Governor William Bradford . In November, 1622, he accompanied Bradford on a trading expedition to Cape Cod. Bad weather forced them into Manamoyick Bay, where Squanto became ill with Indian fever. As he lay dying, he asked Bradford to pray for him so that he could go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven. He bequeathed his few possessions to his English friends.

Significance

Squanto seems to have, on occasion, tried to use his friendship with the English for his own advantage. On one occasion he tried unsuccessfully to undermine the authority of Massasoit. As a result of this episode and his close friendship with the English, other Wampanoags came to consider him an enemy. This rejection by his own people is indicative of the tense relations between the Wampanoags and the English, even before the settlers made any programmatic attempts to expand their territory.

Squanto’s greatest historical significance arguably lies in his simple, day-to-day value to the Plymouth Colony in teaching the Europeans an American way of life. At the very least, the survival of the colony would have been much more difficult without the aid of their Native American friend, and it might well have failed altogether.

Bibliography

Brandon, William. The Rise and Fall of North American Indians. New York: Taylor Trade, 2003. Chapter 17, “Puritans and Indians,” establishes Squanto’s role in the complicated and stormy relationships between the English and the Native Americans.

Hoxie, Frederick, ed. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Includes the best-researched and probably the most accurate account of Squanto. Does not include the less documented 1605 capture by George Weymouth. Includes all that is known of his 1614 capture and the next five years.

Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Full coverage of the relationship between the Native Americans in New England and the European settlements. By one of the best known modern scholars of the period.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Squanto: Last of the Patuxets.” In Struggle and Survival in Colonial America, edited by David Sweet and Gary Nash. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. An excellent essay on Squanto in the overall context of the colonial confrontations between the Native Americans and the European immigrants.