|Early settlers discovered vast Indian bounty|
|Written by News Desk|
|Sunday, 01 December 2013 15:57|
Pictured: Dr. John Van Valkenberg often gives presentations about people and events in histroy to civic, school and church groups. Here he is pictured as Squanto and demonstrating a Native American baby carrier.
Photo: Brian Hodge
By Dr. John VanValkenburg
The "Mayflower" was loaded with 102 passengers. They were crammed on board with goods and supplies. The first-Pilgrims were not a homogeneous group. Some were from Holland, restless to establish the Dutch Reform Church in the new world.
The others, the great majority were strangers, members of the Church of England, they were not seeking in the new world a new base for religious' faith, but an opportunity for economic advancement. There was not a blue blood among them, they were all passengers with one common bond, they came from the lower class of society.
Captain Myles Standish and William Bradford were recorded in history as being the leaders that emerged to represent this group on many occasions, There would be unrest, almost mutiny on board as the "Mayflower" crossed the Atlantic.
They were surprised, when they were put ashore in the new world to find a few yards inland open fields, filled with planted corn. This grain they cooked for the first time and found it to be delicious.
Near the fields were small sand mounds, digging into these mounds they found storage areas of corn (maize) in woven baskets. They raided these taking the stores to the ship for later use.
Up a small bay and then river (later they named it "The James River") was a clearing or maize field and an ideal place to establish a town. A large boulder here would assist the first permanent landing to be known as Plymouth Rock and the town to be known as Plymouth.
What puzzled the Pilgrims of Plymouth the most was "where were the savage Indians?" They would see them on distant islands and shorelines and see the smoke of fires among the hills, but very little close contact. The painted faces and the stories they had heard before leaving London were enough to create strong anxieties.
They knew they were being watched from the edges of forests and this prompted them to travel in pairs no matter where they went and to always have a musket at hand. The Pilgrims were sitting down to a council meeting one afternoon, when to their surprise and fear a young, tall, handsome Indian walked into the village. He strode toward the council house, bow and arrow in hand and entirely nude except for a hide string around his waist and bid the words with a hand gesture "welcome."
He had a smiling face and his name was "Samoset." The Pilgrims plied him with questions to learn how he had learned English and he responded that he had learned English from association with the English along the Maine shoreline.
He was Chief of a small sub tribe called Abnaki. He told them the areas dominant tribe was called Wampanoag.
They gave him a long red riding coat, to keep him warm, and to cover his nakedness. Samoset said the tribe surrounding the village was a band ofWampanoags called "Patuxet."
The Patuxet were almost entirely wiped out four years ago by disease (probably smallpox). Patuxet meant, "Little Bay" or "Little Falls."
The one surviving Indian from the tribe was named "Squanto" and he had been taken captive as a slave and transported to Europe, but returned.
Samoset said the chief overlord of the area tribe's was called "Yellow Feather" or "Massasoit." Samoset said he would return the next day with Wampanoag warriors to visit with them.
Several days later Samoset returned with his friend "Squanto" and several other braves and announced that in the forest nearby was Massasoit himself and that he wanted to powwow with the governor. There appeared on a nearby hill sixty painted warriors, with faces painted black and yellow, red and blue and blends of white with other colors. All of this with streaks of different colors across the cheek and brow. The great leader Massasoit stood proud and solemn among them.
He asked that he mig