Editing Massasoit

{{Short description|Leader of the Wampanoag confederacy}}
{{For|the hybrid grape variety|Massasoit (grape)}}
{{Infobox Native American leader
| name             = Massasoit
| native_name      = Ousamequin
| native_name_lang = 
| image            = File:Massasoit, KC MO - detail.JPG
| image_size       = 
| alt              =
| caption          = Sculpture of Ousamequin in Mill Creek Park, Kansas City, Missouri by [[Cyrus E. Dallin]]
| tribe            = [[Wampanoag]]
| birth_name       = Ousamequin
| birth_date       = {{circa|1581}}
| birth_place      = 
| death_date       = 1661 (aged 80)
| death_place      = 
| death_cause      = 
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = [[Wamsutta]]
| nicknames        = 
| resting_place    = 
| rp_coordinates   = 
| battles          = 
| office           = 
| term_start       = 
| term_end         = 
| religion         = 
| party            = 
| education        = 
| spouse           = 
| partner          = 
| children         = [[Wamsutta]], [[Metacomet]]
| parents          = 
| relations        = 
| mother_tongue    = 
| module           = 
| footnotes        = 
}}
[[Image:Profile Rock (Assonet).jpg|thumb|1904 photo of [[Profile Rock]] in [[Assonet, Massachusetts]]; local Wampanoags believe it represents Massasoit.]]
'''Massasoit Sachem'''  ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|æ|s|ə|ˈ|s|ɔɪ|(|ɪ|)|t}} {{respell|MASS|ə|SOYT|,_-|SOY|it}})<ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|Massasoit|access-date=February 24, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MHRSimXLU&t=22s|title=Massasoit Commercial - 30 Seconds|publisher=Massasoit Community College|date=February 25, 2020|access-date=February 25, 2021}}</ref> or '''Ousamequin''' ({{circa|1581}}{{spaced ndash}}1661)<ref name=MassMF>"Native People" (page), "Massasoit (Ousamequin) Sachem" (section),''MayflowerFamilies.com'', web page:[http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/philip/d1.htm MFcom-Native] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061104203528/http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/philip/d1.htm |date=November 4, 2006 }}</ref> was the [[sachem]] or leader of the [[Wampanoag]] confederacy. ''Massasoit'' means ''Great Sachem''. Although Massasoit was only his title, English colonists mistook it as his name and it stuck.<ref>Bicknell, p. 12</ref>

Massasoit's people had been seriously weakened by a series of epidemics and were vulnerable to attacks by the [[Narragansett people|Narragansetts]], and he formed an alliance with the colonists at [[Plymouth Colony]] for defense against them. It was through his assistance that the Plymouth Colony avoided starvation during the early years.

==English at Plymouth==
At the time of the pilgrims' arrival in Plymouth, the realm of the Wampanoag, also known as the [[Pokanokets]], included parts of [[Rhode Island]] and much of southeastern [[Massachusetts]].<ref name="hosm">{{cite book |editor1-last=Wright |editor1-first=Otis Olney |title=History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917 |date=1917 |publisher=Town of Swansea |page=19|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofswansea00wrig#page/19/mode/1up |access-date=11 June 2018|oclc=1018149266}}</ref> Massasoit lived in Sowams, a village at [[Pokanoket]] in [[Warren, Rhode Island]]. He held the allegiance of lesser Pokanoket sachems. In 1621, he sent [[Squanto]] to live among the colonists at Plymouth.<ref>Humins, John H. (March 1987). "Squanto and Massasoit: A Struggle for Power". ''New England Quarterly''. 60 (1): 54–70. {{doi|10.2307/365654}}. JSTOR 365654.</ref>

Outbreaks of an unidentified disease had devastated the Pokanokets, and Massasoit sought an alliance with the colonies of [[New England]] against the neighboring Narragansetts who controlled an area west of [[Narragansett Bay]] in Rhode Island. [[Samoset]] was a minor Abenaki sachem (''sagamore'') who hailed from the [[Muscongus Bay]] area of [[Maine]],<ref>Bradford, William (1952). Morison, Samuel Eliot (ed.). ''Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 80, n.8</ref> and he learned to speak English from fishermen who plied those waters. Massasoit sent him to approach the colonists to find out whether their intentions were peaceful.

Massasoit forged critical political and personal ties with colonial leaders [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]], [[Edward Winslow]], [[Stephen Hopkins (settler)|Stephen Hopkins]], [[John Carver (Mayflower passenger)|John Carver]], and [[Myles Standish]], ties which grew out of a [[peace treaty]] negotiated on March 22, 1621. The alliance ensured that the Pokanokets remained neutral during the [[Pequot War]] in 1636.<ref name="Wampanoag">[http://pokanoket.us/Pokanoket-Leaders.html#MASSASOIT_OUSAMEQUIN "Pokanoket Leaders", Wampanoag Nation]</ref> According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of Plymouth Colony and the starvation that the [[Pilgrims]] faced during its earliest years.<ref name="Wampanoag" />

==Lasting alliance==
[[File:Sowams - with ancient records of Sowams and parts adjacent-illustrated (1908) (14784453735).jpg|left|thumb|239x239px|Part of an old map of New England, Morton's Memorial, 1677. The crown, indicating the royal seat of Massasoit, lies between the two branches of the [[Warren River|Sowams River]]]]
Some tension continued between Massasoit and the colonists when they refused to give up [[Squanto]], whom Massasoit believed to have betrayed him.  This was resolved in March 1623 when Massasoit was gravely ill and Edward Winslow nursed him back to health.<ref>Alvin G. Weeks, [http://www.nanations.com/massasoit/index.htm ''Massasoit of the Wampanoags''], 1919.</ref>  After his recovery, Winslow reports that Massasoit said, "the English are my friends and love me... whilst I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me."<ref>Winslow, ch. 4</ref> In return for their kindness, Massasoit warned them of a plot against them. He had learned that a group of influential [[Massachusett]] warriors intended to destroy both the [[Wessagusset]] and Plymouth colonies, and he warned the Pilgrims in time.

[[Image:Wampanoag2.jpg|thumb|Massasoit smoking a [[ceremonial pipe]] with Governor [[John Carver (Mayflower passenger)|John Carver]] in [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]], 1621]]

The alliance came under other tension in later years, as the colonists expanded into new lands in order to support their growing colony.  Massasoit sold a tract of land 14 miles square to Myles Standish and others of [[Duxbury, Massachusetts|Duxbury]] in 1649 to alleviate tension and maintain the peace. The sale took place atop [[Sachem Rock Farm|Sachem Rock]], an outcropping on the [[Satucket River]] in [[East Bridgewater, Massachusetts]].  The site is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].

==Children==
Massasoit had five children: son [[Wamsutta]], who was born between 1621 and 1625; son Pometecomet, [[Metacomet]], or Metacom; son Sonkanuchoo; and daughters Amie and Sarah. Soon after his death, Wamsutta and Metacomet went to Plymouth and asked the Pilgrims to give them English names. The court named them Alexander and Philip. Wamsutta, the eldest, became [[sachem]] of the [[Pokanoket]]s on the death of his father.<ref name=Appletons>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Massasoit|year=1900}}</ref> He died within a year, and his brother Metacom succeeded him in 1662.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/indianhistorybio00peir#page/38/mode/2up Peirce, Ebenezer. ''Indian History'', Zeviah Gould Mitchell, North Abington, Massachusetts, 1878]</ref> Amie married Tispaquin and was the only one of Massasoit's five children to survive [[King Philip's War]] in 1676.

==Legacy==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2011}}
{{multiple image
   | direction = vertical
   | width = 200
   | align = right
   | footer = [[Massasoit (statue)|Statue of Massasoit]] in Plymouth, overlooking the site of [[Plymouth Rock]]; a relief portrait of Massasoit salvaged from the gable of the former [[D. H. & A. B. Tower#History|Massasoit Block]] in [[Holyoke]].
   | image1 = Massasoit statue plymouth 2007.jpg
   | image2 = Chief_Massasoit_relief_from_former_building.jpg}}

[[Roger Williams]] fled the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] to avoid arrest and deportation for religious reasons and stayed the winter of 1635–36 with Massasoit, who gave him land along the [[Seekonk River]] the following spring. Governor Winslow advised Williams to move his settlement to the other side of the river because his current location was within the bounds of Plymouth Colony. Williams did so and founded [[Providence Plantations]], which later became part of the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Colony of Rhode Island]].<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/cultural_diversity/Roger_Williams_National_Memorial.html "Roger Williams National Memorial", National Park Service]</ref>

The half century of peace that Massasoit so assiduously maintained collapsed soon after his death. Wamsutta broke away from his father's diplomacy and began an alliance with [[Connecticut Colony]].

Massasoit was humane and honest, kept his word, and endeavored to imbue his people with a love for peace. He kept the Pilgrims advised of any warlike designs toward them by other tribes.<ref name="Appletons" /> It is unclear when Massasoit died. Some accounts claim that it was as early as 1660; others contend that he died as late as 1662. He was anywhere from 80 to 90 at the time.<ref name="Appletons" />

Wamsutta died suddenly within a year of his succession, and Massasoit's second son Metacom became sachem of the Pokanokets and chief sachem of the Greater Wampanoag Confederacy. He believed that Wamsutta had been murdered at the hands of the Colonists, and this was one of the factors that led to [[King Philip's War]], one of the bloodiest wars in Colonial American history.

A [[Massasoit (statue)|statue of Massasoit]] by sculptor [[Cyrus E. Dallin]] stands near [[Plymouth Rock]], with others [[Statue of Massasoit (Salt Lake City)|outside the Utah State Capitol]] building, on the campus of [[Brigham Young University]], at the [[Springville Museum of Art]] in [[Springville, Utah]], and in [[Kansas City, Missouri]] at the corner of Main Street and Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd. In Massachusetts, both [[Massasoit Community College]] and [[Massasoit State Park]]<ref>[https://www.mass.gov/locations/massasoit-state-park "Massasoit State Park", Commonwealth of Massachusetts]</ref> are named for him.

== Gallery ==
<gallery heights="140" widths="160" mode="nolines">
File:Meeting of Governor Carver and Massasoit - drawn by H.L. Stevens ; eng'd. by Augustus Robin, N.Y. LCCN89707285 (cropped).jpg|Meeting of Governor Carver and Massasoit
File:The Palace of Massasoit LCCN89707226 (cropped).jpg|The Palace of Massasoit
File:Indian history for young folks (1919) (14752985292).jpg|Massasoit and his Warriors
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[List of early settlers of Rhode Island]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*"Native People" (page), "Massasoit (Ousamequin) Sachem" (section), ''MayflowerFamilies.com'', webpage: [https://web.archive.org/web/20061104203528/http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/philip/d1.htm MFcom-Native].
*{{cite book | last = Bicknell | first = Thomas Williams | title = Sowams, with Ancient Records of Sowams and Parts Adjacent | url = https://archive.org/details/sowamswithancien00bic | publisher = Associated Publishers of American Records | year = 1908 | location = New Haven}}
*{{cite book | last = Winslow | first = Edward | title = Good Newes from New England | year = 1624 | location = London | url = http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/goodnews0.html}}
*[[Nathaniel Philbrick]], ''Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War,'' New York 2006.

==Further reading==

* Lisa Blee and Jean M. O'Brien, ''Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
*Virginia Baker, ''[[gutenberg:65284|Massasoit's Town, Sowams in Pokanoket, Its History Legends and Traditions]]'', Published by the author, Warren, Rhode Island, 1904

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Massasoit |short=x}}
* {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Massasoit |short=x}}

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[[Category:Native Americans connected with Plymouth Colony]]
[[Category:Plymouth, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1580s births]]
[[Category:1661 deaths]]
[[Category:Wampanoag people]]
[[Category:Tribal chiefs]]
[[Category:17th-century Native American leaders]]
[[Category:Native American people from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Native American history of Massachusetts]]