Role: Native American- Wampanoag Tribe
COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND
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Video
Introduction
Wampanoag Tribe
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Home
 Clothes
 Food
 Recipe
 Life
 Crafts
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Resources
for Sobaheg
Wampanoag's and the First Thanksgiving
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Wuneekeesuq! That means “good day”
in Wampanoag. My name is Wamsutta
and I am a 9-year-old Wampanoag
boy. I live near the Providence, Rhode
Island settlement and would be glad to
tell you about my tribe and daily life.
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Wampanoag means "easterners.“ We pronounce it WAWMpah-NAW-ahg, but you can also say wamp-a-NO-ag or
WAMP-ah-nog ("wamp" rhymes with "stomp.")
My tribe lives in the area that European colonists call
Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
To get out on fishing trips or other longer river trips, we use
dugout canoes, but we walk usually, to traveling over land.
Wampanoag Timeline
1500s - First European contact
1614 - Several Wampanoag’s kidnapped and sold in Spain as slaves
1620 - Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock
1621 - Massasoit helps sign treaty of future Plymouth Plantation for English
1632 - Narragansett’s attack Wampanoag village
1640 - John Eliot and other Puritan missionaries start “converting” native
peoples
1643 - Mohegan’s defeat Narragansett’s
1661 - Massasoit dies, but first petitions for English names for his two sons
(Wamsutta=> Alexander Metacomet=>Phillip)
1671 - Metacomet aka “King Phillip” called for “talks” by English, due to his
gathering tribesmen together for defense
1675-76 - King Phillip’s War
1678 - Peace treaties signed between English and the new decimated
Wampanoag tribe (only 400 Wampanoag survived)
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Have a look around my village! Our homes are called
wigwams or wetus. They can be cone, dome, or rectangular
shaped. Sometimes
they are called birchbark
houses, as they are made
of a wooden frame, covered with either strips of birch bark or
woven mats. This is what my house looks like:
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My tribe actually lives near the ocean only during the summer and spring,
and during the fall we live in the forests and valleys. This is because we
plant and fish during the warm times, and live more off of the forest
animals and foraged food from the forests during the cold times.
When the Europeans came, it served my island tribe members well to be on
the islands, as epidemics caused a lot of sickness and death from 16101620. Now, in 1675, only 1,000 Wampanoag tribe members survive on the
mainland.
9000 Wampanoag Population
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1600 Population
1620 Population
Mainland
Island
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Women in my tribe typically wear knee length
skirts, and men wear breechcloth and leggings.
Usually, neither wear shirts, though we do use
deerskin mantles during the winter months, when it is
cold. We also wear moccasins.
Wompanoag
Clothing
Breechcloth
and leggings
Men
+
Women
Skirt
+
Moccasins
Optional
deerskin
mantles
+
+
+
+
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My mother and the other women harvest corn,
squash and beans. The men hunted for deer,
turkeys, and small game and fishing canoes. The
other children and I collect foods like berries, nuts
and herbs.
Wompanoag Food Gathering
Food provided by women and children
Food provided by men
25%
75%
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I love to eat my mother’s stew (sobaheg is our word for
stew) and cornbread! She was says that you can have the
recipe, if you would like to try it yourself.
½ pound dry beans (white, red, brown, or spotted kidney-shaped beans)
½ pound yellow samp or coarse grits
1 pound turkey meat (legs or breast, with bone and skin)
3 quarts cold water
¼ pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
½ pound winter squash, trimmed and cubed
½ cup raw sunflower seed meats, pounded to a coarse flour
1. Combine dried beans, corn, turkey, and water in a large pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, turn down
to a very low simmer, and cook for about 2 ½ hours. Stir occasionally to be certain that the bottom is not
sticking.
2. When dried beans are tender, but not mushy, break up turkey meat, removing skin and bones. Add green
beans and squash, and simmer very gently until they are tender.
3. Add sunflower flour, stirring until thoroughly blended.
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I am learning how to fish, hunt, gather and work on
small crafts. We also learn about the animals, the
plant life. My parents teach me, as do the elders,
who tell us the sacred stories. We believe that it is
important to work together as a People and to
respect all life as sacred.
Some of the younger children play with cornhusk
dolls, but my favorite thing to “play” with is my bow
and arrow, which helps me to practice for when I
will hunt on my own to feed my family and village.
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My tribe is known for making wampum. We also
create beautiful beadwork, weave baskets, and
woodcarving.
Wampum is worked with white and purple shell
beads. This is what some wampum work might look
like:
Wampum beads are traded as a type of currency
(money), but it is most more important to us
culturally as an art material.
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Info on Wampanoag Tribe:
http://www.bigorrin.org/wampanoag_kids.htm
Sobaheg Recipe:
http://plimoth.org/discover/recipes/sobaheg.php
Wampanoag History: http://tolatsga.org/wampa.html
Info on the Gay Head Wampanoag tribe:
http://www.ygtu.com/Wampanoag-Tribe-of-Gay-HeadAquinnah-of-Massachusetts
Traditional Wompanoag and Colonial Dinners:
http://www.plimoth.org/kids/homeworkHelp/dinner.php
Map of Native American Territories in New England:
http://pokanoket.us/graphics/Tribal_Territories_Southern_Ne
w_England.png
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