Native Traditions in Massachusetts
Although other sections in this online resource focus on the history and community life of
religious traditions in Greater Boston, Native Peoples extend well beyond the urban
center. Therefore, this essay examines their unique history and spiritual presence
throughout the entire state of Massachusetts.
A Long History in Massachusetts
At the time Europeans began settling in what is now the state of Massachusetts in the late
16th and early 17th century, the land was home to tens of thousands of Native Peoples
from many tribes. These included the Pawtucket (or Penacook), the Massachusett, the
Pokantoket (or Wampanoag), and several other smaller bands including the Nipmuck and
Pocumtuck. To the south, in what is now Rhode Island and Connecticut, there were bands
of Pequot-Mohegans, Narragansetts, Western and Eastern Niantic, Quirpi, Tunxis, and
Podunk Indians. Although it is much disputed exactly how long the ancestors of these
Native Peoples had been living in this area, it is generally agreed that some have been
here for at least 12,000 years. Indian paths and campsites, located in the 6,500-acre Blue
Hills Reservation near Boston, are thought to be approximately 10,000 years old.
At the time of contact with the Europeans, Native tribes had rich and complex spiritual
traditions. The concept of Native American "religion" is problematic in two ways. First,
in no Native American language is there a single word equivalent to the English word
"religion." Religion does not exist as a separate category of activity or experience; rather,
it is pervasive and interconnected with all aspects of Native Peoples' life-ways. Second,
there is not a single American Indian religious tradition or spirituality, but rather a great
diversity of traditions, beliefs, practices, and cultural forms.
Despite this diversity, however, there are certain principles fundamental to most Native
Peoples that are important to understand as we look at what has happened to Native
beliefs and spiritual practices in Massachusetts. First, in Native traditions, there is a
special quality and intensity of interrelationship with the forms and forces of the natural
environment. Detailed knowledge of all aspects of their immediate habitat led Native
Peoples of this area to accumulate lore that integrated the pragmatic with the sacred.
Second, in Native traditions, time is not understood as linear, but is thought of as cyclical
and reciprocal. The seasons and the span of life are understood in terms of a circle and
are expressed again and again through ceremonial forms and acts. Third, for Native
Peoples words have a special potency that is integral to their specific sounds, and
therefore what is named is understood to be present. Thus, recitation of myth is
understood to be a reenactment of primordial events. Finally, "arts and crafts" are imbued
with sacred meaning and power. Similar to the power of breath and words, the natural
materials and the finished forms created by Native peoples are understood to be
manifestations, rather than representations, of sacred power.
At the time of contact with non-Indians, these traditions of belief and practice were still
very much alive and dynamic, since Native traditions are oral rather than written, and are
fluid and always expanding. From the early 17th century onward, ever-increasing contact
with European settlers led to tumultuous change. Entire tribal groups and linguistic
families became extinct. Others lost much of their population through violence
perpetrated by the settlers and, even more, through a series of disastrous epidemics of
diseases to which the Indians had no natural immunities. It is estimated that 90 percent of
the Native population of the New England area had died by 1650. Many of those that
survived tried, in varying degrees, to integrate into white culture.
In the late 1600s, growing ill-treatment by the settlers and their continued encroachment
on the land led "King Philip" (as the colonists referred to Metacom, the son of Massasoit,
chief of the Wampanoags) to join with all the Indians from the Merrimac River to the
Thames to force out the settlers. King Philip's War, which lasted from 1675-1677, was
the most disastrous period in the history of New England for the Indians. Philip and the
leading chiefs were killed and the Wampanoags and Narragansetts were practically
exterminated. Of fifty-two Wampanoag tribes that were living in this area in the mid1600s, only four tribes survive today. Most of the survivors fled west to the interior and
many of those who surrendered were sold into slavery.
In the mid-1600s, Harvard's John Eliot launched a mission to convert Indians to
Christianity, translating the Bible into the Algonquin language and establishing "Indian
Praying Towns" for Native converts. Those who agreed or were coerced into this
situation, however, found themselves under suspicion from both other Native groups as
well as from the colonists. There were originally 14 praying towns in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, but by 1684, only four of these remained: Natick, Ponkapoag area (the area
of the Blue Hills Reservation), Wamesit (Lowell), and Chabanakongkomun. There were
ten communities of Christian Indians in Plymouth Colony, ten on Martha's Vineyard, and
five on Nantucket. Farther west, Christian influence and acculturation was less strong,
however, as there had been no missions in the western two-thirds of Massachusetts before
King Philip's War.
The 18th and 19th centuries were years of slow and painful acculturation, during which
the surviving Massachusetts Indians struggled to keep their economic, cultural, and
religious traditions alive. Different reservations were given to and taken from the tribes as
the settlers' needs changed. As new waves of missionaries came and went, Praying
Towns and Christian Missionary schools for Indians were founded and disbanded.
Missions founded in the 17th century were hard hit by King Philip's War, but the
religious fervor of the Great Awakening in the 1740s rekindled Christian missionary
outreach and conversion.
Despite the heavy missionization in much of the Natives' territory, most surviving groups
showed remarkable ability to cope with change and cultural deprivation by adapting and
borrowing from the non-Indian world with pragmatic yet cautious selectivity. This ability
exists to the present day. Indian relations with Roman Catholic and Protestant
denominations of Christianity spans two extremes: those who have embraced Christianity
fully and have denounced their traditional belief systems, to those who have embraced
sacred native ways and rejected Christianity. Most Natives embrace a system of belief
and practice which falls somewhere between the two, however, achieving a syncretism in
which neither negates the other.
For the Native Peoples living in Massachusetts today, multiple religious identity is a way
of life. Although many Natives do have some Christian practice and many self-identify as
Christians, many also take part in traditional annual celebrations that acknowledge the
cycles of the earth, moon, and sun, and the agricultural seasons. Some of the most
important of these include the Planting Ceremony in the Spring, the New Year's
celebration at the end of April, the Harvest (Green Corn) Ceremony in the Fall, the
changing of the seasons, and the equinoxes and solstices. In addition, there are the Four
Directions Ceremonies, Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, and Color Ceremonies. For large
gatherings, a farm, reservation land, or a public building is usually used; for smaller
ceremonies, however, people may gather at a certain oak tree, or by a lake or river that
has special meaning to the people involved. These ceremonies may attract anywhere from
a handful of people to several hundred. Also significant are the many pow-wows that take
place in Massachusetts each year, which include gatherings in Middleboro, Topsfield,
Marshfield, Westford, Haverhill, Concord, Braintree, and Leominster.
The role of the Medicine Man (or less frequently the Medicine Woman) is also very
important in local Native culture. In Massachusetts each tribe has its own Medicine Man
who is responsible for leading the seasonal ceremonials and acts as spiritual advisor to his
people. One whose work spanned far beyond his own community and who was a wellrespected member of the Native community at large is Cjegkitoonuppa (Slow Turtle), of
the Mashpee Wampanoags. Although a Wampanoag, Slow Turtle served the entire
Native community in the area and even did spiritual work with some non-Native peoples,
including prison ministry. Until his death in 1997, his role in the community was to
counsel, lead ceremonies, give advice, and keep alive the sacred ways that are tens of
thousands of years old.
One issue of exceptional importance is federal recognition. Of the tribes native to
Massachusetts, only one -- the Wampanoag of Gay Head, on Martha's Vineyard -- has
received federal recognition. This status gives tribes the right to government land, money
to build housing and administrative buildings, and the right to repatriation of stolen
artifacts and human remains under the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act.
Native Peoples in Massachusetts Today
The metropolitan Boston area is currently home to over 6,000 Native Americans,
according to the North American Indian Center of Boston. Typical of urban Native areas,
the Boston Indian community is comprised of people from a wide array of tribes, both
from New England and the rest of the country. Significant numbers of New England
Wabanaki peoples are represented in the population; these are primarily Micmac, but also
include Abenaki, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot. There are also many southern
New England tribes including Wampanoag, Nipmuck, Narragansett, and Mohecan.
Overall, more than thirty tribes, bands, and nations are represented.
In Greater Boston, Native Peoples work diligently to preserve their rich heritage, unique
language, and spiritual practices through educational outreach and community programs.
Social organizations such as the North American Indian Center of Boston and the
Commission on Indian Affairs address the most severe challenges facing the Native
community, including poverty, access to health care, and limited educational
opportunities. Throughout the year, a variety of Native ceremonies, rituals and powwows attract anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred participants. These efforts
celebrate the rich history of Native Peoples in Massachusetts and help to preserve their
spiritual beliefs and cultural practices for future generations.