INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIVE TRIBES
When the first European explorers arrived in this land, tribes populated every part of the continent. Early settlers found the Delawares, Iroquois, Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, Algonquin and other tribes inhabiting the northeastern part of the USA.
| Jonathan Perry of Dartmouth, a re-enactor at Plimoth Plantation, looks over Long Point Marshes in Provincetown in 2004. Since this time the tribe has been accepted as an official historic tribe.
The Massachusett Indians were always a small tribe from time unknown. Their tribal name was derived from massi, "great", achooset, "hilly place". They were known by several names, according to their place of residence, as Shawmuts, Neponsets, Naticks, etc. Their last name was Ponkapoag, meaning "dry pond", and named for a pond near their last settlement. The last chief of this tribe was Jeremiah Bancroft, who died in 1924. |
