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The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills overlooking Boston Harbor from the south. As some of the first people to make contact with European explorers in New England, the Massachusett and fellow coastal peoples were severely decimated from an outbreak of leptospirosis circa 1619, which had mortality rates as high as 90 percent in these areas. This was followed by devastating impacts of virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, influenza, scarlet fever and others to which the indigenous people lacked natural immunity. Their territories, on the more fertile and flat coastlines, with access to coastal resources, were mostly taken over by English colonists, as the Massachusett were too few in number to put up any effective resistance. Missionary John Eliot converted the majority of the Massachusett to Christianity and founded praying towns, where the converted Native Americans were expected to submit to the colonial laws and assimilate to European culture, yet they were allowed to use their language. Through intermediaries, Eliot learned the Massachusett language and even published a translation of the Bible. The language, related to other Eastern Algonquian languages of southern New England, slowly faded, ceasing to serve as the primary language of the Massachusett communities by the 1750s. The language likely went extinct by the dawn of the 19th century. The last of Massachusett common lands were sold in the early 19th century, loosening the community and social bonds that held the Massachusett families together, and most of the Massachusett were forced to settle amongst neighboring European Americans, but mainly settled the poorer sections of towns where they were segregated with Black Americans, recent immigrants and other Native Americans. Surviving Massachusett assimilated and integrated into the surrounding communities. Name Endonyms The native name is written Massachuseuck (Muhsachuweeseeak) /məhsat͡ʃəwiːsiːak/—singular Massachusee (Muhsachuweesee). It translates as "at the great hill," referring to the Great Blue Hill, located in Ponkapoag. Exonyms English settlers adopted the term Massachusett for the name for the people, language, and ultimately as the name of their colony which became the American state of Massachusetts. John Smith first published the term Massachusett in 1616. Narragansett people called the tribe Massachêuck. Territory The historic territory of the Massachusett people consisted mainly of the hilly, heavily forested and comparatively fertile coastal plain along the southern side of Massachusetts Bay in what is now eastern Massachusetts. Major watersheds in Massachusett territory included the Charles River and the Neponset River. The Pennacook lived north of the Massachusett tribe, the Nipmuc to the west, Narragansett to the southwest in Rhode Island, and Pokanoket, now known as Wampanoag to the south. Anthropologist John R. Swanton wrote that their territory extended as far north as what is now Salem, Massachusetts, and south to Marshfield and Brockton. He wrote later they claimed lands in the Great Cedar Swamp (near present-day Lakeville), previously controlled by Wampanoag. By the 1660s the Massachusett moved into praying towns, such as Natick and Ponkapoag (Canton). Swanton lists the following: Massachusett settlements. Divisions Massachusett people settled in villages; however, these were organized into larger bands. Swanton writes about six major bands named for their sachems or leaders. Chickatawbut, later led by his son Wompatuck and subsequent heirs, additional region/band led by Obtakiest; Massachusett territory south of the Charles River and west of Ponkapoag Pond Nanepashemet, south of the Charles River. His territory was divided between his three sons: Winnepurkit, Deer Island and Boston Harbor Wonohaquaham, Winnisimmet and Saugus Montowampate, Massebequash and Lynn Manatahqua, around Nahant and Swampscott Cato, east of the Concord River Nahaton, around the area of Natick Cutshamekin, around Dorchester, Sudbury, and Milton. The appointment of guardians to administer the assets of the Praying Indians and represent them before the colony in 1743 ended the authority of local chiefs and the last vestiges of traditional tribal organization. Language The Massachusett language, Massachusee unontꝏwaok (Muhsachuweesee unôtuwôâôk) /məhsatʃəwiːsiː ənãtəwaːãk/), was an important language of New England as it was also the native language of the Wampanoag, Nauset, Cowesset, and Pawtucket people. Due to its similarity with other closely related languages of the region, a simplified pidgin of it was also used as a regional language of trade and intertribal communication. By the 1750s, Massachusett was no longer the predominant language of the community, and by 1798 only one Massachusett elder of advanced age spoke the language at Natick. Factors that led to the decline of the spoken language include the rapid rates of intermarriage with non-Indian spouses outside the speech community in the mid-18th century, the need for English for employment and participation in general society, the lack of prestige regarding the Indian language, and the dissolution of Indian communities and outmigration of people leading to greater isolation of speakers. The Wampanoag on Noepe, with its more secure land base and larger population, held onto Massachusett as the communal language into the 1770s and went extinct with the death of the last Wampanoag dialect — and last speakers of any Massachusett dialect — in the 1890s. Efforts to revitalize the language include the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project led by Jessie Little Doe Baird (Mashpee Wampanoag). Early subsistence The Massachusett occupied fertile flatlands. Men and women cleared fields first by burning trees, then by removing stumps. Women grew food crops, but men were involved in tobacco cultivation. Women used clamshell hoes. Women cultivated crops such as northern flint corn, called weachimineash in Massachusett, a variety of brands, squashes, and pumpkins. They planted corn in mounds, then planted beans that grew up the cornstalks, and finally the cucurbits, which protected roots and discouraged weeds. This companion planting method is called the Three Sisters. Other regional plant foods included grapes, strawberries, blackberries, currants, cherries, plums, raspberries, acorns, hickory nuts, chestnuts, butternuts, and leafy greens and pseudocereals such as chenopods. Massachusett people lived in conditional sedentary villages built along rivers. Families lived in domed houses, called wétu in Massachusett. The base structure of curved wooden support beams was covered with woven mats in the winter or chestnut bark in the summer. Inside, possessions were stored in hemp dogbane bags and bask.... 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