THE SQUAW SACHEM OF CONCORD1

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

1. In a mural painted by Aiden L. Ripley of Lexington in 1924 on a wall of the Winchester Public Library, John Winthrop is caught in the act of bargaining with Squaw Sachem for land. You will note that he is wearing the signature buckle shoes that in fact Puritans never wore (except of course in cartoons).

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In New England, illness was taking off 9 out of 10 of those being served by headman Nanepashemet. “[A]fter the plague few Sagamores had three hundred subjects, some but fifteen, some only two.” After the epidemic Nanepashemet moved from Lynn to Medford MA and lived near a circular fort of poles thirty feet high which must have given him some good measure of reassurance, but nevertheless in 1619 human enemies would find him there and kill him. His spouse would become the leader of the band, and be known as the “Squaw Sachem” (when eventually she would remarry, with Webbacowet, she would retain leadership of the band). According to the Peabody Essex Museum, this was her mark:

When the English settlements first commenced in New England,that part of its territory, which lies south of New Hampshire,was inhabited by five principal nations of Indians: — thePequots, who lived in Connecticut; the Narragansetts, in RhodeIsland; the Pawkunnawkuts, or Womponoags, east of theNarragansetts and to the north as far as Charles river;2 theMassachusetts, north of Charles river and west of MassachusettsBay; and the Pawtuckets, north of the Massachusetts. Theboundaries and rights of these nations appear not to have beensufficiently definite to be now clearly known. They had withintheir jurisdiction many subordinate tribes, governed by sachems,or sagamores, subject, in some respects, to the principalsachem. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, theywere able to bring into the field more than 18,000 warriors; butabout the year 1612, they were visited with a pestilentialdisease, whose horrible ravages reduced their number to about1800.3 Some of their villages were entirely depopulated. Thisgreat mortality was viewed by the first Pilgrims, as theaccomplishment of one of the purposes of Divine Providence, bymaking room for the settlement of civilized man, and bypreparing a peaceful asylum for the persecuted Christians of theold world. In what light soever the event may be viewed, it nodoubt greatly facilitated the settlements, and rendered themless hazardous.4

1612

2. I have long supposed that the Indians living south of Charles river did not belong to the Massachusetts tribe. Chickatabot, sachem of Neponset, and Obatinuat acknowledged submission to Massasoit in 1621, and were at enmity with Squaw Sachem. No instance within my knowledge is recorded of a petty sachem going to war with his own tribe. It is also worthy of remark, that these sachems and their descendants executed deeds of lands within Massasoit’s territories, but never in the Massachusetts territories. As the country became settled by the English, and the jealousies between different tribes were forgotten, all the Indians living within the Massachusetts patent were rather erroneously classed among the Massachusetts Indians. Hence the statements of Winthrop, Gookin, and other historians. See Prince, Annals, 1621.3. Massachusetts Historical Collection vol. i.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY

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Headman Nanepashemet had moved from Lynn to Medford and lived near a circular fort of poles thirty feet high which must have given him some good measure of reassurance, but in this year his enemies found him there and killed him. His spouse became the Squaw Sachem of the band in his place and eventually would remarry, to Webbacowet, while retaining leadership of the band.

Musketaquid, the original Indian name of Concord and ConcordRiver, for a long time before it was settled by our fathers, hadbeen one of the principal villages of the Massachusetts tribe.Nanepashemet was the great king or sachem of these Indians. Hisprincipal place of residence was Medford, near Mystic pond. “Hishouse was built on a large scaffold six feet high, and on thetop of a hill. Not far off, he build a fort with palisades 30or 40 feet high having but one entrance, over a bridge. Thisalso served as the place of his burial, he having been killedabout the year 1619 by the Tarrantines, a warlike tribe ofeastern Indians at another fort which he had built about a mileoff.” He left a widow, Squaw Sachem and five children. SquawSachem succeeded to all the power and influence of her husband,as the great queen of the tribe. Her power was so much dreaded,when she was first visited by the Plymouth people in 1621, thather enemies, the sachems of Boston and Neponset, desiredprotection against her, as one condition of submission to theEnglish. She married Wibbacowitts, “the powwaw, priest, witch,sorcerer or chirurgeon” of the tribe. This officer was highestin esteem next to the sachem; and he claimed as a right the handof a widowed sachem in marriage; and by this connexion became aking in the right of his wife, clothed with such authority aswas possessed by her squawship. Both assented to the sale ofMusketaquid, though Tahattawan, hereafter to be noticed, was theprincipal sachem of the place. This tribe was once powerful.Before the great sickness already mentioned, it could number3,000 warriors. That calamity, and the small-pox, whichprevailed among them with great mortality in 1633, reduced itto nearly one tenth of that number. The Musketaquid Indianssuffered in common with the brethren of their tribe elsewhere.When first visited by the English, their number wascomparatively very small.5

4. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy(On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)

1619

5. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy(On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)

MASSACHUSETTS BAY

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Speaking of female royalty, in this year Sir Henry Wotton addressed a poem addressed to the popular Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I and the wife of the ill-fated Frederick V, Elector Palatine and for a short time in this period the king of Bohemia (until driven away by Spain and Austria):

You meaner beauties of the night,That poorly satisfy our eyes

More by your number than your light;You common people of the skies,What are you when the sun shall rise?

You curious chanters of the wood,That warble forth Dame Nature’s lays,

Thinking your voices understoodBy your weak accents; what’s your praiseWhen Philomel6 her voice shall raise?

You violets that first appear,By your pure purple mantles known,

Like the proud virgins of the year,As if the spring were all your own;What are you when the rose is blown?

So, when my mistress shall be seenIn form and beauty of her mind,

By virtue first, then choice, a queen,Tell me, if she were not design’dTh’ eclipse and glory of her kind?

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

6. Philomel = nightingale

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May: The General Court granted to Concord “liberty to purchase lande within their Limits of the Indians ; to wit : Attawan and Squaw Sachem.”

This was the “marke of the Squa [Squaw] Sachem Awashunckes [Awashonks]”7:

It was the beginning of the fighting season: having found that their new homeland was “then covered with nations of barbarous Indians and infidels, in whom the ‘prince of the power of the air’ did ‘work in a spirit’,” a few hundred miles to the southwest, in Connecticut, the Puritan fathers were surrounding and putting to the torch a Pequot fort in a swamp containing not only warriors but their wives and their children. The doleful, ghostly, ghastly Reverend Cotton Mather would later report, in MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA; OR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW-ENGLAND, that:

Another white historian has commented that the proximate cause of this sad slaughter could only have been the sin of pride:

“As the star of the Indian descended, that of the Puritans rose ever higher.”

— Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, THE CHARLES,NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, page 63

1637

7. The “shonks” or “shunks” or “suncks” portion of this name was an honorific, signifying leadership. Her intimates would have called her Awa.

In a little more than one hour, five or six hundred ofthese barbarians were dismissed from a world that wasburdened with them.

MATHER’S MAGNALIA, IMATHER’S MAGNALIA, II

Thus by their horrible pride they fitted themselves fordestruction.

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This being the race politics which was going down only a few hundred miles to the southwest, there was no reason to anticipate that Attawan and Squaw Sachem would be anything other than very very polite and very very cooperative when approached alongside the gently flowing Musketaquid by groups of courteous armed men bearing sackfulls of hostess gifts.

Here is Doctor Lemuel Shattuck’s rendition of the course of events:

(One wonders what the Algonkian translations for English-language terms such as “in fee simple” and “in perpetuity” and “exclusive possession and dominion” might have been, that made it clear to the natives being

A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;...: Musketaquid, the original Indian name of Concord and Concord River, for a long time before it was settled by our fathers, had been one of the principal villages of the Massachusett tribe. Nanepashemet was the great king or sachem of these Indians. His principal place of residence was in Medford near Mystic pond. “His house was built on a large scaffold six feet high, and on the top of a hill. Not far off, he built a fort with palisadoes 30 or 40 feet high, having but one entrance, over a bridge. This also served as the place of his burial, he having been killed about the year 1619, by the Tarrantines, a warlike tribe of eastern Indians, at another fort which he had built about a mile off.” He left a widow — Squaw Sachem, and five children. Squaw Sachem succeeded to all the power and influence of her husband, as the great queen of the tribe. Her power was so much dreaded, when she was first visited by the Plymouth people in 1621, that her enemies, the sachems of Boston and Neponset, desired protection against her, as one condition of submission to the English. She married Wibbacowitts, “the powwaw, priest, witch, sorcerer, or chirurgeon” of the tribe. This officer was highest in esteem next to the sachem ; and he claimed as a right the hand of a widowed sachem in marriage ; and by this connexion became a king in the right of his wife, clothed with such authority as was possessed by her squawship [Former Boston attorney Thomas Lechford’s PLAIN DEALING: OR, NEVVES FROM NEW-ENGLAND. A ſHORT VIEW OF NEW-ENGLANDS PRESENT GOVERNMENT, BOTH ECCLEſIAſTICALL AND CIVIL, COMPARED WITH THE ANCIENTLY-RECEIVED AND EſTABLIſHED GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND, IN ſOME MATERIALL POINTS; FIT FOR THE GRAVEſT CONſIDERATION IN THEſE TIMES. (By Thomas Lechford of Clements Inne, in the County of Middleſex, Gent.; London: Printed by W.E. and I.G. for Nath: Butter, at the ſigne of the pyde Bull neere S. Auſtins gate)]. Both assented to the sale of Musketaquid, though Tahattawan, hereafter to be noticed, was the principal sachem of the place. This tribe was once powerful. Before the great sickness already mentioned, it could number 3,000 warriors. That calamity, and the small-pox, which prevailed among them with great mortality in 1633, reduced it to nearly one tenth of that number. The Musketaquid Indians suffered in common with the brethren of their tribe elsewhere. When first visited by the English, their number was comparatively very small.... The place where the principal sachem lived was near Nahshawtuck (Lee’s) hill. Other lodges were south of the Great Meadows, above the South Bridge, and in various places along the borders of the rivers, where planting, hunting, or fishing ground was most easily obtained. From these sources the Indians derived their subsistence ; and few places produced a supply more easily than Musketaquid. South of Mr. Samuel Dennis’s are now seen large quantities of clamshells, which are supposed to have been collected by the Indians, as they feasted on that then much frequented spot. Across the vale, south of Capt. Anthony Wright’s, a long mound, or breast-work, is now visible, which might have been built to aid the hunter, though its object is unknown. Many hatchets, pipes, chisels, arrow-heads, and other rude specimens of their art, curiously wrought from stone, are still frequently discovered near these spots, an evidence of the existence and skill of the original inhabitants.

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visited that this was not a house party, but a real estate transaction, and that these were not graciously offered hostess presents for a hostess-with-the-mostess, but instead constituted full payment and were to be followed by eviction, and by keep-off-the-grass signs and vagrancy laws.)

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

August 5, Wednesday (Old Style): The town of Concord attested to its “Indian deed” at the Secretary’s office in Boston. The Bay Colony preserved the following account of this curious transaction:

This putative deed to Concord town would, however –if ever it actually existed– mysteriously disappear!8

8. We can know for sure that there actually was such paperwork once upon a time — because white people who do business in English very seldom lie, and never ever take any unfair advantage when the people they are dealing with are not white and/or not native speakers of English. (Besides, all this was historically inevitable:-)

“As the star of the Indian descended, that of the Puritans rose ever higher.”

— Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, THE CHARLES,NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, page 63

5th. 6mo. 1637.

Wibbacowett ; Squaw Sachem ; Tahattawants ; Natanquatick, alias Oldman ; Carte, alias Goodmand ; did express their consent to the saleof the Weire at Concord over against the town : and all theplanting-ground which hath been formerly planted by the Indians,to the inhabitants of Concord ; of which there was a writing,with their marks subscribed given into court, expressing the price.

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Cambridge voted to give the Squaw Sachem one coat every winter. Major Simon Willard and two others were charged with responsibility for trading with the native Americans.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.

LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

1641

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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Cambridge voted that in addition to the one coat every winter which Squaw Sachem was to receive, she was to receive immediately four coats and 25 bushels of corn.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1642

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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Spring: The Squaw Sachem and four other native leaders put themselves and their property, and the remainder of their peoples, under the jurisdiction of the Bay Colony. One of the civilizing conditions to which they were required

1644

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to assent was “3. Not to do any unnecessary worke on the Sabath day....”:

A WEEK: Already, as appears from the records, “At a General Courtheld at Boston in New England, the 7th of the first month, 1643-4.” — “Wassamequin, Nashoonon, Kutchamaquin, Massaconomet, andSquaw Sachem, did voluntarily submit themselves” to the English;and among other things did “promise to be willing from time totime to be instructed in the knowledge of God.” Being asked “Notto do any unnecessary work on the Sabbath day, especially withinthe gates of Christian towns,” they answered, “It is easy to them;they have not much to do on any day, and they can well take theirrest on that day.” — “So,” says Winthrop, in his Journal, “wecausing them to understand the articles, and all the tencommandments of God, and they freely assenting to all, they weresolemnly received, and then presented the Court with twenty-sixfathom more of wampom; and the Court gave each of them a coat oftwo yards of cloth, and their dinner; and to them and their men,every of them, a cup of sack at their departure; so they tookleave and went away.” What journeyings on foot and on horsebackthrough the wilderness, to preach the Gospel to these minks andmuskrats! who first, no doubt, listened with their red ears outof a natural hospitality and courtesy, and afterward fromcuriosity or even interest, till at length there were “prayingIndians,” and, as the General Court wrote to Cromwell,the “work is brought to this perfection, that some of the Indiansthemselves can pray and prophesy in a comfortable manner.” It wasin fact an old battle and hunting ground through which we had beenfloating, the ancient dwelling-place of a race of hunters andwarriors. Their weirs of stone, their arrowheads and hatchets,their pestles, and the mortars in which they pounded Indian cornbefore the white man had tasted it, lay concealed in the mud ofthe river bottom. Tradition still points out the spots where theytook fish in the greatest numbers, by such arts as they possessed.It is a rapid story the historian will have to put together.Miantonimo,— Winthrop, — Webster. Soon he comes from Montaupto Bunker Hill, from bear-skins, parched corn, bows and arrows,to tiled roofs, wheat-fields, guns and swords. Pawtucket andWamesit, where the Indians resorted in the fishing season, arenow Lowell, the city of spindles and Manchester of America,which sends its cotton cloth round the globe. Even we youthfulvoyagers had spent a part of our lives in the village ofChelmsford, when the present city, whose bells we heard, wasits obscure north district only, and the giant weaver was not yetfairly born. So old are we; so young is it.

OLIVER CROMWELL

PEOPLE OFA WEEK

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The Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted a law banning all printing except that done under strict license, in Cambridge. It appointed Daniel Gookin and the Reverend Jonathan Mitchell as the first licensers of this press — and Gookin declined.

In Concord, Thomas Brooks was again deputy and representative to the General Court.

Samuel Willard of Concord, son of Major Simon Willard and a graduate of Harvard College, was ordained at Groton.

In her old age Squaw Sachem had become blind, and in this year she died. In all probability, her death, since

1662

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she was not white, was not one of the four listed as having occurred in Concord in this year.

Marriages Births Deaths

1656 3 11 —

1657 3 11 3

1658 3 6 3

1659 2 10 4

1660 6 11 3

1661 2 12 6

1662 4 14 4

1663 5 14 4

1664 4 11 2

1665 7 13 6

1666 2 22 6

1667 8 15 6

1668 4 21 5

1669 4 24 5

1670 2 21 2

1671 6 22 7

1672 5 20 3

1673 6 29 6

1674 3 20 5

1675 5 21 11

1676 4 13 13

1677 11 22 6

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A remaining group of probably fewer that 100 of her tribe lived in Concord under the subordinate headman Tahatawan, along the far bank of the stream from Egg Rock down to Clamshell Bluffs9 with farmlands behind their homes. They had their Nashobah Plantation, around Nagog Pond approximately 11 miles to the northwest, near what would become Littleton, but evidently were still too fearful of further Mohawk raids to be able to reside there. In this year Lieutenant Joseph Wheeler petitioned the General Court to grant to him 200 acres out of these native lands, but this petition was denied. Eventually the Nashobah would move to their reservation, where they would reside for approximately four decades until they were removed back to Concord during the frenzy of “King Phillip’s War”. At that point 58 would be remaining: 12 men and 46 women and children. Back in Concord, they would pitch their tents on the property of John Hoar.

Lieutenant Joseph Wheeler, by trading with the Nashobah Indians,became their creditor, and petitioned the General Court, in1662, for a grant of 200 acres of land at the southerly part oftheir plantation [Nashobah Plantation] as payment for his debt;but it was refused. In 1669, he, with several inhabitants ofConcord, petitioned for a tract of land at Pompasitticutt; andthe Court appointed him, with John Haynes of Sudbury, WilliamKerley of Marlborough, James Parker of Groton, and John Mooreof Lancaster, a committee to view it and report at their nextsession. This report was made May 11, 1670; and it was found “tocontain 10,000 acres of country whereof about 500 is meadow. Thegreater part of it is very mean land, but we judge there willbe planting ground enough to accommodate 20 families. Also thereis about 4000 acres more of land that is taken up in farmes,whereof about 500 acres is meadow. There is also the Indianplantation of Nashobah, that doth border on one side of thistract of land, that is exceedingly well meadowed, and they domake but little or no use of it.”George Hayward,Joseph Wheeler,Thomas Wheeler,John Hayward,William Buttrick,Sydrach Hapgood,Stephen Hall,Edmund Wigley of Concord,and Joseph Newtonand Richard Holdridge,petitioned for this tract of land; and it was granted to them,“to make a village, provided the place be setteled with not lessthan ten famyles within three years, and that a pious, an able,and orthodox minister be maintained there.” Daniel Gookin,Thomas Danforth, and Joseph Cook were appointed “to order thesettlement of the village in all respects;” and the variousproceedings in relation to it resulted in the incorporation ofthe town of Stow, May 16, 1683;10 which has since been found ableto accommodate more than twenty families!11

9. Henry Thoreau would visit Clamshell Bluffs many times, examining not only the broken shells left by previous inhabitants, but also fragments of pottery, and a stone tool. Clamshell Bluffs is now beneath the asphalt of the Emerson Hospital parking lot.

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WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

10. Twelve “foundation lots,” containing 50 acres of upland and 15 of meadow, were at first granted in the following order:— to the Minister, Boaz Brown, Gershom Heald, John Buttrick, Ephraim Hildreth, Thomas Stevens, Stephen Hall, Samuel Buttrick, Joseph Freeman, Joseph Darby, Thomas Gates, and Shadrach Hapgood. Others were afterwards granted.Others were afterwards granted:John Wetherby, Dec. 18, 1679.Richard Whitney, sen. June 3, 1680.James Wheeler, April 8, 1681.Moses Whitney, April 8, 1681.Henry Rand, Jan. 13, 1682.Isaac Heald, Jan. 13, 1682.Israel Heald, March 13, 1682.Benj. Bosworth, Aug. 7, 1682.Thomas Ward, Oct. 24, 1682.Richard Whitney, jr. Oct. 24, 1682.Jabez Rutter, Oct. 24, 1682.Thomas Steevens, jr. June 17, 1684.Boaz Brown, jr., June 17, 1684.Samuel Hall, June 17, 1684.Thomas Darby, June 17, 1684.Mark Perkins, Jan. 1, 1685.Richard Burke, sen. March 1, 1686.Roger Willis, March 1, 1686.Benj. Crane, Dec. 23, 1682.Joseph Wheeler, April 19, 1683.Jabez Brown, June 15, 1683.Thomas Williams, June 15, 1683.Stephen Handell, March 10, 1686.Benj. Crane.These were the original inhabitants of Stow [Massachusetts]. Those in italics went from Concord.

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June: News of troubles reached Concord. The Wampanoag, under Metacom the 2nd son of Ousamequin Yellow Feather the Massasoit, had killed six Europeans at Swansea on Narraganset Bay.

The native villages of “Praying Indians” were Punkapaog, Natick, Magunkaquog, Hassanemesit, Nashoba, and Wamesit, situated more or less in a half circle around Concord. Their closest village was Nashobah, which was six miles from Concord, on Nagog Pond. The leaders there were Tahattawan, and Waban, and the Squaw Sachem to whom the armed white men had presented their hostess gifts and from whom the English town of Concord had “purchased,” allegedly, its land. The tribal remnant of the epidemics of 1617 and 1633 had moved from Nawshawtuct Hill at the junction of the Assabet and the Musketaquid to beyond Nagog.

11. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy(On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)

1675

“KING PHILLIP’S WAR”

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By 1675, possession and use of firearms was complete. Therefore:

The Reverend John Eliot jotted in his diary that:

Nearly a mile long and 210 acres in extent, this inner island Deer Island is the 2d-largest in Boston Harbor. Our National Park Service now refers to these detainees of “King Phillip’s War” (a name designating the

blame for its initiation as his rather than ours) as “prisoners” and as “captives,” evidently in order to create the false suggestion in the minds of current visitors that these people had been captured hostile warriors rather than what they actually were, the innocent families of the Christian allies of the white people. However, the National Park Service does acknowledge that of the approximately 500 nameless persons whom they denominate “prisoners” and “captives,” the few who survived the 1675-1676 winter of exposure and starvation had been subsequently enslaved on the mainland.

An attempt was made to separate the friendly ChristianIndians from the wild savages, and some were broughtin to Deer Island in Boston harbor. Others [primarilywomen and young children, and excluding any males ofwarrior age] were brought to Concord and entrusted toJohn Hoar, who built a workshop and stockade for themnext to his own house, which is now known as OrchardHouse. This caused a furor in Concord. Many consideredthe Christian Indians just spies and informers. Thetown defenses were in a precarious state [due to thefact that many of the white men were away, fighting inthe race war].

When the Indians were hurried away to an iland at halfan hours warning, pore soules in terror thei lefttheire goods, books, bibles, only some few caryed thierbibles, the rest were spoyled & lost.

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Awashonks, the Squaw Sachem of the Wampanoag band at Sakonnet, held a dance and invited Benjamin Church, a notable English settler of Little Compton, Rhode Island who during the coming genocide would make himself a white hero. When Church arrived at the dance he found six Wampanoag of Metacom’s band were attending in their war gear. Awashonks’s husband told Church he feared that Metacom’s band was preparing itself for a war which it had come to consider inevitable. Church persuaded Awashonks that she needed to remain loyal to the English.

Notice the disparity here. Church, because he was a white man, could show up armed for this meeting (below is his actual rough-and-ready sword, with a grip made out of ash wood and a guard made out of a piece of bent iron by a local blacksmith) and that wasn’t warlike and alarming — but when Indian braves attend this meeting in similar attire according to their own culture, because they are not white men that is warlike and alarming.)

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CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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October 7, Tuesday (Old Style): The Bay Colony’s charter for Concord having been declared to be void and the original town petition of Concord having been lost, and its Indian deed having been lost if such ever actually existed (or maybe the dog ate it), and the town needing to reestablish the lawful title of the inhabitants of Concord against the claims of Robert Mason to large portions of the country, on a date that they recorded as “7 : 8 : 84” (prior to the calendar change, the 12th month of the year was February, the first day of the new year being March 25th, so the 8th month would have been October), the inhabitants resorted to the taking of depositions from William Buttrick (aged 68 years or thereabouts) and from Richard Rice (aged 74 years) and the insertion of this deposition into the Middlesex Records at Cambridge and into the Concord Town Records, by way of some appearance of a legitimate substitute:

This was followed by a similar record for the other aged white man, to the effect that “about the yeare one thousand six hundred Thirty six there was an Agreement made by some undertakers for the Towne since called Concord with some Indians that had right unto the land then purchased for the Township.... The bargaine was made & confirmed between ye English undertakers & the Indians then present, to their good sattisfaction on all hands.” The names of the natives were given as “Squaw Sachem,” “Tohuttawun Sagamore,” “Muttunkatucka,” “and some other indians yt lived then at that place.”

“As the star of the Indian descended, that of the Puritans rose ever higher.”

— Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, THE CHARLES,NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, page 63

1684

The Testimony of William Buttrick, aged sixty-eight years, orthereabouts, sheweth ; — That about the year one thousand sixhundred and thirty-six, there was an agreement made by someundertakers for the town since called Concord, with some Indians,that had right unto the land then purchased of them for thetownship. The Indians’ names were Squaw Sachem, Tahattawan,Nuttankatucka, and some other Indians that lived and were thenpresent at that place, and at that time ; the tract of land beingsix miles square, the centre being about the place where themeeting-house now standeth. The bargain was made and confirmedbetween the English undertakers and the Indians then present andconcerned, to their good satisfaction on all Hands.

—

7 : 8 : 84. Sworn in court,Thomas Danforth. Entered in Register at Cambridge,Liber 9. page 105, by Thomas Danforth.

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October 20, Monday (Old Style): Just to make sure this retro paperwork they were constructing appeared adequately impressive, the town of Concord added to the record in Cambridge a couple of depositions from friendly Indians living in Natick, Jehojakin AKA Mantatukwet (aged. 70 years or thereabouts) and Jethro (aged 70 years

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or therabouts):

The Deposition of Jehojakin, alias Mantatukwet, a christian Indianof Natick aged. 70 years or thereabouts.

This Deponent testifieth and saith, that about 50 years since helived within the bounds of that placed which is now called Concord,at the foot of an hill, named Nahshawtuck [Nawshawtuck Hill], nowin the possession of Mr. Henry Woodis, and that he was present ata bargain made at the house of Mr. Peter Bulkeley (now Capt. TimothyWheeler’s) between Mr. Simon Willard, Mr. John Jones, Mr. Spencer,and several others, in behalfe of the Englishmen who were settlingupon the said town of Concord, and Squaw Sachem, Tahattawan, andNimrod, Indians, which said Indians (according to their particularrights and interest) then sold a tract of land containing six milessquare (the said house being accounted about the centre) to thesaid English for a place to settle a town in ; and he the saiddeponent saw said Willard and Spencer pay a parcell of Wampumpeage,hatchets, hoes, knives, cotton cloth, and shirts, to the saidIndians for the said tract of land. And in particular perfectlyremembers that Wibbacowet, husband to Squaw Sachem, received a suitof cotton cloth, an hat, a white linen band, shoes, stockings, anda great coat, upon account of said bargain. And in the conclusionthe sd Indians declard themselvs sattisfyed & told the Englishmenthey were Welcome. There were present also at the said bargainWaban, merchant ; Thomas, his brother-in-law ; Notawquatuchquaw ;Tantumous, now called Jethro.

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THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

The Deposition of Jethro a Christian Indian of Natick aged 70 yearsor therabouts :

This Deponent testifieth and saith, that about 50 years since, hedwelt at Nashobah, near unto the place now called by the EnglishConcord ; and that coming to said Concord was present at the makinga bargain (which was done at the house of Mr. Peter Bulkeley, whichnow Capt. Timothy Wheeler liveth in) between several Englishmen (inbehalfe of such as were settling said place) viz. Mr. SimonWillard, Mr. John Jones, Mr. Spencer, and others, on the one party; and Squaw Sachem, Tahattawan, and Nimrod, Indians, on the otherparty ; and that the said Indians (according to their severalrights) did then sell to the said English a certain tract of landcontaining six miles square (the said house being accounted aboutthe centre) to plant a town in ; and that the said deponent did seethe said Willard and Spencer pay to the said Indians for the saidtract of land a parcell of Wampumpeage, [like Jehojakin's testimonyas far as “said bargain”] ; and that after the bargain wasconcluded, Mr. Simon Willard, pointing to the four quarters of theworld, declared that they had bought three miles from that place,east, west, north, and south ; & the sd Indians manifested theirfree consent thereunto. There were present at the making of thesaid bargain, amongst other Indians, Waban merchant ; Thomas, hisbrother-in-law ; Natawquatuckquaw ; Jehojakin, who is yet livingand deposeth in like manner as above.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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December: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s THE SNOW-IMAGE AND OTHER TWICE-TOLD TALES (put out in two octavo volumes in blind-stamped brown cloth with gilt-lettered spine by Ticknor, Reed and Fields of Boston)12 imagined, in his “Main Street,” Squaw Sachem and her second husband Wappacowet as passing along a path beneath the tangled shade in what was to eventually become Salem, very falsely supposing that their own system of affairs

1851

12. Nathaniel Hawthorne. THE SNOW-IMAGE AND OTHER TWICE-TOLD TALES.

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was going to endure forever:

You perceive, at a glance, that this is the ancient andprimitive wood, — the ever-youthful and venerably old,— verdant with new twigs, yet hoary, as it were, withthe snowfall of innumerable years, that haveaccumulated upon its intermingled branches. The whiteman’s axe has never smitten a single tree; his footstephas never crumpled a single one of the withered leaves,which all the autumns since the flood have beenharvesting beneath. Yet, see! along through the vistaof impending boughs, there is already a faintly-tracedpath, running nearly east and west, as if a prophecyor foreboding of the future street had stolen into theheart of the solemn old wood. Onward goes this hardlyperceptible track, now ascending over a natural swellof land, now subsiding gently into a hollow; traversedhere by a little streamlet, which glitters like a snakethrough the gleam of sunshine, and quickly hides itselfamong the underbrush, in its quest for the neighboringcove; and impeded there by the massy corpse of a giantof the forest, which had lived out its incalculableterm of life, and been overthrown by mere old age, andlies buried in the new vegetation that is born of itsdecay. What footsteps can have worn this half-seenpath? Hark! Do we not hear them now rustling softlyover the leaves? We discern an Indian woman —a majesticand queenly woman, or else her spectral image does notrepresent her truly— for this is the great SquawSachem, whose rule, with that of her sons, extends fromMystic to Agawam. That red chief; who stalks by herside, is Wappacowet, her second husband, the priest andmagician, whose incantations shall hereafter affrightthe palefaced settlers with grisly phantoms, dancingand shrieking in the woods, at midnight. But greaterwould be the affright of the Indian necromancer, if,mirrored in the pool of water at his feet, he couldcatch a prophetic glimpse of the noon-day marvels whichthe white man is destined to achieve; if he could see,as in a dream, the stone-front of the stately hall,which will cast its shadow over this very spot; if hecould be aware that the future edifice will containa noble Museum, where, among countless curiositiesof earth and sea, a few Indian arrow-heads shallbe treasured up as memorials of a vanished race!

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DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

No such forebodings disturb the Squaw Sachem andWappacowet. They pass on, beneath the tangled shade,holding high talk on matters of state and religion, andimagine, doubtless, that their own system of affairswill endure for ever. Meanwhile, how full of its ownproper life is the scene that lies around them! Thegray squirrel runs up the trees, and rustles among theupper branches. Was not that the leap of a deer? Andthere is the whirr of a partridge! Methinks, too, Icatch the cruel and stealthy eve of a wolf, as he drawsback into yonder impervious density of underbrush. So,there, amid the murmur of boughs, go the Indian queenand the Indian priest; while the gloom of the broadwilderness impends over them, and its sombre mysteryinvests them as with something preternatural; and onlymomentary streaks of quivering sunlight, once in agreat while, find their way down, and glimmer among thefeathers in their dusky hair. Can it be that thethronged street of a city will ever pass into thistwilight solitude, — over those soft heaps of thedecaying tree-trunks, — and through the swampy places,green with water-moss, — and penetrate that hopelessentanglement of great trees, which have been uprootedand tossed together by a whirlwind! It has been awilderness from the creation. Must it not be awilderness for ever? ...It seems all a fable, too, thatwolves have ever prowled here; and not less so, thatthe Squaw Sachem, and the Sagamore her son, once ruledover this region, and treated as sovereign potentateswith the English settlers, then so few and storm-beaten, now so powerful. There stand some schoolboys,you observe, in a little group around a drunken Indian,himself a prince of the Squaw Sachem’s lineage. Hebrought hither some beaver-skins for sale, and hasalready swallowed the larger portion of their price,in deadly draughts of firewater. Is there not a touchof pathos in that picture? and does it not go fartowards telling the whole story of the vast growth andprosperity of one race, and the fated decay of another?— the children of the stranger making game of the greatSquaw Sachem’s grandson!

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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February 15, Sunday, 1857: Henry Thoreau made an entry in his journal that indicates that he had been reading in Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;... (Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord: John Stacy, 1835).

Feb. 15. About the 1st of January, when I was surveying the Lee farm, Captain Elwell, the proprietor,asked me how old I thought the house was.I looked into Shattuck’s History and found that, according to him, “Henry Woodhouse, or Woodis, as his namewas sometimes written, came to Concord from London, about 1650, freeman 1656. His farm, estimated at threehundred and fifty acres, lay between the two rivers, and descended to his son-in-law, Joseph Lee, whoseposterity successively held it for more than one hundred years.... He d[ied] June 16, 1701.” (Vide page 389.)Shattuck says that the principal sachem of our Indians, Tahattawan, lived “near Nahshawtuck hill.” Shattuck(page 28) says that the celebrated Waban originally lived in Concord, and he describes Squaw Sachem andJohn Tahattawan, son of Tahattawan, as Musketaquid Indians. In 1684 “Mantatukwet, a Christian Indian ofNatick, aged 70 years or thereabouts,” according to the Register at Cambridge, deposed “that about 50 yearssince he lived within the bounds of that place which is now called Concord, at the foot of an hill, namedNahshawtuck, now in the possession of Mr. Henry Woodis,” etc. (page 7). A vote of Henry Woodies in 1654 ismentioned. Under date 1666, Shattuck finds in the South Quarter, among the names of the town at that time,“Henry Woodhouse 1 [lot] 860 [acres],” etc.When I returned from Worcester yesterday morning, I found that the Lee house, of which six weeks ago I madean accurate plan, had been completely burned up the evening before, i.e. the 13th, while I was lecturing inWorcester. (It took fire and came near being destroyed in the night of the previous December 18th, early inmorning. I was the first to get there from town.) In the course of the forenoon of yesterday I walked up to thesite of the house, whither many people were flocking, on foot and in carriages. There was nothing of the houseleft but the chimneys and cellar walls. The eastern chimney had fallen in the night. On my way I met Abel Hunt,to whom I observed that it was perhaps the oldest house in town. “No,” said he, “they saw the date on it duringthe fire, — 1707.” When I arrived I inquired where the date had been seen, and read it for myself on the chimney,but there was too much smouldering fire to permit of my approaching it nearly.I was interested in the old elm near the southeast corner of the house, which I found had been a mere shell a fewyears since, now filled up with brick. Flood, who has lived there, told me that Wheeler asked his advice withregard to that tree, — whether he could do better than lay the axe at its root. F. told him that he had seen an ashin the old country which was in the same condition, and is a tenderer tree than an “elum,” preserved by beingfilled up, and with masonry, and then cemented over. So, soon after, the mason was set to work upon it underhis directions, Flood having scraped out all the rotten wood first with a hoe. The cavity was full three feet wideand eight or ten high commencing at the ground. The mason had covered the bricks and rounded off with mortar,which he had scored with his trowel so that [one] did not observe but it was bark. It seemed an admirable plan,and not only improved the appearance but the strength and durability of the tree.This morning (the 15th), it having rained in the night, and thinking the fire would be mostly out, I made hasteto the ruins of the Lee house to read that inscription. By laying down boards on the bricks and cinders, whichwere quite too hot to tread on and covered a smothered fire, I was able to reach the chimney. The inscriptionwas on the east side of the east chimney (which had fallen), at the bottom, in a cupboard on the west side of thelate parlor, which was on a level with the ground on the east and with the cellar on the extreme west and thecellar kitchen on the north. There was a narrow lower (milk) cellar south and southeast of it, and an equallylower and narrower cellar east of it, under the parlor. This side of the chimney was perhaps fifteen feet from theeast side of the house and as far from the north side. The inscription was in a slight recess in the chimney three

1857

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feet four inches wide and a little more in height up and down, as far as I could see into the pile of bricks, thus: —

It appeared to have been made by the finger or a stick, in the mortar when fresh, which had been spread an inchto an inch and a quarter thick over the bricks, and, where it was too dry and hard, to have been pecked with thepoint of a trowel. The first three words and the “16” were perfectly plain, the “5” was tolerably plain, thoughsome took it for a three, but I could feel it yet more distinctly. The mortar was partly knocked off the rest,apparently by this fire, but the top of some capital letter like a “C,” and the letters “netty” were about as plainas represented, and the rest looked like “Henry” (Woodhouse?) or “l (t?) kinry” (?) the “y” (?) at end beingcrowded for want of room next the side. These last two words quite uncertain. The surface of this recess wasslightly swelling or bulging, somewhat like the outside of an oven, and above it the chimney was sloped androunded off to the narrower shaft of it. The letters were from two and one half to three inches long and oneeighth to one half inch deep.This chimney, as well as the more recent westerly one, had been built chiefly with clay mortar, and I broughtaway a brick, of a soft kind, eight and seven eighths inches — some nine — long, four and one fourth plus wide,varying one fourth, and two and one half thick, though there were some much smaller near it, probably not soold. The clay (for mortar) was about as hard as mortar on it. The mortar in which the inscription was madecontained considerable straw (?) and some lumps of clay, now crumbling like sand, with the lime and sand. Theoutside was white, but the interior ash-colored.I discovered that the mortar of the inscription was not so old as the chimney, for the bricks beneath it, over whichit was spread, were covered with soot, uniformly to the height of seven or eight feet, and the mortar fell off withan eighth of an inch thickness of this soot adhering to it, as if the recess had been a fireplace mortared over.I have just been reading the account of Dr. Ball’s sufferings on the White Mountains. Of course, I do not wonderthat he was lost. I should say: Never undertake to ascend a mountain or thread a wilderness where there is anydanger of being lost, without taking thick clothing, partly india-rubber, if not a tent or material for one; the bestmap to be had and a compass; salt. pork and hard-bread and salt; fish-hooks and lines; a good jack-knife, atleast, if not a hatchet, and perhaps a gun; matches in a vial stopped water-tight; some strings and paper. Do nottake a dozen steps which you could not with tolerable accuracy protract on a chart. I never do otherwise. Indeed,you must have been living all your life in some such methodical and assured fashion, though in the midst ofcities, else you will be lost in spite of all this preparation.

HOW TO CATCH A PIGIf it is a wild shoat, do not let him get scared; shut up the dogs and keep mischievous boys and men out of theway. Think of some suitable inclosure in the neighborhood, no matter if it be a pretty large field, if it chancesto be tightly fenced; and with the aid of another prudent person give the pig all possible opportunities to enterit. Do not go very near him nor appear to be driving him, only let him avoid you, persuade him to prefer thatinclosure. If the case is desperate and it is necessary, you may make him think that yon wish him to [go]anywhere else but into that field, and he will be pretty sure to go there. Having got him into that inclosure andput up the fence, you can contract it at your leisure. When you have him in your hands, if he is obstinate, do nottry to drive him with a rope round one leg. Spare the neighbors’ ears and your pig’s feelings, and put him intoa cart or wheelbarrow.

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The brick above described appears to be of the same size with those of Governor Craddock’s house in Medford,said to have been built in 1634 and measured by Brooks. (Vide Book of Facts.)It is remarkable that though Elwell, the last occupant of this house, never has seen this inscription, it being inthis obscure nook in the cellar, the inscriber’s purpose is served, for now nothing stands but the other chimneyand the foundation of this, and the inscription is completely exposed to the daylight and to the sun, and far morelegible even a rod or two off than it could have been when made. There it is, staring all visitors in the face, onthat clear space of mortar just lifted above the mouldering ruins of the chimney around it. Yesterday you couldnot get within a rod of it, but distinctly read it over the furnace of hot bricks and coals.I brought away a brick and a large flake of the mortar with letters on it, but it crumbled in my hands, and I wasreminded of the crumbling of some of the slabs of Nineveh in the hands of Layard as soon as brought to light,and felt a similar grief because I could not transport it entire to a more convenient place than that scorching pile,or even lay the Crumbling mass down, without losing forever the outlines and the significance of those yetundeciphered words. But I laid it down, of necessity, and that was the end of it. There was our sole Ninevehslab, perhaps the oldest engraving in Concord. (No; some gravestones are undoubtedly older.)Webster prided himself on being the first farmer in the south parish of Marshfield, but if he was the first theymust have been a sorry set, for his farming was a complete failure. It cost a great deal more than it came to. Heused other people’s capital, and was insolvent when he died, so that his, friends and relatives found it difficultto retain the place, if indeed they have not sold it. How much cheaper it would have been for the town or countyto have maintained him in the almshouse than as a farmer at large! How many must have bled annually tomanure his broad potato-fields, who without inconvenience could have contributed sufficient to maintain himin the almshouse!

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Charles H. Walcott’s CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.13 All human racial strains, even the white ones although especially all colored ones, are depicted as inherently inferior to the Kentish racial strain. Here is some sample material, from pages 100-101:

From the very beginning, the relations existing between thecolonists and the natives, their immediate neighbors, portendedmischief. The latter, even where they met with kind treatmentand the desire to do them justice, as was the case in Concord,were universally despised as heathen, and feared becausesuspected of being in league with the powers of darkness. “TheIndian,” says Mr. Emerson, “seemed to inspire such a feeling asthe wild beast inspire in the people near his den.” The Concordmen, under the wise suggestions of Mr. Bulkeley, of Willard andFlint, showed a desire to live on peaceable terms with theirunpleasant neighbors, and a willingness to impart to them suchinstruction in the elements of Christianity and common decencyas seemed best adapted to their condition.

This Concord author’s life work was conveyancing, that is, the lawyerly facilitation of property transactions. He is writing a book that is basically about the conveyancing, the facilitation of the property transaction, by which all the titles to all the properties in Concord had once upon a time originated. He has come across a title irregularity which sorta might throw everything up in the air. The white people have come in and taken over Musketaquid and called it Concord, and they have begun their system of ownership, and they have losted their documents. I mean, they have losted all their documents, every one of them. Their dogs ate their documents. So, he is going to clean it up. He describes in very careful detail how the white people went about, after the fact, creating the story that everybody was going to tell. This story was the truth because it had to be true. It was the official truth. Years and years after the fact, the white people went around to these oldsters and took a bunch of “depositions.” Everybody certified the official truth. The burden of his historical treatise is that the white man had acquired title to Concord lands from the red man, way back when, fair and square in an arms’-length negotiation that had been entered into voluntarily by both sides, one in which adequate compensation had been rendered and a sufficient paper trail maintained (or, rather, recreated in an entirely legitimate manner long after the fact). –Gosh, as if there were any doubt of that!

1884

13. Charles H. Walcott. CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD / BEING A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS / FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE ANDROS GOVERNMENT / 1635-1689, WITH MAP (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1884).

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Well, I suppose you will need to read the book for yourself. His official truth is that here had come all these white people with guns, and they had been real kind and friendly with the locals, and they had given them some clothing and some trinkets, and a couple of pots and pans, and the local people had been satisfied, and had signed and sealed and witnessed all the officious property documents transferring everything they owned from red hands into white hands. It had all been right and proper. Everybody agreed without duress. The red people may have been silly, but they did it, they sold a square involving considerably more than 36 square miles of real estate, and they did this for chump change. But then, years later, the white people went to look around for the documents that proved that this had happened, and their dogs had eaten all their documents. Not a shred. I mean, you gotta believe this. That was what all the depositions said had happened. And now there exists in addition a history book, driving home the nails in this coffin of truth once and for all.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Squaw Sachem of Concord

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>.

Prepared: April 3, 2015

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”

– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.

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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.

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