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Narragansett The Narragansett Indians are the descendants of the aboriginal people of the State of Rhode Island. Archaeological evidence and the oral history of the Narragansett People establish their existence in this region more than 30,000 years ago. This history transcends all written documentaries and is present upon the faces of rock formations and through oral history. The first documented contact with the Indians of Rhode Island took place in 1524 when Giovanni de Verrazano visited Narragansett Bay and described a large Indian population, living by agriculture and hunting, and organized under powerful "kings.
The Tribe and its members were considered warriors within the region. The Narragansett customarily offered protection to smaller tribes in the area. Certain Nipmuck bands, the Niantics, Wampanoag, and Manisseans all paid tribute to the Narragansett tribe. These tribes all resided in areas of Rhode Island at the time of the first European settlement around 1635. In 1636, Roger Williams acquired land use rights to Providence from the Narragansett Sachems. The colonists quickly came into contact with both the Narragansett and Niantic Sachems, most notably Ninigret. Nauset The Nauset are an Algonquian tribe formerly living in Massachusetts, on that part of Cape Cod east of Bass river, forming a part of or being under control of the Wampanoag. The Nauset Indian tribe were the original inhabitants of the Cape Cod peninsula, in Massachusetts. Like their neighbours, the Wampanoag and Narraganset peoples, the Nauset spoke an N-Dialect of the Algonquin language. With a similar culture and language, very little distinguishes the Nauset except for perhaps their heavier reliance upon the ocean. Their location on the Cape made them easy targets to European slave raids, often kidnapped and sold into the Caribbean.When Samuel de Champlain encountered the Nauset Indians, they were expectedly very hostile. The Pilgrims made contact with the Nauset during their initial landing near modern-day Provincetown, and stole maize. Their isolation proved beneficial, as they were not subject to the purges following King Phillip's War, but many fell victim to diseases introduced by the Europeans. The Nauset eventually merged into the Wampanoag tribe. The town of Mashpee, whose native inhabitants are considered Wampanoag, probably are more likely descended from members of the Nauset tribe, and number around 1,100 people. The area known as Hyannis is named after the Nauset sachem Iyannough. Neutral An important confederation of Iroquoian tribes living in the 17th century north of Lake Erie in Ontario, having four villages east of Niagara river on territory extending to the Genesee watershed; the western bounds of these tribes were indefinitely west of Detroit river and Lake St Clair. The Neutrals were a tribe of American Indians who lived in what is now upstate New York and southern Ontario. Their own name for themselves has been lost, but they were called Attawandaron by the Hurons, meaning "people of a slightly different language". The name Neutral was applied to them by the French because they tried to be neutral between the warring Huron and Iroquois peoples. During the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois conquered and absorbed the Neutral tribe in the year 1651. Some of the Neutrals seem to have had a close relationship with the Erielhonan people, and some of their neighbors referred to them collectively as the "Cat nation". |
