Dear diggerbill,
I have done extensive research on both the village and the tribe it
belonged to, and here are my results.
Searching for a settlement called "Mettachee" or "Metachee" in the
Cape Cod area did not bring up much at first. I only found one source
on a private genealogical website, mentioning "Metachee Village, Cape
Code" with some brief historical background for the year 1639:
"1639, Metachee Village, Cape Code. Austin Bearse and Mary "Little
Dove" Hyanno are married under Wampanog tribal ceremonial rights.
(...) Mary was a Native American princess and the daughter of Sachem
(Chief) John Iyanough of the Cummaquid, grand-daughter of Highyanough,
Sachem of all the Wampanoag, and great-granddaughter of Grand Sachem,
Canonicus, Chief of all the Narragansett. The marriage of Austin and
Mary was a major factor in the temporary peace that was maintained for
approximately two generations between the Wampanoag and the English."
Source:
Ancestors & Relations of Note, by Everett P. Inman, 2000
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rett1950/gbu/gbu.html
This showed me that this Indian village obviously played a role in
history. Also, some additional names of persons were mentioned and I
know knew what Indian tribes were resident in that area. But still I
needed more information on the village. So I tried alternate
spellings, since I know that Indian names were written in many
different ways by the Europeans who heard them.
It took some time, but finally I was successful: I located the place
under the alternate names "Mattacheese", "Mattachiest", "Mattakest",
"Mattakees", "Mattakesset" and "Mattakeese", to mention only a few
ways the name has been spelled over the centuries.
Some sources say that Mattacheese was the name of a tribe; but there
is also a different point of view:
"Most historians call every settlement, every Indian village, a
distinct tribe - with a distinct ruler of it. They speak of their
being originally some fifteen tribes resident on Cape Cod. It is true
there were that number of villages, but was every one a distinct tribe
with its own individual form of government? (...) [No, it wasn't
because] Every Indian village on Cape Cod consisted of a people, each
and every one a member of one and the same tribe. This tribe did not,
however, live just on Cape Cod, but all the way to Narragansett Bay."
Source:
Cape Cod Indians - Page 1, by Susan S. Martin, 2000
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~massasoit/ccod01.htm
So I will refer to Mattacheese as a village and its surrounding area
which existed whithin a greater tribal community, the Pokanoks, or
Wampanoags.
The Wampanoags were one of the many Algonquin tribes, who dwelled in
the regions today known as New Brunswick and New England. You will
find a timeline of Wampanoag histoy, covering the years 11,500 BC to
1689 AD here:
Plimoth On Web: An Overview of Wampanoag History
http://www.plimoth.org/Library/Wampanoag/ewamphist.htm
This website provides highly interesting information on Wampanoag
history, political organization anc culture:
Wampanoag History, by Lee Sultzman
http://www.tolatsga.org/wampa.html
Even more extensive, with additional links to other sites on the
Wampanoag, is this source:
Plimoth On Web: The Wampanoag People
http://www.plimoth.org/Library/Wampanoag/wamp.htm
In fact, there is lots of information on the Wampanoag people on the
web, far too much to mention it all here in brief. In case you would
like to collect more information, I recommend following this search
link:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=wampanoag
Now, about the village of Mattacheese. "Mattacheese" is a term from
the Wampanoag dialect of the Algonquin language, meaning "plowed
fields". This is not surprising since the Wampanoag were an
agricultural tribe; they successfully cultivated corn on their fields
and also sold it to those who were less lucky in obtaining food.
The Mattacheese area was a division of the Wampanoag federation of
villages; the leader of such a division was called "Sagamoh", which
meant "Second Chief" (to distinguish him from the "Massi-sowet", the
"Great Chief", supreme ruler of all Wampanoags). The leader of an
ordinary individual village would have been called "Mugwomp" (Captain
or Chief).
When the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod in 1620 - the Wampanoag
had contact with Europeans since 1524 already, so the Pilgrim Fathers
were by no means the first Europeans they encountered -, the leader of
Mattacheese was Iyanough. In 1620, the Pilgrims actually skirted the
area on their journey to Plymouth, but decided not to enter the harbor
due to a snowstorm. In 1621, a young Pilgrim by the name of John
Billington wandered back into the forests of Mattacheese, lost his
way, and was eventually rescued by a band of Pilgrims aided by
Iyanough.
Iyanough was followed by his son, Hyanno, who married his daughter to
the Austin Bearse mentioned above.
At that time, however, Mattacheese was not part of the Wampanoag
federation anymore. The Narragansetts, another Algonquin tribe that
was located west of the Wampanoag territory, had taken over the area.
However, it is not clear in what year exactly the Cape Cod region
changed owners. In 1617, a plague brought by Europeans had devestated
what is New England today. Many Wampanoag tribes had been hit hard by
the pestilence, but not the Narragansetts who were ruled by their
supreme chief Canonicus, who would become an ally of the newly
arriving English later and give them land to settle.
In 1639, the village of Mattacheese became the place where the
Reverend John Lothrop and his congregation founded their settlement
the town of Barnstable.
Additional sources:
Indian History, Chapter III. Author unknown
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/barnstable/hbch02.txt
The Barnstable Patriot: 'There's more to know about Iyanough', by
Louis Cataldo
http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/01-11-02-news/cataldo.html
Crocker Tavern: Location
http://www.crockertavern.com/location.htm
Barnstable County, MA Genealogy, by Ray Sears
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mabarnst/
Native Americans: Narragansett
http://nativeamericans.com/Narragansett.htm
Search terms used:
Metachee
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Metachee&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
Wampanoag canonicus
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Wampanoag+canonicus&meta=
Mattakesset
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Mattakesset&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
wampanoag
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=wampanoag
Mattacheese 1639
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Mattacheese+1639&meta=
"John Lothrop" barnstable 1639
://www.google.de/search?q=%22John+Lothrop%22+barnstable+1639&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=10&sa=N
"chief canonicus"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22chief+canonicus%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
canonicus barnstable
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=canonicus+barnstable&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
I hope this information is of value for you.
Best regards,
Scriptor |
