Wampanoag Indian

Wampanoag Indian. The Wampanoag Indian are a Native American nation which currently consists of five affiliated tribes. In 1600 the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. The Wampanoag population numbered about 12,000.

The Wampanoag Indian were semi-sedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites in present-day southern New England. The three sisters, corn (maize), beans and squash were the staples of their diet, supplemented by fish and game. The work of making a living was organized on a family level. Families gathered together in the spring to fish, in early winter to hunt and in the summer they separated to cultivate individual planting fields. Boys were schooled in the way of the woods, where a man's skill at hunting and ability to survive under all conditions were vital to his family's well being. Wampanoag  women were trained from their earliest years to work diligently in the fields and around the family wetu, a round or oval house that was designed to be easily dismantled and moved in just a few hours.

The food production of the Wampanoag Indians, was divided along gendered lines. Men and women had specific tasks and Native women played an active role in many of the stages of food production. Since the Wampanoag Indian relied primarily on goods garnered from this kind of work, women had important socio-political, economic, and spiritual roles in their communities. Wampanoag men were mainly responsible for hunting and fishing, while women took care of farming and the gathering of wild fruits, nuts, berries, shellfish, etc.

Pre-marital sexual experimentation was accepted, although once couples opted to marry, the Wampanoag Indian expected fidelity within unions. Roger Williams (1603-1683), stated that “single fornication they count no sin, but after Marriage, (which they solemnize by consent of Parents and publique approbation…) then they count it heinous for either of them to be false.” In addition, polygamy was practiced among the Wampanoag Indian, although monogamy was the norm. Even within Wampanoag society where status was constituted within a matrilineal, matrifocal society, some elite men could take several wives for political or social reasons. Multiple wives were also a path to and symbol of wealth because women were the producers and distributors of corn and other food products. However, as within most Native American societies, marriage and conjugal unions were not as important as ties of clan and kinship. Marriages could be and were dissolved relatively easily, but family and clan relations were of extreme and lasting importance, constituting the ties that bound individuals to one another and their tribal territories as a whole

About 3,000 Wampanoag Indian survive (many of whose ancestry includes other tribes), and many live on the reservation (Watuppa Wampanoag Reservation) on Martha's Vineyard, in Dukes County. It is located in the town of Aquinnah (formerly known as Gay Head), at the extreme western part of the island. It has a land area of 1.952 km², and a 2000 census resident population of 91 persons. There are currently five organized groups of the Wampanoag: Assonet, Gay Head, Herring Pond, Mashpee and Namasket