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Historical Native American Tribal Territories of Southern New England

Key Information

The Patuxet were a Native American band of the Wampanoag tribal confederation. They lived primarily in and around modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and were among the first Native Americans encountered by European settlers in the region in the early 17th century. Most of the population subsequently died of epidemic infectious diseases. The last of the Patuxet – an individual named Tisquantum (a.k.a. "Squanto"), who played an important role in the survival of the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth – died in 1622.

Devastation

[edit]

The Patuxet were wiped out by a series of plagues that decimated the indigenous peoples of southeastern New England in the second decade of the 17th century. The epidemics which swept across New England and the Canadian Maritimes between 1614 and 1620 were especially devastating to the Wampanoag and neighboring Massachusett, with mortality reaching 100% in many mainland villages. When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, all the Patuxet except Tisquantum had died.[2] The plagues have been attributed variously to smallpox,[3][unreliable source?] leptospirosis,[4] and other diseases.[5][6][7][8]

The last Patuxet

[edit]
See also: Squanto

Some European expedition captains were known to increase profits by capturing natives to sell as slaves. Such was the case when Thomas Hunt kidnapped several Wampanoag in 1614 in order to sell them later in Spain. One of Hunt's captives was a Patuxet named Tisquantum, who eventually came to be known as Squanto (a nickname given to him by his friend William Bradford). After Tisquantum regained his freedom, he was able to work his way to England where he lived for several years, working with a shipbuilder.

He signed on as an interpreter for a British expedition to Newfoundland. From there Tisquantum went back to his home, only to discover that, in his absence, epidemics had killed everyone in his village.[2]

Tisquantum succumbed to a fever in November 1622.[9]

The Pilgrims

[edit]

The first settlers of Plymouth Colony (modern Plymouth, Massachusetts), sited their colony at the location of a former Patuxet village, named "Port St. Louis" (Samuel de Champlain, 1605) or "Accomack" (John Smith, 1614). By 1616, the site had been renamed "New Plimoth" in Smith's A Description of New England after a suggestion by Prince Charles of England. When the Pilgrim Settlers decided to make their settlement, the land that had been cleared and cultivated by the prior inhabitants (since dead through disease) was a primary reason for the location.

Tisquantum was instrumental in the survival of the colony of English settlers at Plymouth. Samoset, a Pemaquid (Abenaki) sachem from Maine, introduced himself to the Pilgrims upon their arrival in 1620. Shortly thereafter, he introduced Tisquantum (who presumably spoke better English) to the Pilgrims, who had settled at the site of Squanto's former village.[2] From that point onward, Squanto devoted himself to helping the Pilgrims. Whatever his motivations, with great kindness and patience, he taught the English the skills they needed to survive, including how best to cultivate varieties of the Three Sisters: beans, maize and squash.

Although Samoset appears to have been important in establishing initial relations with the Pilgrims, Squanto was undoubtedly the main factor in the Pilgrims' survival. In addition, he also served as an intermediary between the Pilgrims and Massasoit, the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag (original name Ousamequin[10] or "Yellow Feather"[11]). As such, he was instrumental in the friendship treaty that the two signed, allowing the settlers to occupy the area around the former Patuxet village.[2] Massasoit honored this treaty until his death in 1661.[12]

Thanksgiving

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In the fall of 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast. This three-day celebration involving the entire village and about 90 Wampanoag has been celebrated as a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans.[13] The event later inspired 19th-century Americans to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. The harvest celebration took place at the historic site of the Patuxet villages. Squanto's involvement as an intermediary in negotiating the friendship treaty with Massasoit led to the joint feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag. This feast was a celebration of the first successful harvest season of the colonists.[2]

See also

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References

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Further reading

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Patuxet

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Patuxet was a Native American village of the Patuxet band within the Wampanoag confederation, situated along the coast at the site of modern Plymouth, Massachusetts. The village, whose name translates to "at the little falls," supported a community reliant on fishing, hunting, and agriculture in the fertile region near Town Brook before European contact. Between 1616 and 1619, an epidemic—proposed by empirical analysis to be leptospirosis transmitted via rodent vectors from European vessels—decimated the population, leaving Patuxet abandoned and enabling the subsequent English settlement without immediate large-scale resistance from inhabitants. The sole known Patuxet survivor upon return, Tisquantum (commonly called Squanto), had been captured by Europeans in 1614, taken to Spain and England, and repatriated via a merchant voyage, only to discover his village eradicated; he later served as interpreter and agricultural advisor to the arriving Pilgrims in 1620, facilitating their survival through knowledge of local planting techniques amid the site's cleared fields and graves. This depopulation, affecting up to 90% of regional Wampanoag groups, shifted power dynamics, allowing the Plymouth Colony to establish on Patuxet's grounds as New Plymouth, marking a pivotal intersection of indigenous ecology and colonial expansion grounded in demographic collapse from introduced pathogens rather than direct conquest.

Origins and Pre-Contact Era

Geographical and Cultural Context

The Patuxet inhabited the coastal zone of southeastern Massachusetts, centered on the area now known as Plymouth along the western shore of Cape Cod Bay. Their main village was situated near the Eel River, where tidal flats and estuarine waters provided abundant resources for fishing and shellfish harvesting, complemented by upland soils suitable for crop cultivation. This location within the broader Wampanoag homeland, extending from Weymouth to Cape Cod and including Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, supported a lifeway attuned to the region's seasonal maritime environment, with human occupation dating back over 12,000 years. As a band within the Wampanoag confederation of Algonquian-speaking peoples, the Patuxet maintained semi-permanent villages featuring wetuash—dome-shaped dwellings constructed from sapling frames covered in bark, reeds, or mats, designed for the Northeast's variable climate. Their economy integrated agriculture, with fields of interplanted maize, beans, and squash tended through controlled burns to clear land and enrich soil; coastal fishing using nets, weirs, and bone hooks; and inland hunting of deer, fowl, and small game during seasonal migrations. Communities numbered among the approximately 67 Wampanoag villages, interconnected by trade, kinship, and sachem-led councils for decision-making, sustaining a pre-contact population estimated at 50,000 to 100,000 across the territory before the 1616–1619 epidemic.

Social Structure and Economy

The Patuxet people, a subtribe within the broader Wampanoag confederation, maintained a hierarchical social organization centered on sachems, who acted as village leaders responsible for decision-making, diplomacy, and resource allocation. These sachems, often inheriting positions through matrilineal lines, were advised by councils of elders and warriors known as pniese, forming a stratified society that included the sachem's extended family, free commoners engaged in subsistence labor, and a lower class of dependents or captives from warfare. This structure emphasized kinship ties and communal obligations, with authority derived from demonstrated prowess in hunting, warfare, and mediation rather than absolute rule. Economic activities revolved around a seasonal, diversified subsistence system adapted to the coastal environment of present-day Plymouth Bay. Primary reliance was on agriculture, where women cultivated communal fields of maize, beans, and squash—the "three sisters"—using slash-and-burn techniques and fish fertilizer, yielding staple crops that supported semi-permanent villages like Patuxet. Men focused on hunting deer, birds, and small game with bows and traps, as well as coastal fishing for herring, cod, and shellfish using weirs, nets, and dugout canoes from the abundant harbor resources. Supplementary gathering of wild plants, nuts, and berries by women and children complemented these efforts, while intertribal trade networks exchanged surplus goods like , furs, and items for tools and prestige goods, fostering economic interdependence across southern . This balanced sustained an estimated population of up to 2,000 in the Patuxet village area prior to European contact, with sustainable practices minimizing environmental depletion through controlled burns and rotational field use.

European Contact and Demographic Collapse

Initial Encounters (Early 1600s)

In 1614, an English expedition under Captain John Smith explored the New England coast, marking the first documented encounters with the Patuxet people near their village site at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Smith's objectives included mapping the region for potential settlement and trade opportunities; his party traded European goods such as knives, beads, and cloth for furs, corn, and other native products from coastal tribes, including the Patuxet. These interactions were initially peaceful, with Smith emphasizing diplomacy to avoid conflict, as detailed in his subsequent publication A Description of New England. His 1616 map accurately depicted the Patuxet locale, reflecting observations from voyages along Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod. The expedition's companion vessel, commanded by Thomas Hunt, disrupted these efforts through an act of treachery. After Smith departed for England, Hunt invited around 20 to 30 Patuxet and neighboring Nauset men aboard his ship under false pretenses of continued trade, then shackled and transported them across the Atlantic to sell as slaves in Málaga, Spain. This violated Smith's directives against such aggression, which he had issued to preserve future relations. Among the captives was Tisquantum (later known as Squanto), a Patuxet man whose abduction exemplified the opportunistic slave trading that characterized some early European ventures. These events preceded broader demographic crises but introduced immediate tensions, as the kidnappings reduced Patuxet manpower and eroded trust in English intentions. While sporadic prior contacts by European fishermen may have occurred along the coast since the late 1500s, the 1614 expedition provided the earliest specific records of Patuxet involvement, highlighting both commercial potential and the risks of exploitation.

The 1616-1619 Epidemic: Causes and Impact

The epidemic affecting Native American populations in coastal New England from approximately 1616 to 1619 was likely caused by Leptospira bacteria, resulting in leptospirosis, which in severe cases progressed to Weil syndrome characterized by jaundice, renal failure, and internal hemorrhaging. This bacterial zoonosis was transmitted primarily through water contaminated by the urine of infected animals, with European ships' rats serving as vectors that introduced the pathogen to local reservoirs such as raccoons, muskrats, and other mammals, from which it spilled over to humans lacking prior exposure or immunity. Initial infections may have occurred among tribes trading with European fishermen along the Maine coast, spreading southward via intertribal networks to Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod by 1617–1618. Unlike viral diseases such as smallpox, which arrived later in the 1630s, leptospirosis aligns with contemporary descriptions of symptoms including prolonged fever, bleeding from orifices, and rapid tissue decay, while sparing most Europeans who benefited from incidental immunity from Old World exposures. Mortality rates exceeded 75–90% in densely populated coastal villages, with skeletal remains from burial sites showing evidence of acute infectious disease rather than warfare or famine. Among the Patuxet, a Nauset-Wampanoag subgroup inhabiting the site of modern , the disease eradicated the entire resident population of several hundred individuals between 1617 and 1619, leaving fields overgrown and structures abandoned without survivors to reclaim them. This near-total depopulation stemmed from the pathogen's high in immunologically naive hosts, compounded by seasonal factors like wet autumns that facilitated waterborne spread in semi-sedentary fishing and farming communities. The broader consequences reshaped regional demographics and power dynamics, reducing the Wampanoag confederation's population from an estimated 20,000–30,000 to under 5,000, which weakened defensive capacities against rivals like the Narragansett and created a demographic vacuum exploited by subsequent English colonists arriving in 1620. Patuxet's annihilation, in particular, directly enabled the Pilgrims' uncontested occupation of cleared agricultural lands and fish-rich harbors, as documented in William 's accounts of finding "the bones and skulls of dead Indians" scattered amid fertile but untilled soil. Ecologically, the mass mortality disrupted managed landscapes, allowing forests to reclaim villages and altering wildlife patterns, though some fields remained viable for European-style planting due to Native practices like controlled burns. While English observers like interpreted the event providentially as divine clearance for settlement, empirical evidence points to incidental microbial transfer from intensified transatlantic contact rather than intentional biowarfare or intervention.

Tisquantum: The Last Patuxet

Biography and Captivity

Tisquantum was born around 1585 in the Patuxet territory near present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, as a member of the Patuxet people, a subgroup allied with the broader Wampanoag confederation. Details of his early life remain sparse, with no contemporary records describing his family, upbringing, or role within the community prior to intensified European contact; he likely lived as a hunter, fisherman, and participant in the seasonal agricultural and maritime economy typical of coastal Wampanoag bands. In March 1614, during the aftermath of Captain John Smith's mapping expedition along the New England coast, Smith's subordinate Thomas Hunt exploited a trading opportunity by deceiving and abducting Tisquantum and roughly 20 to 24 other Native men from Patuxet and nearby Nauset villages. Hunt sailed directly to Málaga, Spain, where he auctioned the captives as slaves in open markets, an act that violated Smith's explicit prohibitions against enslavement and prioritized profit over diplomatic relations. This event, corroborated in William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, marked the onset of Tisquantum's decade-long captivity and displacement. Upon sale in Spain, Tisquantum entered servitude but gained freedom around 1615–1616 through the efforts of local Catholic friars, who invoked papal bulls against the enslavement of Indigenous Americans and facilitated his release or escape. He subsequently crossed to England, residing in London or Cornwall, where he learned English—possibly while serving a merchant named John Slany or in similar employ—and adapted to urban life amid England's growing maritime networks. These experiences equipped him with linguistic and cultural knowledge absent in most Native contemporaries.

Return to an Empty Homeland

In 1619, Tisquantum accompanied English explorer Thomas Dermer on a voyage from Newfoundland to the New England coast, aimed at reestablishing trade and mapping the region under the patronage of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Dermer's expedition, which included Tisquantum as an interpreter and guide familiar with the local tribes, arrived near Patuxet in May of that year. Upon landing at his former village site—now the location of present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts—Tisquantum found it utterly deserted, with no living inhabitants among the Patuxet people. The wetuash (traditional dome-shaped homes) stood abandoned and decaying, cornfields lay overgrown with weeds, and skeletal remains of the dead were scattered across the landscape, evidence of a catastrophic epidemic that had struck between 1616 and 1619. Inquiries with surviving members of neighboring tribes, such as the Wampanoag, confirmed that the plague had killed nearly all Patuxet residents, sparing only a handful who had fled or integrated elsewhere, thus rendering Tisquantum the last known member of his band. This demographic collapse, which Dermer documented in correspondence as having left the village a "vacant" wasteland, stemmed from European-introduced diseases to which indigenous populations lacked immunity, though exact pathogens remain debated among historians. Tisquantum's discovery marked a profound personal loss, transforming him from a returning native into an orphan of his own people amid a radically altered coastal landscape.

Settlement by the Pilgrims

Mayflower Voyage and Choice of Site

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620 (Old Style), carrying 102 passengers—primarily English Separatists seeking religious separation from the Church of England, along with hired laborers and adventurers—after abandoning the leaky companion ship Speedwell. The vessel was chartered by the Merchant Adventurers for settlement in the Virginia Company's territory near the Hudson River, but autumn storms forced it northward, resulting in a 66-day voyage marked by rough seas, illness, and two deaths. On November 9, 1620 (O.S.), the Mayflower anchored off Cape Cod's Provincetown Harbor, far north of the intended destination and outside any colonial patent's jurisdiction. To maintain order amid growing unrest among non-Separatist passengers threatening mutiny, the adult male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620 (O.S.), pledging allegiance to King James I and committing to frame a government for the colony's general good. Exploratory shallop trips in harsh November weather revealed Cape Cod's unsuitable conditions—barren soil, hostile terrain, and native signs prompting defensive concerns—leading leaders like William Bradford and William Brewster to seek a site westward. On December 21, 1620 (O.S.), a party reached the western Cape Cod shore at the abandoned Patuxet village site, selected for its deep natural harbor, brooks providing fresh water and fish, elevated defensive positions atop Burial Hill, and pre-cleared cornfields from prior Native cultivation, which eased initial farming efforts. The site's depopulation by a 1616–1619 epidemic—leaving skeletal remains in huts and fields fallow—eliminated immediate conflict risks and supplied stored corn caches, though later deemed providential by settlers, it reflected the demographic collapse that vacated the fertile locale. By December 25, 1620 (O.S.), the Mayflower relocated to Plymouth Harbor, where construction of the first dwellings began amid winter's onset.

Early Colonial Challenges

The Pilgrims faced immediate and dire challenges in establishing Plymouth Colony at the abandoned Patuxet site following their arrival in December 1620. Initial efforts focused on constructing shelter amid freezing temperatures and storms, but progress was slow due to widespread illness and inadequate tools; settlers initially sheltered aboard the Mayflower or in unfinished cottages, with a common house burning down on January 14, 1621, exacerbating exposure risks. Scurvy and other diseases, compounded by malnutrition, damp conditions, and the lingering effects of the transatlantic voyage, led to rampant mortality during the first winter. Of the 102 Mayflower passengers, 44 died between December 1620 and March 1621, with deaths peaking at two or three per day in January and February, reducing the survivors to roughly half the original number. William Bradford described the period as one where "half of their company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts." Provisions were critically scarce, limited to depleted ship stores, sporadic foraging, and caches of Native-stored corn discovered at the site, insufficient to prevent widespread weakness and further illness. To maintain morale and deter potential native threats, burials occurred at night without customary markers, reflecting the settlers' precarious position. A core group of six or seven healthy individuals provided essential care to the afflicted, underscoring the colony's tenuous communal bonds amid existential threats.

Intertribal and Colonial Interactions

Tisquantum's Role in Diplomacy and Survival Skills

Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, served as the primary interpreter and diplomatic intermediary between the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag sachem Massasoit during the critical early months of 1621, facilitating the treaty signed on March 22 that established mutual peace, defense against enemies, and trade relations. This agreement, interpreted by Tisquantum alongside Hobamok (another translator provided by Massasoit), committed the Wampanoag not to harm the colonists or steal their tools, while the Pilgrims pledged similar protections and aid; it endured for over 50 years, averting immediate intertribal and colonial conflict amid the colonists' vulnerability. Tisquantum's linguistic proficiency in English, acquired during his captivity in Europe from 1614 to 1619, enabled these negotiations, though his loyalties were contested—Massasoit later accused him of exaggerating Pilgrim strength to undermine Wampanoag authority and foster personal influence, prompting demands for his execution in 1623, which the colonists deferred until his death from illness. Beyond diplomacy, Tisquantum imparted essential survival techniques to the Pilgrims, who faced near-starvation after their first winter, when only 53 of 102 survived. Drawing from Patuxet practices, he demonstrated in spring 1621 how to plant maize (Indian corn) by burying fish—typically herring—as fertilizer in hills spaced 4-5 feet apart, a method that yielded the colony's first successful harvest of approximately 20 acres that fall. He also instructed them in the "Three Sisters" intercropping system, sowing corn with beans and squash to optimize soil nutrients, deter pests, and support vine growth, adapting European seeds' failures to New England conditions. Tisquantum further guided the colonists in fishing techniques, directing them to eel-grass meadows for herring runs in March and advising on weirs and hooks for catching bass, cod, and other species in local rivers and bays, which provided both food and fertilizer. He introduced them to the fur trade, negotiating exchanges of beaver pelts with interior tribes for European goods, generating revenue that offset debts to London investors by 1622. These skills, as recorded by Governor William Bradford, proved indispensable, with Bradford crediting Tisquantum as "a special instrument sent of God" for averting famine, though later tensions arose from Tisquantum's selective aid and attempts to position himself as the Pilgrims' exclusive intermediary.

Formation of the Wampanoag-Pilgrim Alliance

In early March 1621, after Samoset and Tisquantum had established initial communication with the Plymouth settlers, Massasoit (known to the English as such), the sachem of the Wampanoag confederation, arrived at the colony with a retinue of about 60 armed men. Tisquantum served as the primary interpreter during the subsequent negotiations, facilitating dialogue between Massasoit and Plymouth's leaders, including Governor John Carver. These talks culminated in the signing of a formal treaty on March 22, 1621, marking the establishment of a defensive alliance between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims. The treaty's six articles outlined commitments to perpetual peace, prohibiting harm between the parties and requiring that any offender—whether Wampanoag or colonist—be delivered to the opposing leader for punishment or restitution. It further mandated mutual military aid against third-party aggressors, such as the Narragansett tribe, and extended peaceful relations to each party's allies, while addressing theft through equivalent recompense. No written copy survives, but the terms were recorded by Plymouth governor William Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation, emphasizing enforcement through reciprocal justice rather than unilateral action. Massasoit's motivations stemmed from strategic necessities: the Wampanoag had been decimated by epidemics between 1616 and 1619, reducing their population by up to 90% in some areas and leaving them vulnerable to Narragansett incursions, who had largely escaped the disease. The alliance offered a counterbalance through Pilgrim firearms and manpower, alongside opportunities for controlled trade in European goods, while allowing Massasoit to monitor the settlers' intentions and expansion. For the Pilgrims, who had lost nearly half their number to disease and starvation that winter (only 52 of 102 survivors by spring), the pact secured immediate protection, access to native knowledge for agriculture and fishing, and a buffer against hostile tribes. The agreement proved durable, maintaining relative peace for over 40 years until Massasoit's death in 1661, after which tensions escalated under his son Metacom (Philip). Tisquantum's mediation was pivotal but fraught; Massasoit later grew wary of him, suspecting divided loyalties as Tisquantum resided with the Pilgrims and occasionally exaggerated threats to bind them closer to Wampanoag interests. This alliance's formation, grounded in pragmatic mutual dependence rather than cultural affinity, enabled Plymouth's early consolidation amid a landscape of intertribal rivalries and colonial fragility.

Legacy and Historical Debates

Influence on Plymouth Colony's Success

The near-total depopulation of Patuxet by an epidemic between 1616 and 1619 directly enabled the Plymouth Colony's establishment on the site, as the village's cleared fields, freshwater brook, and sheltered harbor provided immediate resources without initial armed resistance from inhabitants. The disease, possibly leptospirosis introduced via European contact, killed up to 90% of coastal Wampanoag populations, including all Patuxet residents except Tisquantum, who had been absent in England. Plymouth governor William Bradford noted the settlers' discovery of "graves into which were lapped bones and skulls" amid abandoned cornfields, confirming the site's prior occupation and recent vacancy. This demographic collapse reduced the risk of swift Native retaliation, allowing the 102 Mayflower passengers—half of whom perished in the first winter—to fortify and subsist on existing stores like stored corn. Tisquantum's survival as the last Patuxet member positioned him uniquely to impart localized knowledge critical to the colony's agricultural turnaround in spring 1621. He instructed settlers in planting maize using herring as fertilizer—burying fish with seeds to enrich sandy soils—alongside techniques for cultivating beans and squash in mounds, yielding sufficient harvests to avert starvation. Bradford credited this method, learned from Tisquantum, with enabling crop success where European seeds had failed, stating it proved "a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation." Additionally, Tisquantum demonstrated eel trapping, deer stalking, and sap collection, diversifying food sources and supporting the colony's expansion from 52 survivors to over 1,000 by 1623. Beyond subsistence, Patuxet's legacy through Tisquantum facilitated diplomatic and economic foundations for long-term viability. As interpreter, he brokered the 1621 treaty with Wampanoag sachem Massasoit, securing mutual defense against rivals like the Narragansetts and enabling fur trade that offset colony debts to English investors. Historical analyses emphasize that without the epidemic's clearing of Patuxet and Tisquantum's expertise—rooted in his tribal origins—the colony faced probable failure, as evidenced by higher mortality in contemporaneous settlements lacking such advantages. Later Pilgrim suspicions of Tisquantum's self-interest, noted by Bradford, underscore his agency but do not diminish the causal role of Patuxet-specific factors in averting collapse.

Modern Reassessments and Myths

Modern reassessments of Patuxet's history emphasize the devastating impact of pre-1620 European contacts, which introduced pathogens that decimated the Patuxet population, clearing the village for Pilgrim settlement. Between 1616 and 1619, an epidemic—likely leptospirosis or smallpox, transmitted via infected European explorers and kidnappers—killed nearly all inhabitants, leaving behind cornfields, graves, and skeletal remains that the Mayflower's scouting party observed in December 1620. This was not an untouched wilderness but a recently vacated site, with the plague possibly originating from voyages like Thomas Hunt's 1614 expedition, which abducted two dozen Patuxet people, including Tisquantum, and docked in Spain, facilitating disease spread. A persistent myth in American folklore portrays the Pilgrims' arrival at Patuxet as discovering providentially empty land in a virgin forest, implying minimal prior human impact or conflict. In truth, the site's cleared fields and structures evidenced sophisticated Indigenous agriculture and settlement, emptied not by abstract divine favor but by imported diseases from English fishing fleets and slavers operating off New England since 1603; William Bradford's account acknowledged the "extraordinary plague" but framed it theologically, overlooking causal links to European vectors. This narrative obscures how such epidemics reduced Wampanoag numbers from tens of thousands to under 3,000, enabling colonial foothold without immediate large-scale resistance. Tisquantum's depiction as the lone Patuxet survivor and benevolent savior—emerging to teach Pilgrims planting techniques and ensuring their survival—has been mythologized in Thanksgiving traditions, often ignoring his complex biography and motives. While kidnapped in 1614, enslaved abroad, and returning in 1619 to find Patuxet annihilated, Tisquantum was not demonstrably the sole survivor, as archaeological and oral evidence suggests other Patuxet integrated with neighboring tribes; his assistance to the colony coexisted with self-interested diplomacy, including a 1622 plot to alienate Wampanoag sachem Massasoit by claiming Pilgrim support for Patuxet revival against him. Historians reassess him as a displaced intermediary leveraging linguistic skills (acquired in England and Spain) for personal agency amid loss, rather than a mythic hero. Another misconception claims the Pilgrims were unintendedly blown off course from Virginia to Patuxet, suggesting happenstance in site selection. Records indicate they targeted the Hudson River area but, after the Mayflower Compact and storms, deliberately chose Plymouth in early 1621 for its defensible harbor and abandoned fields, rejecting icier alternatives like Provincetown. These myths, rooted in 19th-century romanticizations, have been critiqued for sanitizing colonial origins, prompting reassessments that integrate Native perspectives on pre-contact trade, epidemics, and Tisquantum's fraught role to reveal a landscape shaped by microbial and human exchanges rather than isolation or inevitability.

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  44. https://time.com/5910756/mayflower-native-american/
  45. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thanksgiving-myth-and-what-we-should-be-teaching-kids-180973655/
  46. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/mayflower-400-a-deep-dive-into-american-thanksgiving-1.5807974/thanksgiving-squanto-true-story-marked-by-slavery-and-treachery-says-historian-1.5807979
  47. https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/history/2024/11/25/history-of-thanksgiving-4-myths-about-the-pilgrims-and-the-true-story/76401640007/
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