Nipmuc Nation
A profile of the “fresh water people”. "The Creator looked down and saw Giant Turtle swimming in the waters that covered the earth and he was carrying Eagle, Owl, Crow, Deer, Fox, Turkey, Muskrat and Beaver on his back. He joined them in the form of a Hare and sent Crow to search the water, bidding him to find brown earth to make an island. But Crow came back without any earth. So the Great Spirit sent others, but they all returned to Giant Turtle without bringing any part of the earth's substance. Finally He sent Muskrat who was gone a long time and at last appeared on top of the waters holding send in his paws. From this the Creator fashioned the land, the animals and birds, and people to live in the forests, At this time the Great Snake came out from his hiding place under the sea. The muskrat still shows his knowledge of how the world was made by building his house in its shape, a dome. The people had learned from him and their houses were dome shaped also" - Excerpt from the Nipmuc Creation Myth

Quinsigamond is a name that might strike some as odd. Who came up with it and what is it referring to? Quinsigamond in the Native American Algonquian Language means “the pickerel ( or long nose ) fishing place” and was the old name of what we now know as the city of Worcester, MA. Algonquian is the common language of the Nipmuc people who inhabited much of Worcester county along with the Pequot, Narragansett and Pennacook. They were the earliest inhabitants of the area long before the English ever set foot in central Massachusetts. What were they like? What's their story? Are they still among us?
The Nipmuc People and Culture: The name Nipmuc means “the fresh water people”. It refers to the Native-Americans living in central Massachusetts. They were not a cohesive tribe like other Indians but made up of independent bands and villages, some of which would form alliances at different times with other neighboring tribal confederacies. Estimates of their pre-european contact population is vary between 3,000 and 10,000 with as many as 40 villages. Nipmucs may also go by the names Nipet, Neepmuck, Neepnet, Neetmock, Neipnett, Nipmug and Nipmuck. Whatever their name the fresh water people were generally peaceful. The Nipmuc generally lived along rivers or on the shores of small lakes. They lived in small usually unfortified villages in wigwams. Wigwams were constructed with small bendable saplings in a semicircular frame and covered with animal hides or reed mats. Each group was ruled by its own sachem ( chief or elder), but there was very little political organization beyond the village or band level. Like other New England Algonquin (meaning tribes that share the Algonquin language), the Nipmuc were agricultural. They changed locations according to the seasons, but always remained within the bounds of their own territory. Part of their diet came from cultivating beans, squash and corn and part of it came from hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild food like berries, edible plants and maple syrup.
Nipmuc History: As was mentioned before before the English came to Massachusetts the Nipmucs had alliances with other tribes – the Pequot Narragansetts and Pennacooks. In 1620 the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth and in 1630 the Puritans had the Mass Bay Settlement. This brought more contact with the Nipmuc by the settlers. By 1633 traders from Boston had reached the Connecticut River. The English had a successful war with the Pequot ( who had had enough on the invaders) in 1637 destroying them and ending the tribal alliance with the Nipmucs. With the Pequot out of the way the Nipmucs began to be threatened by the Narragansetts to the south (mainly in Rhode Island) and the Mohegans. In 1644 they asked the new Massachusetts government - with their firearms and military forces - for help. The government agreed - in return for the natives agreeing to certain terms. The Nipmucs had to obey all laws, to pledge allegiance, to be taught to be Christians, and to put all tribal lands under Mass government jurisdiction. The Nipmucs agreed. This arrangement went smoothly for a long while, with the Nipmucs enjoying the help of the English with very little interference. Of course, as time went on, the newcomers passed more and more laws which were not in the interest of the Nipmucs, and found ways to use the Nipmuc land which was now in their control. In the meantime, many Nipmucs were converted to Christianity. Natick was the first "praying village" set up for natives – Hassanamesit in 1654 and by1674 there were seven. The Nipmucs were so grateful to the English for their land being gone and forcing salvation on them that almost all the Nipmucs joined King Philip's uprising against the colonists in 1675. Under the leadership of Sagamore Sam, the Nipmuc joined the fighting in King Philip's War during the summer of 1675. Nipmuc warriors raided Brookfield (twice), Deerfield and Hadley. which destroyed the command of Captain Thomas Lothrop. The few Nipmuc who managed to remain neutral were rounded up and sent to a "plantation of confinement" at Nashoba. After a series of raids in southeast Massachusetts, Philip retreated west into the Nipmuc country during the summer of 1675 and attacked English settlements in the Connecticut River Valley. Using the Nipmuc country as a sanctuary in the spring, Philip launched a series of raids throughout New England during 1676 which continued until he was finally trapped and killed in August. Following Philip's death, native resistance ended. Unfortunately, the war against them did not. The English continued to hunt down and attack the Nipmuc and any other group of Philip's former allies they could find. Some colonists did not take prisoners, others did but sold them as slaves. Some Nipmuc avoided this and escaped. One group followed the Connecticut River Valley north into Quebec where they joined the St. Francois Indians and continued the war as French allies. Taking revenge for the King Philip's War, the St. Francois Indians with the Nipmucs raided throughout New England during the King William's (1689-97) and the Queen Anne's (1701-13) Wars. Other Nipmuc and New England Algonquin chose to move west and resettled along the Housatonic and Hudson Rivers with the Mahican. Still others crossed the Hudson and joined the Munsee Delaware in northern New Jersey. These refugees from the King Philip's War were eventually absorbed by their hosts, and their descendents moved west as part of the Delaware and Mahican - first to the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania and in later years to Ohio. After the war, the terms of peace imposed by the New England colonists were harsh. The survivors of the Nipmuc and other tribes in southern New England were collected into a series of praying towns supervised by Puritan missionaries or confined to small reservations in remote areas. A census of natives in southern New England to be taken in 1680. There were only 4,000 left! Considering that even conservative estimates of the native population (all tribes) in 1614 exceed 100,000, there had been a population loss (within the space of a single lifetime) of at least 96% - due almost entirely to contact with Europeans.
Nipmucs Today: Confined to mixed communities of praying villages and small reservations after 1680, almost all tribal identities and traditions of the New England Algonquin evaporated within a few years. Even their small land base quickly passed into white ownership. The Chaubunagungamaug (a sub-group) currently have ten acres in Connecticut, while the Hassanamisco (a sub-group) in Massachusetts have only two. The Hassanamesit Reservation contained 8,000 acres in 1728 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts purchased the land. The money from the sale was to be held for the Nipmuc in an account at a Boston bank, but they never saw a penny of it. During the 1800s, a state official secretly borrowed (embezzled) the money for his private use. It was never repaid, and the thief was never prosecuted. Almost 250 years after the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, the Massachusetts legislature in 1869 finally passed a law granting citizenship to the Nipmuc. At this time the Nipmuc are recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Nipmucs did try in 2004 to gain federal recognition as a nation but it was denied by the Bureau Of Indian Affairs for not meeting all but 4 of the 7 mandatory requirements.