Passaconaway
Passaconaway | |
---|---|
Papisseconneway | |
Pennacook leader | |
Preceded by | Nanepashemet |
Succeeded by | Wonalancet (sachem) |
Personal details | |
Born | around 1570 near Merrimack River |
Died | before 1669 |
Relations | Montowampate |
Children | 5, including Wonalancet[2] |
Passaconaway was a 17th century sachem and later bashaba (chief of chiefs) of the Pennacook people in what is now southern New Hampshire in the United States, who was famous for his dealings with the Plimouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies.
Name
17th century records spell his name in a variety of ways, including Papisseconewa, Papisseconeway, Passeconneway, Papisseconneway, Passeconewa, Passaconaway, and Peasconaway.
In 19th century and subsequent publications he has sometimes been equated with the Catholic sachem called St. Aspenquid, but this is erroneous.
Life
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2012) |
Passaconaway was widely respected by contemporaneous Native Americans in the New England region, by English colonists (even those who said that his supernatural abilities were satanic in origin), and was taken seriously as a political leader by colonial English settlers. One of the key native figures in the colonial history of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, he is believed to have been born between 1550 and 1570, and had died by 1669 (his birth and death dates are imprecise, and reckoning is skewed by the claim of one reporter, who says that he met Passaconaway when the latter was 120 years old). During his lifetime English colonial settlement in New England began in earnest, intersecting with an ongoing series of socio-political and demographic changes arising from warfare over the fur trade and the introduction of Eurasian diseases. In particular, an epidemic in 1616 ravaged the Native American populations in southeast New England, and that event's demographic consequences probably motivated sachems to allow the settlement of English colonists in their territories, usually under the framework of "land sales", to bolster their ability to engage in inter-group raids and warfare with other Native communities.
He was a powerful and widely respected powow (a ritual expert and mediator between humans and spirits similar to a
There are no records about the earlier part of his career beyond his reported abdication speech, which said that he had fought against the Mohawk as a younger man. At some point prior to the Pilgrims' arrival he became
In 1632, when a Native American murdered an English settler and fled, Passaconaway oversaw his capture and turned him over to colonial authorities. In 1642, when a rumor falsely claimed that there was an anti-English conspiracy developing among the local Native Americans, a militia was sent to apprehend Passaconaway and seize his guns. When the militia's forward progress was stopped by a thunderstorm, they instead seized his son, Wonalancet, his daughter-in-law, and his grandchild. When the authorities in Boston sent him an apology and invited him to come to the town to discuss the matter, Passaconaway insisted that the captives be freed. After they were, Passaconaway turned over his guns. In 1648 the English missionary John Eliot reported that he had gone to Pawtucket Falls, met Passaconaway, and preached to him there. According to Eliot, Passaconaway was receptive to his preaching, and invited him to come live with the Pennacook, which Eliot did not do. Whether Passaconaway converted is uncertain - no records indicate it, but legends among English colonists and their descendants maintained that he did. His son Wonalancet eventually became a Christian, and as his policies often continued his father's, it seems likely that Passaconaway was at least open to some form of Christian influence.
Passaconaway voluntarily abdicated in approximately 1660 and designated his second son
In his old age Passaconaway, having relinquished his position of authority and having seen most traditional subsistence practices abandoned or rendered impossible by English colonial practices and laws, became dependent on the goodwill of the Massachusetts General Court and colonial government, petitioning in 1664 for a land grant for territory over which he once exercised some form of sovereignty. However, it is important to remember that by that time, the Pennacook and Pawtucket families had been arrested, harassed, enslaved, and shipped to Barbados in some cases.
The details of his death, including date, cause, and the location of his grave, are unknown. His son and successor, Wonalancet, kept to his father's policies regarding the English, including forbearing to take part in King Philip's War. His first son, Nanamocomuck, was the father of Kancamagus, who became Pennacook sachem after Wonalancet, and was far more inclined to fight back against the English than his grandfather and uncle had been. Kancamagus eventually removed the remnants of the Pennacook northward to the settlements along the Saint Lawrence River.
Passaconaway was later heroized by non-native New Englanders as a representative of a "good" Indian, largely due to his lifelong policy of nonaggression with the English colonists, the repeated positive comments on his character from English contemporaries such as John Eliot, and he has been commemorated in various places in New Hampshire and elsewhere.
Legends
Legends in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine are mostly drawn from, and elaborate upon, colonial accounts. Even before the Pilgrims' 1620 landing on the Massachusetts coast, a European ship's captain reported seeing a huge native standing atop a coastal cliff, surmising he was probably the native often referred to as Conway.
Another legend indicates that Passaconaway was summoned to the
Local New Hampshire history says that in 1647 John Elliot attempted to speak with Passaconaway but was refused audience again and again before he was finally allowed to talk with the bashaba. Eventually the minister was invited to live with the Pennacook people and teach the elderly sachem about Christianity. Legend says that after the preacher died suddenly from an illness, Passaconaway decided to step down from his position of authority, announcing before an enormous crowd at the yearly native gathering that his son Wonalancet was now sachem of the Pennacook. This account closely follows the events narrated in Eliot's letter and descriptions of Passaconaway's farewell speech, but presents the two as somehow causally related.
The commemorative statue in Edson Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts is historically inaccurate - it depicts Plains Indian clothing and headdress. The other most frequently presented image of Passaconaway is a drawing that first appeared in Potter's History of Manchester, and has a somewhat better connection to period-accurate clothing, but the conspicuously displayed bearskin was almost certainly included due to the folk etymology of his name (discussed above).
Anglo-American legends about Passaconaway's death say that his body was buried in a cave in the sacred native mountain
Shortly before his death, Passaconaway was granted extensive tracks of land on both sides of the Merrimack as far north as the Souhegan River (although others, like Potter, have claimed without evidence that he settled in present-day Concord).[8] He most likely died and was buried near the island where he was last known to be living, in the Merrimack River not far north of the mouth of the Souhegan.
Village
The present-day
Mountain
Legacy
The Daniel Webster Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which serves most of New Hampshire, honors Passaconaway by naming their Order of the Arrow lodge for the sachem.
See also
- Jigger Johnson
- Penacook, New Hampshire
- Wonalancet, New Hampshire
- Defunct placenames of New Hampshire
Notes
References
- ^ Potter, Chandler Eastman (1856). The History of Manchester, Formerly Derryfield, in New Hampshire: Including that of Ancient Amoskeag, Or the Middle Merrimack Valley; Together with the Address, Poem, and Other Proceedings, of the Centennial Celebration, of the Incorporation of Derryfield; at Manchester, October 22, 1851. C.E. Potter. p. 52.
- ^ Beals, Charles Edward (1916). Passaconaway in the White Mountains. Cornell University Library. Boston : R.G. Badger. p. 54.
- )
- ^ Mary Ellen Lepionka, "Sachems and Shamans," in "History of Cape Ann and Beyond," at Indigenous History of Essex County, Massachusetts, 2017-2022
- )
- OCLC 46975008.
- ISBN 978-0806131269.
- ^ ProQuest 304504354.
- ^ Lyford, John (1896). History of Concord, New Hampshire. p. 72.
- ^ History of Dracut, Massachusetts, called by the Indians Augumtoocooke and before incorporation, the wildernesse north of the Merrimac. First permanent settlement in 1669 and incorporated as a town in 1701. Silas Roger Coburn (1922)
- ^ Jones, Leslie, Passaconaway Indian statue in Lowell Edson Cemetery, retrieved 2022-10-31
- ^ Beals, Charles Edward, Jr., Passaconaway in the White Mountains (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1916). The author was a summer resident of the village, and later a ranger in the White Mountain National Forest. The title of the book refers to the village, not to the Pennacook leader (who had no known connection to the White Mountains).
- ^ WMNF official website
- ^ "Hiking Mount Passaconaway - Appalachian Mountain Club". www.outdoors.org.
- Beals, Charles Edward, Jr., Passaconaway in the White Mountains (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1916)
- Carter, George Calvin, "Passaconaway: The Greatest of the New England Indians" (published transcript of 1947 speech) (Manchester, NH: Granite State Press, 1947)
- Drake, Samuel Adams, "St. Aspenquid of Agamenticus," A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884), pp. 359–362
- Lyford, James O., ed., History of Concord, Vol I (Concord, NH: The Rumford Press, 1903)
- Potter, C. E., The History of Manchester (Manchester, NH: C. E. Potter, 1856)