Pocomtuc

{{short description|Extinct Native American tribe from Massachusetts}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Pocomtuc

| image = File:Ctvalley.jpg

| image_caption = Central Connecticut River Valley, historically the main area of Pocomtuc settlement.

| popplace = United States (Massachusetts)

| population = Extinct as a tribe

| languages = an Eastern Algonquian language

| religions = Indigenous religion

| related = Other Algonquian peoples

}}

The Pocomtuc (also Pocomtuck, Pocumtuc, Pocumtuck, or Deerfield Indians) were a Native American tribe historically inhabiting western areas of Massachusetts.

Settlements

Their territory was concentrated around the confluence of the Deerfield and Connecticut Rivers in today's Franklin County. Their homelands also included much of current-day Hampden and Hampshire Counties, plus areas now in northern Connecticut and southern Vermont.

Their principal village, also known as Pocumtuck, was in the vicinity of the present day village of Deerfield, Massachusetts.{{cite book |last=Hodge |first=Frederick W. |title=Handbook of North American Indians |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookamindians01hodgrich |location=Washington, DC. |publisher=Government Printing Press |year=1910 |page=270 |chapter=Pocumtuc |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookamindians01hodgrich/page/270}}

Language

Their language, now extinct, was an R-dialect of the Algonquian language family, most likely related to the Wappinger and nearby Mahican tribes of the Hudson River Valley.Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America, pp. 23-24. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.

Subsistence

The Pocumtuc people likely led lifestyles similar to neighboring tribes in New England. They would have engaged in semi-sedentary agriculture of maize, beans, and squash. They also hunted game and fished in the Connecticut River, which served as a major inland transportation route.

Archaeological and documentary evidence both testify to the fact that the Pocumtuc were skilled at maize horticulture. The fertile open meadows around present-day Deerfield were cleared and planted with corn, and dozens of short-term food storage pits pocked the surface of the glacial outcropping called Pine Hill.{{Cite journal |last=Bruchac |first=Margaret |date=2011-06-01 |title=Revisiting Pocumtuck History in Deerfield: George Sheldon's Vanishing Indian Act |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/106 |journal=Historical Journal of Massachusetts |volume=39 |issue=1–2 |pages=30–77}}

History

File:Tribal Territories Southern New England.png

The Pocumtuck were decimated by smallpox epidemics after European contact. They had no immunity to the new disease and suffered high fatalities. In addition, they lost tribal members due to taking part in wars among the Dutch, English, French, and their respective Native American allies.Thomas, Peter A. In the Maelstrom of Change: the Indian Trade and Cultural Process in the Middle Connecticut River Valley: 1635–1665. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts—Amherst, 1979

The Pocumtuck were originally allied with the Tunxis and Narragansett against Chief Uncas of the Mohegan and the Pequot. All these tribes united against the English colonists with the Wampanoag Confederacy in King Philip's War.

At the close of the war, many Pocumtuck, Nipmuc, and other tribes fled to Schaghticoke, a village on the Hudson River. They remained there until the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1754, when most joined and merged into the Abenaki tribes at Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec or moved further west.Spady, James O'Neil. "As if in a Great Darkness: Native American Refugees of the Middle Connecticut River Valley in the Aftermath of King Philip's War: 1677-1697," Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Vol. 23, no. 2 (Summer, 1995), 183-197.

Among the members of the Pocumtuck tribe was Chief Wawanotewat (1670–ca. 1750), better known as Gray Lock. A famous warrior, he led Abenaki bands into Massachusetts after most of his followers had left the state. There is a tradition that states that Mount Greylock in the Berkshires is named for him, (or that it was named for the grey clouds that surround the peak during the winter{{Cite web |title=Mount Greylock State Reservation |url=http://www.berkshireweb.com/mohawktrail/mtgreylock.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104012813/http://www.berkshireweb.com/mohawktrail/mtgreylock.html |archive-date=2015-01-04 |url-status=}}).

As of the late 1990s, it is believed that modern-day decedents of the Waranoke reside in the Saint Francis Abenaki reserve in Quebec, Canada.{{cite book |editor-last=Gille |editor-first=Frank H. |date=1998 |title=Encyclopedia of Massachusetts Indians |location=St. Clair Shores, Michigan |publisher=Somerset Publishers, Inc. |page=245 |isbn=0-403-09330-9 |quote=Waranoke was an Algonquian band or village near the site of Westfield, Hampden County Massachusetts. The natives were probably a minor part of the Pennacook confederacy. Descendants are most likely among the Saint Francis Abnaki in Quebec, Canada.}}

Villages associated with the Pocumtuck

Agawam - present-day Metro Center Springfield, Massachusetts. The adjacent, present-day city of Agawam, Massachusetts is named after this village (sometimes associated with the Nipmuc)
Mayawaug - present-day West Suffield, Connecticut
Nameroke - present-day Enfield, Connecticut
Nonotuck - present-day Northampton, Massachusetts / Easthampton, Massachusetts
Norwottuck - present-day Hadley, Massachusetts
Pachasock - present-day Westfield, Massachusetts / West Springfield, Massachusetts
Peskeompscut - present-day Turners Falls, Massachusetts
Pocumtuck - present-day Deerfield, Massachusetts
Scitico - present-day Enfield, Connecticut (farther east)
Squakeag - present-day Northfield, Massachusetts (primary town of the Sokoki)
Woronoco, Waranoke or Waranoak - present-day Russell, Massachusetts or colonial Westfield, MassachusettsDe Forrest, John W. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jJZ0AAAAMAAJ&dq=waranoak+westfield&pg=PR1] "History of the Indians of Connecticut from the Earliest Known Period to 1850", Connecticut Historical Society, 1852, p. 219.Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut, "Tercentenary Pamphlet Series". Committee on Historical Publications, 1933, p. 27.

In popular culture

The Pocumtucks are mentioned in the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Dunwich Horror as the presumed builders of the stone circles in the hills around Dunwich.

[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dh.aspx The Dunwich Horror]