Wampanoag

Wampanoag , Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages ). In the early 17th cent. they occupied the region extending E from Narragansett Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, including Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The Wampanoag were sometimes referred to as the Pokanoket, from the name of their principal village. When the Pilgrims settled (1620) at Plymouth, the Wampanoag, although reduced by the pestilence of 1617, were powerful, living in some 30 villages. Their chief, Massasoit , was very friendly to the settlers. His son, Metacom (Philip), however, was the central figure of the deadliest war with the colonists, King Philip's War (1675). The victory of the English brought ruin to the tribe. The Wampanoag were harried almost out of existence, the remnant consolidating with the Saconnet. However, in 1990 there were over 2,000 Wampanoag living in the United States, most of them in Massachusetts. The Wampanoag were of the Eastern Woodlands culture area (see under Natives, North American ).

Bibliography: See M. A. Travers, The Wampanoag Indian Federation of the Algonquian Nation (rev. ed. 1961).

Wampanoag an Indian tribe located in southern New England. Under their chief Metacom (”King Philip”), the Wampanoags joined with other tribes in a war against the English colonists in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island in 1675-1676 known as King Philip's War. The Wampanoags and their allies were defeated when the Mohawks sided with the colonists and most of the Indian land in New England was opened to English settlement.

Wampanoag Indians, Algonquian tribe of Massachusetts, the first to be encountered by the Pilgrims. Under Massasoit they were friendly with the whites, but his son King Philip precipitated a war (1675) that ended disastrously, the Indians being nearly exterminated. They figure in J.A. Stone's Metamora and in the many accounts of King Philip.