Category:Wampanoag

TheWampanoagpeopleare indigenousAlgonquian peoplesof theNortheastern Woodlandscurrently tribally based in present-dayMassachusettsandRhode Island,with descendants spread throughout the world.

Many Wampanoag people are enrolled in the two federally recognized Wampanoag tribes: theMashpee Wampanoag Tribeand theWampanoag Tribe of Gay HeadinMassachusetts.

The Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts andRhode Islandin the beginning of the 17th century, at the time of first contact with the English colonists, a territory that includedMartha's VineyardandNantucketislands. Their population numbered in the thousands due to the richness of the environment and their cultivation of corn, beans, and squash (3,000 Wampanoag lived on Martha's Vineyard alone).

From 1615 to 1619, the Wampanoag suffered an epidemic, long suspected to besmallpox.Modern research, however, has suggested that it wasleptospirosis,a bacterial infection also known as Weil's syndrome or 7-day fever. It caused a high fatality rate and decimated the Wampanoag population. Researchers suggest that the losses from the epidemic were so large that English colonists were able to establish their settlements in theMassachusetts Bay Colonymore easily.^[1]More than 50 years later,King Philip's War(1675–1676) of Indian allies against the English colonists resulted in the death of 40 percent of the surviving tribe. Many male Wampanoag were sold into slavery inBermudaor theWest Indies,and some women and children were enslaved by colonists in New England.