Indian New England Before the Mayflower

by Howard S. Russell

In offering here a highly readable yet comprehensive description of New England's Indians as they lived when European settlers first met them, the author provides a well-rounded picture of the natives as neither savages nor heroes, but fellow human beings existing at a particular time and in a particular environment. He dispels once and for all the common notion of native New England as peopled by a handful of savages wandering in a trackless wilderness. In sketching the picture the author has had help from such early explorers as Verrazano, Champlain, John Smith, and a score of literate sailors; Pilgrims and Puritans; settlers, travelers, military men, and missionaries. A surprising number of these took time and trouble to write about the new land and the characteristics and way of life of its native people. A second major background source has been the patient investigations of modern archaeologists and scientists, whose several enthusiastic organizations sponsor physical excavations and publications that continually add to our perception of prehistoric men and women, their habits, and their environment. This account of the earlier New Englanders, of their land and how they lived in it and treated it; their customs, food, life, means of livelihood, and philosophy of life will be of interest to all general audiences concerned with the history of Native Americans and of New England.

Genres: History, Native American, Nonfiction, Native American History, Indigenous

296 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent history of Indian life in New England prior to the arrival of European colonists.

The colonists looked at the Indians as savages and for the most part treated them as such but such an attitude was very shortsighted and just plain wrong.

Take for example what the country was like before the colonists’ arrival:

It is clear that by the time the first white explorers and immigrants appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and undoubtedly long before, areas open and cleared for settlement, cultivation or other native purposes were common along New England’s seacoast from the Kennebec on the east to the present New York line on the west and on all the large and some small 0ff-shore spots along numerous alluvial river valleys in southern New England, spotted beside the principal ponds and lakes and many smaller ones; on fertile rounded hilltops and southern slopes nearby where conditions were favorable for cultivation and life.” (15)

“Orphans were always provided for, burglary unknown. Rape of an English woman by an Indian was never recorded.” (43)

“The Indian home, the wigwam where the family passed the winter was no makeshift, but a tight, comfortable dwelling.” (53)

“After the frame had been erected, the women covered roof and sides with six to nine foot strips of bark—elm, chestnut, birch, or oak lapped like great shingles—sewing them together with a thread of evergreen tree root artfully.” (53)

“A low doorway on the southwest side with a drop mat or skin let the member of the family in and out; another, opposite, perhaps several in a large cabin, could be opened to permit air to draw through from different direction when a draft was needed. To enter, the mat or skin was lifted, then dropped into place again so the draft from the fire might not be spoiled.” (54-55)

The author covers the eating habits of the tribe, how they prepared the food, cultivated the fields, hunted, fished, how they made their tools and utensils, made canoes and even flat-bottomed boats for ocean travel in order to hunt whales and seals as well as their relationships with other tribes.

Savages just doesn’t quite fit as a description of these amazing and reliant people whose way of life was destroyed in a few decades by the hands of the real savages.

It’s a fine history with great drawings and detail as to what it must have been like to live in pre-colonist New England.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know anything much about these Indians before, but now I have an image of them as prosperous farmers, skilled stewards of the land, living about as good a life as anyone could imagine; that is, of course, until hell fell upon them in the form of the English.
A clearly written, easy read, full of informative tidbits, from what their dogs were like to how many bushels per acre of corn they harvested, to what their deer pastures looked like, to how they commemorated significant events that occurred along inter-village pathways, to why....

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and thorough. Learned a lot.

[Fuzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book full of interesting stuff. i suppose it might be only super interesting to people from new england, who knows.

[Joshua Horn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit dense, but it seems to be quite well researched and I found a lot of valuable information on the topics I am researching.

That said, I disagree with the author's view of the natives. In my opinion, he seems to have pretty rose-colored glasses - seeing them as living happy, peaceful and content lives until the English arrived. While my research is ongoing, I think evidence of starvation and war points in the other direction. He only speaks of war among the Indians for just a little at the end of the book, I think there's more that could have been said on that topic.

[Jeffrey Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very detailed account of the Algonquin Indians of New England at the time of European contact. It is a tough book to read, but it is fabulously researched.