Born January 1580 and died November 1622, Tisquantum, (Squanto) son of the Patuxet nation, was best known for befriending the first Pilgrims to the New World and was integral to their survival, which made him the architect of the first Thanksgiving.
Tisquantum’s records originate in 1614, with Captain John Smith, the cartographer and explorer famous for his rescue by Pocahontas. After Smith’s departure, his associate, Captain Thomas Hunt instigated the sequence of treachery and abduction of the trusting Native Americans, which carried Squanto to Malaga to be sold into slavery.
Squanto’s luck delivered him to Spanish Friars who liberated him. His ingenuity took him to England, where he worked with the treasurer of the Newfoundland Company, John Slaney, learnt English and ultimately traveled to Newfoundland to work with the governor and various explorers. These experiences rendered him an ideal facilitator to re-build relations with the hostile, betrayed tribes of his homeland, and he was allowed to return, charged with this responsibility.
He discovered his people and village annihilated by disease. Devastated, Squanto made his home with the Wampanoag Confederation in 1619, in time for the landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims to whom he proved a great friend, aid and well-wisher.
The group of separatists known as the Pilgrims arrived aboard the Mayflower, fleeing religious persecution in England. They suffered untold, endless vicissitudes before, during and after their hazardous journey to the New World. The Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor on December 17, 1620.
Their troubles continued as they mourned the deaths of half their original number, faced the exigencies of the harsh New England winter, battling illnesses, lack of shelter and several tense encounters with the local tribes.
On March 16, 1621, a Native American named Samoset extended the first bold welcome. He recounted the decimation of the Patuxet settlement, and told of the Wampanoag Native American sachem (chief) Massasoit and Squanto.
Although apprehensive in light of previous violent encounters and treachery, a meeting on March 22, resulted in Massasoit and Governor Martin establishing a formal treaty, pledging peace, aid in times of war and indemnifying each other from harm.
Squanto remained in Plymouth to teach the Pilgrims the art of survival in their new home. He demonstrated the use of fish as fertilizer for maize, trap-fishing, identifying edible berries, fruit and poisonous plants, extracting sap for syrup from maple trees, stalking game, expanding the fur trade, and subsistence farming. He translated during treaties, pacts and negotiations, and traveled between regional tribes to establish trading relations. www.MayflowerHistory.com
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first successful harvest, Governor William Bradford invited the Wampanoag chief Massasoit to a celebratory feast. This “first Thanksgiving” festival lasted for three days, consisting of venison, roast duck and goose, turkeys, shellfish, bread, and vegetables, with woodland fruits and berries. Before they ate, the Pilgrim men removed their wide-brimmed hats and Indians stood reverently as the governor led them in solemn prayer, thanking God for this bounty and for the invaluable Squanto.
The alliances between the English and the surrounding tribes were further strengthened by acts of cooperation, providing of gratuitous aid in times of strife and personal troubles, joint opposition to the French traders and merchants, and nine tribes pledged allegiance to King James in September 1621.
The all-to-human Squanto's new-found power inevitably began to corrupt him. He leveraged the Indians’ fear of English guns, technology and “white men’s diseases”, to gain personal benefits and tributes. His machinations included trying to trick the Pilgrims into military action, by claims of Indian conspiracies against them. His treachery was discovered by both sides.
Massasoit demanded Squanto be turned over to them for punishment by death. The Pilgrims were obligated by the terms of their peace treaty, despite the loss of a valuable means of survival and communication. The fortuitous arrival of the ship “Fortune” indeed proved to be so for Squanto. This was the beginning of the Great Migration, where ship upon ship of new settlers, the shortage of food, the oncoming winter and pressing need for Squanto’s talents distracted from his crimes.
Squanto's days were numbered however. On a trading mission with Governor Bradford in November 1622, Squanto's suffered copious nose-bleeding, a sign among Indians of imminent death. He asked Bradford to pray for him so that he could go to the Englishman's God in Heaven. Shortly, he was dead.
Another version claims that on his return from a meeting to make peace between the Wampanoag and Pilgrims, Tisquantum took ill of a fever, poisoned by the Wampanoag for his disloyalty to the sachem.
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