Wampanoag

rdf:langString Wampanoag

rdf:langString Wampanoag

rdf:langString English, historically Wôpanâak

rdf:langString Wampanoag

rdf:langString Cheryl Andrews-Maltais , Chairperson of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah with a MassDOT engineer

rdf:langString Wôpanâak

rdf:langString Massachusetts, formerly Rhode Island

rdf:langString Indigenous religion, Christianity

rdf:langString The Wampanoag /ˈwɑːmpənɔːɡ/, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native American people and an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island, Their territory included the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Today there are two federally recognized Wampanoag tribes: * Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe * Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). The Wampanoag language was a dialect of Masschusett, a Southern New England Algonquian language. At the time of their first contact with the English in the 17th century, they were a large confederation of at least 24 recorded tribes. Their population numbered in the thousands; 3,000 Wampanoag lived on Martha's Vineyard alone. From 1615 to 1619, the Wampanoag suffered an epidemic, long suspected to be smallpox. Modern research, however, has suggested that it may have been leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can develop into Weil's syndrome. The epidemic killed many people, profoundly affecting the Wampanoag population. Researchers suggest that the losses from the epidemic were so large that colonists were able to establish their settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony more easily. More than 50 years later, King Philip's War (1675–1676), led by Metacom, chief sachem of the Wampanoag people, and his allies against the colonists resulted in the death of 40 percent of the surviving tribe. Many male Wampanoag were sold into slavery in Bermuda or the West Indies, or on plantations and farms run by colonists in New England. Historical records largely ignored the tribe after the late 18th century, although its people and descendants persisted. Some survivors continue to live in their historical homelands and maintain many aspects of their culture, while absorbing other peoples by marriage and adapting to changing economic and cultural needs in the larger society.

rdf:langString Massachusett, Agawam, Nauset Naumkeag, and other Algonquian peoples