MASSACHUSET

an Algonquian-speaking Indian tribe that in the early 17th century may have numbered 3,000 living in more than 20 villages distributed along what is now the Massachusetts coast. The cultivation of corn (maize) and other vegetables, hunting, and fishing were the basis of their subsistence. They moved seasonally between fixed sites to exploit their food resources. The tribe was divided into bands, each ruled by a subchief, or sachem. Before colonial settlement began, they were greatly reduced in number by warfare with their northeastern neighbours and by a pestilence in 1617, followed in 1633 by smallpox that wiped out most remaining members of the tribe, including the chief. Christian missionaries, notably John Eliot, gathered the Massachuset and converts from other tribes into separate villages, in which they lost their tribal identity. The state of Massachusetts is named after the Indian tribe.