NIPMUC

Algonquian-speaking Indian tribes who occupied the central plateau of what is now Massachusetts, especially the southern part of Worcester county, and extended into what are now northern Rhode Island and Connecticut. Their subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of corn (maize); they moved seasonally between fixed sites to exploit their food resources. The Nipmuc were divided into territorial bands, which were groups of related families living in one or more villages, each ruled by a sachem (chief). Their villages were not united politically, and different areas were attached to their more powerful neighbours, such as the Massachuset, Wampanoag, Narraganset, and Mohegan. By 1674 New England missionaries had established seven villages of Christian converts, but in the following year most of the Nipmuc joined King Philip and other hostile Indians in a war against the colonists. At the close of the war they fled to Canada or to the Mahican and other tribes on the Hudson River. See also King Philip's War.