WAMPANOAG

Algonquian-speaking Indians of eastern North America who formerly occupied parts of the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard, and adjacent islands. They were semisedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites. Corn (maize) was the staple of their diet, supplemented by fish and game. They were divided into several subtribes, each with its own subchiefs, or sachems. When the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth in 1620, the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, made a peace treaty with the English that was observed until his death. Bad treatment by whites who encroached on Indian lands, however, led his son, Metacom, or Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, to organize a confederacy of tribes to drive out the whites (see King Philip's War). Philip and other leading chiefs were killed, and the Wampanoag and Narraganset were almost exterminated. Some survivors fled to the interior, while others joined their kinsmen on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard who had remained neutral. Disease and epidemics destroyed most of the Nantucket Indians, but mixed descendants survive to the present, particularly on Martha's Vineyard.