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Wampanoag History Timeline
(c. 1600–Present)Origins and early contact
European maritime contacts begin
1500 - 1599
Contacts between Wampanoag communities and colonists began in the sixteenth century as European merchant vessels and fishing boats traveled along the New England coast.
Image source: Wampanoag
Verrazano contacts Wampanoag communities
1524
Giovanni de Verrazano contacted various Indigenous tribes, including the Wampanoag and Narragansett, in the region of modern-day Rhode Island.
Image source: Giovanni da Verrazzano
Wampanoag Nation before English contact
1600
Before English contact in the seventeenth century, as many as 40,000 Wampanoag people lived across 67 villages that composed the Wampanoag Nation.
Wapanoos appears on Block's map
1614
The name probably deriving from Wapanoos was first documented on Adriaen Block's 1614 map, the earliest European representation of Wampanoag territory.
Image source: Adriaen Block
Captain Hunt enslaves Wampanoag people
1614
Captain Thomas Hunt captured several Wampanoag people and sold them in Spain as slaves.
Leptospirosis epidemic begins
1615 - 1619
A leptospirosis epidemic carried by rodent reservoirs arriving on European ships dramatically reduced the Wampanoag and neighboring tribes.
John Smith identifies the Pokanoket
1616
John Smith referred to one Wampanoag tribe as the Pokanoket, a name also used in early colonial records for the community whose leaders headed the Wampanoag confederation.
Image source: John Smith (explorer)
The Patuxet are devastated by epidemic
1619
Tisquantum returned to his homeland in 1619 after accompanying an expedition to Newfoundland as an interpreter and found that the entire Patuxet tribe had died in an epidemic.
The Wampanoag name is recorded
1676
Increase Mather recorded Wampanoag to describe the alliance of tribes that fought the English in King Philip's War. The Wampanoag translate the word as People of the First Light.
Colonial encounters and war
Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth
1620
The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, beginning sustained English settlement in the region and a new period of interaction with Wampanoag communities.
Image source: Plymouth Colony
Key Facts
- The Wampanoag are an Indigenous people whose homelands include much of present-day southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.
- Wampanoag communities maintained complex political, economic, and spiritual traditions based on agriculture, fishing, hunting, trade, and strong connections to the land.
- Wampanoag people helped English colonists at Plymouth survive in the early 1620s, although later relations became increasingly unequal and conflict-ridden.
- King Philip’s War (1675–1676), led by the Wampanoag sachem Metacom, caused devastating loss of life, land, and political power for Native peoples in New England.
- Wampanoag communities continue to preserve their languages, traditions, sovereignty, and cultural identity, including through federally recognized tribal governments today.
Source
This Wampanoag History timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.
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