NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
AND REMINDER 
Vol. XIII 
Manchester, Mass., Friday, July 9 
———. 
No. 28 
Our Earliest North Shore Inhabitants 
FREDERICK MORSE CUTLER 
OT Conant’s company, nor Endicott’s. Not the gai- 
lant Norsemen under the viking Thorwald. But the 
men who slew Thorwald and broke up his settlement, the 
Indians. From them come our finest names—Nahant 
(the island), Saugus (the small outlet), Conomo (moun- 
tain-lion point), Agawam (fish-curing place). | What 
manner of men were they? 
Although our land titles are originally derived from 
the Indians, it is fair to claim that they did not them- 
selves recognize private property rights in real estate. 
For they were thorough-going communists. No Indian 
would think of conveying to another person any right in 
the land beyond a right to share in common enjoyment 
of wild-game and garden. When “The Hawk” deeded 
Wenham to the white men, he had one idea in mind; 
while the purchasers had an entirely different understand- 
ing of the transaction. 
Passaconaway was the greatest chief of the Penna- 
cook confederacy; and our North Shore Indians were 
Pennacooks. From the distant foothills of the White 
Mts., down the Merrimac valley, and even as far as 
Salem, extended the territory of this tribe. By blood 
and language they were related to the Massachusetts and 
Nipmucks to the southward. But politically their sym- 
pathies lay with the French and the Canadians. After 
King Philip’s war they removed to St. Francis, in 
Quebec; and became for one hundred years a thorn 1n 
our fathers’ side. And we might note in passing that 
descendants of these Indians yet reside in the same sec- 
tion of Quebec. One would expect large numbers in- 
habiting so great a stretch of territory; but in point of 
fact there were less than 2,500. How helpless these red 
men were in the presence of the white invaders! In 
1619 a fishing vessel landed a sick sailor or two—left 
them here to die of small pox.: The result was an ept- 
demic of that dread disease amongst the Indians, which 
nearly depopulated eastern Massachusetts. Because of 
this, the Pilgrims found just one Indian remaining alive 
in Plymouth. While Conant and Endicott discovered a 
nearly similar situation in Salem. 
some who regard “the clan” as a Scottish institu- 
tion, should have visited primeval America. “The Hawk” 
maple sugar ought to have lived high. 
at Ipswich was chief of an Indian clan, named after their 
location, the Agawams. They were a small portion of 
the Pennacook (‘‘at the bottom of the hill’) nation or 
confederacy. Chieftains were elective; but only repre- 
sentatives of certain “first families’ were eligible to have 
their names on the ballot at the primary or caucus. It 
happens that they gave us the word, “caucus.” Owing to 
embarrassing uncertainty concerning family relations, 
they followed the custom prevalent among barbarians 
everywhere, barbarians in the stone or the bronze age, 
and traced descent through the mother. ‘The Hawk” 
was elected chief, not because of his father; but because 
he was his mother’s son. 
Arrowheads, spearheads and tomahawks have been 
so frequently dug up in Essex county, that we feel quite 
familiar with the Indian’s methods of hunting or waging 
war. Yet mighty hunter that he was, he did not scorn 
the humble trap. In fact he taught the white man how 
to snare game. From the boy scouts we learn how he 
made fire by revolving one stick on another. The bow, 
however, used by the boys, is of Eskimo and not Indian 
origin. | Snowshoes, toboggans, canoes, and bows and 
arrows were implemetns of the hunt; while pemmican, 
jerked beef and parched corn meal were-the huntsman’s 
diet. 
A race which first used corn, beans, pumpkins and 
But when we 
realize that the red housewife had no kitchen stove on 
which to cook, no milk, no butter, no eggs,.and no flour; 
we again to suspect limitations. Think of managing 4 
kitchen without stove, milk, butter, eggs, or flour. The 
roughest camping party of whites would. not be. con- 
tented twenty-four hours under such conditions. Boiling, 
broiling and roasting may be the most wholesome and 
hygienic methods of preparing food; but if we were per- 
manently restricted to them, we would unanimously con- 
demn hygiene. Very hospitable was our Indian. But we 
should lose our appetites when we discovered the Indian’s 
primitive method of dish-washing. Only one domestic 
animal did the red men possess, the dog. And he feit 
such appreciation for this faunal treasure, that he en- 
trusted to the dog the important duty of dish-washing, 
