Nanepashemet | |
---|---|
Pawtucket, Naumkeag leader | |
Succeeded by | Squaw Sachem of Mistick, Passaconaway |
Personal details | |
Died | 1619 Medford, Massachusetts |
Spouse | Squaw Sachem of Mistick |
Children | Wenepoykin, Montowampate, Wonohaquaham |
Nanepashemet (died 1619) was a sachem and bashabe or great leader of the Pawtucket Confederation of Abenaki peoples in present-day New England before the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a leader of Native peoples over a large part of what is now coastal Northeastern Massachusetts.
After his death in 1619, his wife, recorded by the English only as Squaw Sachem of Mistick, and three sons governed the confederation's territories, during the period of the Great Migration to New England by English Puritans from about 1620 to 1640. By 1633, only the youngest son of the three, Wenepoykin, known to the colonists as "Sagamore George," had survived a major smallpox epidemic that year that decimated the tribes. He took over his brothers' territories as sachem, except for areas that had been ceded to colonists.