Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people of Canada and the United States. They are one of the most numerous indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande. In Canada, they are the second-largest First Nations population, surpassed only by the Cree. In the United States, they have the fifth-largest population among Native American peoples, surpassed in number only by the Navajo, Cherokee and Sioux; the Ojibwe people traditionally speak the Ojibwe language, a branch of the Algonquian language family. They are part of the Council of Three Fires and the Anishinaabeg, which include the Algonquin, Oji-Cree and the Potawatomi. Through the Saulteaux branch, they were a part of the Iron Confederacy, joining the Cree and Metis; the majority of the Ojibwe people live in Canada. There are 77,940 mainline Ojibwe, they live from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia. As of 2010, Ojibwe in the US census population is 170,742; the Ojibwe are known for their birch bark canoes, birch bark scrolls and trade in copper, as well as their cultivation of wild rice and Maple syrup.
Their Midewiwin Society is well respected as the keeper of detailed and complex scrolls of events, oral history, maps, stories and mathematics. The Ojibwe people underwent colonization by Settler-Canadians, they signed treaties with settler leaders, many European settlers soon inhabited the Ojibwe ancestral lands. The exonym for this Anishinaabe group is Ojibwe; this name is anglicized as "Ojibwa" or "Ojibway". The name "Chippewa" is an alternative anglicization. Although many variations exist in literature, "Chippewa" is more common in the United States, "Ojibway" predominates in Canada, but both terms are used in each country. In many Ojibwe communities throughout Canada and the U. S. since the late 20th century, more members have been using the generalized name Anishinaabe. The exact meaning of the name Ojibwe is not known; some 19th century sources say this name described a method of ritual torture that the Ojibwe applied to enemies. Ozhibii'iwe, meaning "those who keep records ", referring to their form of pictorial writing, pictographs used in Midewiwin sacred rites.
Because many Ojibwe were located around the outlet of Lake Superior, which the French colonists called Sault Ste. Marie for its rapids, the early Canadian settlers referred to the Ojibwe as Saulteurs. Ojibwe who subsequently moved to the prairie provinces of Canada have retained the name Saulteaux; this is disputed. Ojibwe who were located along the Mississagi River and made their way to southern Ontario are known as the Mississaugas; the Ojibwe language is known as Anishinaabemowin or Ojibwemowin, is still spoken, although the number of fluent speakers has declined sharply. Today, most of the language's fluent speakers are elders. Since the early 21st century, there is a growing movement to revitalize the language, restore its strength as a central part of Ojibwe culture; the language belongs to the Algonquian linguistic group, is descended from Proto-Algonquian. Its sister languages include Blackfoot, Cree, Menominee and Shawnee among the northern Plains tribes. Anishinaabemowin is referred to as a "Central Algonquian" language.
Ojibwemowin is the fourth-most spoken Native language in North America after Navajo and Inuktitut. Many decades of fur trading with the French established the language as one of the key trade languages of the Great Lakes and the northern Great Plains; the popularity of the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1855, publicized the Ojibwe culture. The epic contains many toponyms. According to Ojibwe oral history and from recordings in birch bark scrolls, the Ojibwe originated from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River on the Atlantic coast of what is now Quebec, they traded across the continent for thousands of years as they migrated, knew of the canoe routes to move north, west to east, south in the Americas. The identification of the Ojibwe as a culture or people may have occurred in response to contact with Europeans; the Europeans tried to identify those they encountered. According to Ojibwe oral history, seven great miigis beings appeared to them in the Waabanakiing to teach them the mide way of life.
One of the seven great miigis beings was too spiritually powerful and killed the people in the Waabanakiing when they were in its presence. The six great miigis beings remained to teach; the six great miigis beings established doodem for people in the east, symbolized by animal, fish or bird species. The five original Anishinaabe doodem were the Wawaazisii, Aan'aawenh and Moozoonsii these six miigis beings returned into the ocean as well. If the seventh miigis being had stayed
Tipi
A tipi is a cone-shaped tent, traditionally made of animal skins upon wooden poles. Modern tipis have a canvas covering. A tipi is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure; the tipi has been used by Indigenous people of the Plains in the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies of North America. They are still in use in these communities, though now for ceremonial purposes rather than daily living. A similar structure, the lavvu is used by the Sámi people of northern Europe. Tipis are stereotypically and incorrectly associated with all Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, despite their usage being unique to the peoples of the Plains. Native American tribes and First Nation band governments from other regions have used other types of dwellings; the tipi is durable, provides warmth and comfort in winter, is cool in the heat of summer, is dry during heavy rains. Tipis can be disassembled and packed away when people need to relocate and can be reconstructed upon settling in a new area.
This portability was important to Plains Indians with their at-times nomadic lifestyle. The word tipi comes into English from the Lakota language; the Lakota word thípi means "a dwelling" or "they dwell", from the verb thí, meaning "to dwell". The wigwam or "wickiup", a dome-shaped shelter made of bark layered on a pole-structure, was used by various tribes for hunting camps; the term wigwam has been incorrectly used to refer to a conical skin tipi. A typical family tipi is a conical, portable structure with two adjustable smoke flaps, multiple poles called lodge poles. Lewis H. Morgan noted that, The frame consists of thirteen poles from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, after being tied together at the small ends, are raised upright with a twist so as to cross the poles above the fastening, they are drawn apart at the large ends and adjusted upon the ground in the rim of a circle ten feet in diameter. A number of untanned and tanned buffalo skins, stitched together in a form adjustable to the frame, are drawn around it and lashed together, as shown in the figure.
The lower edges are secured to the ground with tent-pins. At the top there is an extra skin adjusted as a collar, so as to be open on the windward side to facilitate the exit of the smoke. A low opening is left for a doorway, covered with an extra skin used as a drop; the fire-pit and arrangements for beds are the same as in the Ojibwa lodge, grass being used in the place of spruce or hemlock twigs. Lodgepole pine is the preferred wood in the Northern and Central Plains and red cedar in the Southern Plains. Tipis have a detachable cover over the structure; the cover has been made of buffalo hide, an optional skin or cloth lining, a canvas or bison calf skin door. Modern lodges are more made of canvas. Ropes and wooden pegs are required to bind the poles, close the cover, attach the lining and door, anchor the resulting structure to the ground. Tipis are distinguished from other tents by two crucial elements: the opening at the top and the smoke flaps, which allow the dwellers to heat themselves and cook with an open fire.
Tipis were designed to be set up or taken down to allow camps to be moved to follow game migrations the bison. When dismantled the tipi poles were used to construct a dog- or horse-pulled travois on which additional poles and tipi cover were placed. Tipi covers are made by sewing together strips of canvas or tanned hide and cutting out a semicircular shape from the resulting surface. Trimming this shape yields a door and the smoke flaps that allow the dwellers to control the chimney effect to expel smoke from their fires. Old style traditional linings were hides and rectangular pieces of cloth hanging about four to five feet above the ground tied to the poles or a rope. Most tipis in a village would not be painted. Painted tipis depicted note-worthy historical battles and featured geometric portrayals of celestial bodies and animal designs. Sometimes tipis have been painted to depict personal experiences such as war hunting, a dream or vision; when depicting visions, "ceremonies and prayers were first offered, the dreamer recounted his dream to the priests and wise men of the community.
Those known to be skilled painters were consulted, the new design was made to fit anonymously within the traditional framework of the tribe's painted tipis." GeneralHolley, Linda A. Tipis-Tepees-Teepees: History and Design of the Cloth Tipi. Gibbs-Smith, 2007. Reginald Laubin, Gladys Laubin, Stanley Vestal, The Indian tipi: its history and use. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-8061-2236-6. American Anthropologist. Vol. 16. American Anthropological Association of Washington, 1914. Citations Notes History and evolution of tipis plus Photos and drawings Simply Differently.org: Tipi, tipi building resource, how-to manuals and online calculator for canvas lanes Tipi Instructions, a PDF document detailing the construction of a tipi
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Northeast Africa. It extends hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden; the area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. Referred to in ancient and medieval times as the land of the Barbara and Habesha, the Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia, it covers 2 million km2 and is inhabited by 115 million people. Regional studies on the Horn of Africa are carried out, among others, in the fields of Ethiopian Studies as well as Somali Studies; this peninsula is known by various names. In ancient and medieval times, the Horn of Africa was referred to as the Bilad al Barbar, it is known as the Somali peninsula, or in the Somali language, Geeska Afrika, Jasiiradda Soomaali or Gacandhulka Soomaali. In other languages that are local or adjacent to the Horn of Africa, it is known as የአፍሪካ ቀንድ yäafrika qänd in Amharic, القرن الأفريقي al-qarn al-'afrīqī in Arabic, Gaaffaa Afriikaa in Oromo and ቀርኒ ኣፍሪቃ in Tigrinya.
The Horn of Africa is sometimes shortened to HOA. The Horn of Africa is quite designated the "Horn", while inhabitants are sometimes colloquially referred to as Horn Africans. Sometimes the term Greater Horn of Africa is used, either to be inclusive of neighbouring northeast African countries, or to distinguish the broader geopolitical definition of the Horn of Africa from narrower peninsular definitions. Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to the Somali peninsula as Regio Aromatica or Regio Cinnamonifora due to the aromatic plants, or Regio Incognita owing to its unchartered territory. Shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea, indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing. According to both genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved into anatomically modern humans in the Horn of Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago and have dispersed from the Horn of Africa; the recognition of Homo sapien idaltu and Omo Kibish as anatomically modern humans would justify the description of contemporary humans with the subspecies name Homo sapiens sapiens.
Because of their early dating and unique physical characteristics idaltu and kibish represent the immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans as suggested by the Out-of-Africa theory. Today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about 12 miles wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. According to linguists, the Horn of Africa is the original homeland of the proto-Afroasiatic language as it is considered the region the Afroasiatic language family displays the greatest diversity, a sign viewed to represent a geographic origin; the Horn of Africa is the place where the haplogroup E1b1b originated from, Christopher Ehret and Shomarka Keita have suggested that the geography of the E1b1b lineage coincides with the distribution of the Afroasiatic languages. Genetic analysis done on the Afroasiatic speaking population further found that a pre-agricultural back-to-Africa migration into the Horn of Africa occurred through Egypt 23,000 years ago and it brought a non-African ancestry dubbed Ethio-Somali in the region.
Together with northern Somalia, the Red Sea coast of Sudan and Eritrea is considered the most location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt, whose first mention dates to the 25th century BCE. Dʿmt was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, which existed during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. With its capital at Yeha, the kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, made iron tools and weapons. After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BCE, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the 1st century, the Aksumite Kingdom, able to reunite the area; the Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient state located in the Eritrean highlands and Ethiopian highlands, which thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. A major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India, Aksum's rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency; the state established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian peninsula extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom.
Under Ezana, the kingdom of Aksum became the first major empire to adopt Christianity, was named by Mani as one of the four great powers of his time, along with Persia and China. Northern Somalia was an important link in the Horn, connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to the Ancient Egyptians, Mycenaeans and Romans; the Romans began to refer to the region as Regio Aromatica. In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone and Malao competed with the Sabaeans and Axumites for the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade; the birth of Islam opposite the Horn's Red Sea co
First Nations
In Canada, the First Nations are the predominant indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic Circle. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit; the Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations between First Nations people and Europeans. There are 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a "designated group", along with women, visible minorities, people with physical or mental disabilities. First Nations are not defined as a visible minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada. North American indigenous; some of their oral traditions describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 and the 18th-century Tseax Cone eruption. Written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century.
European accounts by trappers, traders and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture. In addition and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together an understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples. Although not without conflict, Euro-Canadians' early interactions with First Nations, Métis, Inuit populations were less combative compared to the violent battles between colonists and native peoples in the United States. Collectively, First Nations, Métis peoples constitute Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or first peoples. First Nation as a term became used beginning in 1980s to replace the term Indian band in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language; the term had come into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word Indian, which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists; some indigenous peoples in Canada have adopted the term First Nation to replace the word band in the formal name of their community.
A band is a "body of Indians for whose use and benefit in common lands... have been set apart... moneys are held... or declared... to be a band for the purposes of" the Indian Act by the Canadian Crown. The term Indian is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European explorers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent; the use of the term Native Americans, which the US government and others have adopted, is not common in Canada. It refers more to the Indigenous peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States; the parallel term Native Canadian is not used, but Native and autochtone are. Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763 known as the "Indian Magna Carta," the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations; the term First Nations is capitalized. Bands and nations may have different meanings. Within Canada, First Nations has come into general use for indigenous peoples other than Inuit and Métis. Individuals using the term outside Canada include U.
S. tribes within the Pacific Northwest, as well as supporters of the Cascadian independence movement. The singular used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person. A more recent trend is for members of various nations to refer to themselves by their tribal or national identity only, e.g. "I'm Haida". For pre-history, see: Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods First Nations by linguistic-cultural area: List of First Nations peoplesFirst Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada by 1,000 BC to 500 BC. Communities developed, each with its own culture and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan-speaking peoples, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, Tutchone-speaking peoples, Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, Kwakiutl, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nisga'a and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot, Kainai and Northern Peigan. In the northern woodlands were the Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe, Algonquin and Wyandot. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Innu and Micmac.
The Blackfoot Confederacies reside in the Great Plains of Montana and Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The name "Blackfoot" came from the colour of the peoples' leather footwear, known as moccasins, they had painted the bottoms of their moccasins black. One account claimed that the Blackfoot Confederacies walked through the ashes of prairie fires, which in turn coloured the bottoms of their moccasins black, they had migrated onto the Great Plains from the Plateau area. The Blackfoot may have lived in their homeland since the end of the Pleistocene 11,000 years ago.. For thousands of years, they managed the prairie to support bison herds and cultivated berries and edible roots, they allowed only legitimate traders into their territory, making treaties only when the bison herds were exterminated in the 1870s. The Squamish history is a series of past events, both passed on through oral tradition and recent history, of the Squamish indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Prior to colonization, they recorded their history through oral tradition as a way to transmit stories and knowledge across generations. This was common among all the peoples; the writing system esta
Sioux
The Sioux known as Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects; the modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and Lakota. The Santee Dakota reside in the extreme east of the Dakotas and northern Iowa; the Yankton and Yanktonai Dakota, collectively referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena, reside in the Minnesota River area. They are considered to be the middle Sioux, have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota; the actual Nakota are the Stoney of Western Canada and Montana. The Lakota called Teton, are the westernmost Sioux, known for their hunting and warrior culture. Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and reserves in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana in the United States; the Sioux people refer to the Great Sioux Nation as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, meaning "Seven Council Fires").
Each fire is a symbol of an oyate. Today the seven nations that comprise the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ are the Thítȟuŋwaŋ, Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, Sisíthuŋwaŋ and Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ and Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, they are referred to as the Lakota or Dakota as based upon dialect differences. In any of the dialects, Lakota or Dakota translates to mean "friend" or "ally" referring to the alliances between the bands; the name "Sioux" was adopted in English by the 1760s from French. It is abbreviated from Nadouessioux, first attested by Jean Nicolet in 1640; the name is sometimes said to be derived from an Ojibwe exonym for the Sioux meaning "little snakes". The spelling in -x is due to the French plural marker; the Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa, meaning "Northern Iroquoian", has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake. An alternative explanation is derivation from an exonym na·towe·ssiw, from a verb *-a·towe· meaning "to speak a foreign language"; the current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is Bwaanag, meaning "roasters".
This refers to the style of cooking the Sioux used in the past. In recent times, some of the tribes have formally or informally reclaimed traditional names: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is known as the Sičháŋǧu Oyáte, the Oglala use the name Oglála Lakȟóta Oyáte, rather than the English "Oglala Sioux Tribe" or OST; the alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered improper. The Sioux comprise three related language groups: Eastern Dakota Santee Sisseton Western Dakota Yankton Yanktonai Lakota The earlier linguistic three-way division of the Sioux language identified Lakota and Nakota as dialects of a single language, where Lakota = Teton, Dakota = Santee-Sisseton and Nakota = Yankton-Yanktonai. However, the latest studies show that Yankton-Yanktonai never used the autonym Nakhóta, but pronounced their name the same as the Santee; these studies identify Assiniboine and Stoney as two separate languages, with Sioux being the third language. Sioux has three similar dialects: Western Dakota and Eastern Dakota.
Assiniboine and Stoney speakers refer to themselves as Nakhóda. The term Dakota has been applied by anthropologists and governmental departments to refer to all Sioux groups, resulting in names such as Teton Dakota, Santee Dakota, etc; this was because of the misrepresented translation of the Ottawa word from which Sioux is derived. The Sioux are divided into three ethnic groups, the larger of which are divided into sub-groups, further branched into bands; the earliest known European record of the Sioux identified them in Minnesota and Wisconsin. After the introduction of the horse in the early 18th century, the Sioux dominated larger areas of land—from present day Central Canada to the Platte River, from Minnesota to the Yellowstone River, including the Powder River country; the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations and communities in North America: in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Montana in the United States. Today, many Sioux live outside their reservations.
The Santee migrated north and westward from the Southeastern United States, first into Ohio to Minnesota. Some came up from area of South Carolina; the Santee River was named after them, some of their ancestors' ancient earthwork mounds have survived along the portion of the dammed-up river that forms Lake Marion. In the past, they were a Woodland people who thrived on hunting and farming. Migrations of Ojibwe from the east in the 17th and 18th centuries, with muskets supplied by the French and British, pushed the Dakota further into Minnesota and west and southward; the US gave the name "Dakota Territory"
Wampanoag
The Wampanoag rendered Wôpanâak, are an American Indian people in North America. They were a loose confederacy made up of several tribes in the 17th century, but today many Wampanoag people are enrolled in two federally recognized tribes: the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Massachusetts; the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the beginning of the 17th century, at the time of first contact with the English colonists, a territory that included Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket islands. Their population numbered in the thousands due to the richness of the environment and their cultivation of corn and squash. From 1615 to 1619, the Wampanoag suffered an epidemic, long suspected to be smallpox. Modern research, has suggested that it was leptospirosis, a bacterial infection known as Weil's syndrome or 7-day fever, it decimated the Wampanoag population. Researchers suggest that the losses from the epidemic were so large that English colonists were able to establish their settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony more easily.
More than 50 years King Philip's War of Indian allies against the English colonists resulted in the death of 40 percent of the surviving tribe. Many male Wampanoag were sold into slavery in Bermuda or the West Indies, some women and children were enslaved by colonists in New England; the tribe disappeared from historical records after the late 18th century, although its people and descendants persisted. Survivors continued to live in their traditional areas and maintained many aspects of their culture, while absorbing other peoples by marriage and adapting to changing economic and cultural needs in the larger society; the last speakers of the Massachusett language Wôpanâak died more than 100 years ago, although some Wampanoag people have been working on a language revival project since 1993. The project is working on curriculum and teacher development. Wampanoag means "Easterners" or "People of the Dawn." The word Wapanoos was first documented on Adriaen Block's 1614 map, the earliest European representation of Wampanoag territory.
Other interpretations include "Wapenock," "Massasoit", the exonym "Philip's Indians." In 1616, John Smith erroneously referred to the entire Wampanoag confederacy as the Pokanoket, one of the tribes. Pokanoket was used in the earliest colonial reports; the Pokanoket tribal seat was located near Rhode Island. The Wampanoag people were semi-sedentary, with seasonal movements between sites in southern New England; the men traveled far north and south along the Eastern seaboard for seasonal fishing expeditions, sometimes stayed in those distant locations for weeks and months at a time. The women cultivated varieties of the "three sisters" as the staples of their diet, supplemented by fish and game caught by the men; each community had authority over a well-defined territory from which the people derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting and hunting. Southern New England was populated by various tribes, so hunting grounds had defined boundaries; the Wampanoag have a matrilineal system, like many indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, in which women controlled property and hereditary status was passed through the maternal line.
They were matrifocal. Women elders could approve selection of sachems. Men acted in most of the political roles for relations with other bands and tribes, as well as warfare. Women with claims to plots of land used for farming or hunting passed those claims to their female descendants, regardless of their marital status; the production of food among the Wampanoag was similar to that of many American Indian societies, food habits were divided along gender lines. Men and women had specific tasks. Women played an active role in many of the stages of food production, so they had important socio-political and spiritual roles in their communities. Wampanoag men were responsible for hunting and fishing, while women took care of farming and gathering wild fruits, nuts and shellfish. Women were responsible for up to 75 percent of all food production in Wampanoag societies; the Wampanoag were organized into a confederation where a head sachem presided over a number of other sachems. The colonists referred to the sachem as "king," but the position of a sachem differed in many ways from what they knew of a king.
Sachems were bound to consult their own councilors within their tribe, but any of the "petty sachems" in the region. They were responsible for arranging trade privileges, as well as protecting their allies in exchange for material tribute. Both women and men could hold the position of sachem, women were sometimes chosen over close male relatives. Pre-marital sexual experimentation was accepted, although once couples opted to marry, the Wampanoag expected fidelity within unions. Roger Williams stated that "single fornication they count no sin, but after Marriage… they count it heinous for either of them to be false." In addition, polygamy was practiced among the Wampanoag. Some elite men could take several wives for political or social reasons, multiple wives were a symbol of wealth because women were the producers and distributors of corn and other food products. Marriage and conjugal unions were not as important as ties of kinship; the Wampanoag spoke Wôpanâak, a dialect of the Massachusett language which belongs to the Algonquian languages family.
The first Bible published in Ame
