Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck (estimated 1644 – 1666) was the first Native American to graduate from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Life

Cheeshahteaumuck, the son of a Nobnocket (

West Chop West Chop is a residential area located in the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts on the north end of the island of Martha's Vineyard. It is a peninsula surrounded on the north and west by Vineyard Sound and on the east by Vineyard Haven Harbor. A li ...

) sachem, was born into the

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. 1 ...

tribe on

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes th ...

and he received a formal education. He and his classmate Joel Hiacoomes were taught on the Vineyard by

Peter Folger Peter Folger (December 26, 1905 – August 27, 1980) was an American coffee heir, socialite, and member of the prominent United States Folger family. He was also the longtime chairman of the board and president of the Folgers Coffee Company. He ...

, the maternal grandfather to Benjamin Franklin. The two went on to attend

Elijah Corlet Elijah Corlet (1610 – February 24, 1687) was schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School in Cambridge, Massachusetts for most of the late 17th century. Many of his pupils were early students of Harvard College, including the minister Cott ...

's grammar school in Cambridge in around 1657.

Harvard and death

Cheeshahteaumuck and Hiacoomes both entered Harvard's

Indian College The Indian College was an institution established in the 1640s in order to educate Native American students at Harvard College in the town of Cambridge, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Indian College's building, located in Harvard Yard, wa ...

in 1661. Hiacoomes died in a shipwreck a few months prior to graduation while returning to Harvard from Martha's Vineyard. Cheeshahteaumuck became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in 1665. He died of tuberculosis in

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Watertow ...

less than a year after graduation."Remembering Native Sons"
, '' Harvard University Gazette'', May 1, 1997."The Ancient Proprietors: Wampanoags"
, Part I: Nantucket's First Peoples of Color, ''The Other Islanders'',

Frances Ruley Karttunen Frances Esther Karttunen (born 1942), also known as Frances Ruley Karttunen, is an American academic linguist, historian and author. Education and career She received her BA in 1964 from Harvard and her PhD in 1970 from Indiana University. In ...

, Nantucket, Massachusetts: Nantucket Historical Association, 2002. Accessed on line October 22, 2007. This online book has also been issued in a print edition (New Bedford, Massachusetts: Spinner Publications, Inc., 2005, .) One document remains from Cheeshahteaumuck's time at Harvard which he purportedly wrote, written entirely in Latin. This short letter, addressed to "most honored benefactors," contains references to Greek mythology, ancient philosophers, and Christian ideology and was meant to thank donors and encourage them to continue their financial support. Some consider this to be the earliest extant writing by a Native American on the continent. In 1674,

Daniel Gookin Major-General Danyell “Daniel” Gookin (1612 – 19 March 1687) was a Munster colonist, settler of Virginia and Massachusetts, and a writer on the subject of American Indians. Early life He was born, perhaps in County Cork, Ireland, in the ...

, writing about American Indians in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

, described Cheeshahteaumuck's death and how "Caleb, not long after he took his degree of bachelor of art at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

in New England, died of a consumption at Charlestown, where he was placed by Mr. Thomas Danforth, who had inspection over him, under the care of a physician in order to his health; where he wanted not for the best means the country could afford, both of food and physic; but God denied the blessing, and put a period to his days." The Harvard Foundation unveiled a portrait of Cheeshahteaumuck on December 16, 2010 in the Annenberg Hall, painted by

Stephen E. Coit Stephen Ellsworth Coit (born April 18, 1948 in Beverly, Massachusetts) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and painter, best known for his series of portraits commissioned by Harvard University. Coit graduated from Kent School in Ke ...

Legacy

Cheeshahteaumuck is the title character in Geraldine Brooks' book of historical fiction ''Caleb's Crossing''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeshahteaumuck, Caleb Year of birth missing Year of death missing Harvard University alumni Wampanoag people Native American history of Massachusetts People from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts People from Dukes County, Massachusetts Aquinnah, Massachusetts 1660s deaths Place of birth missing Native American people from Massachusetts 17th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Massachusetts 17th-century Latin-language writers