Massaco was a

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

settlement in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, United States, near the present-day towns of Simsbury and Canton along the banks of the

Farmington River The Farmington River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river located in northwest Connecticut, with major tributaries extending into southwest Massach ...

. The small, local Algonquian-speaking Indians who lived there in the 17th and early 18th centuries belonged to the Tunxis, a Wappinger people. The Massaco were first encountered by Dutch settlers at the beginning of the 17th century, who referred to the river where they dwelt as the ''Massaco''. Over time, the term ''Massaco'' came to refer to the indigenous peoples, the river, the village they occupied, and the land adjacent to the river. The area known as Massaco was transferred to European settlers, when a local Native man, Manahanoose, burnt a large quantity of tar belonging to John Griffin. Manahanoose was arrested and fined 500

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...

s, or 914.4 meters, of

wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western ...

. The local Indians did not possess that vast quantity of wampum, so the coithe

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

, or political leader, of the native community deeded the land to Griffin to avoid the initial alternative penalty determined by the General Court of the colony of Connecticut, which would have been to serve Griffin or be exchanged for Black

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. The "Massaco Division" included the lands around the towns of Canton and Simsbury, as well as parts of

Granby, Connecticut Granby is a town in northern Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The population was 10,903 at the 2020 United States cen ...

Notes

References

* {{cite book, last1=De Forest, first1=John William, title=History of the Indians of Connecticut from the Earliest Known Period to 1850, date=1871, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNxf4YjU35AC&dq=Mattabesett+Indians&pg=PA364 Native American history of Connecticut Algonquian ethnonyms

See also

Notes

References