Pawtucket tribe

Confusion exists about the proper endonym for this group who are variously referred to in European documents as Pawtucket, Pentucket, Naumkeag, Wamesit, or Mystic Indians, or by the name of their current sachem or sagamore.

He was killed in 1617 in present day Medford, Massachusetts, in conflict with the Tarrantines, an Eastern Algonquian exonym for Miꞌkmaq, where his burial place was found by Edward Winslow in a scouting party from Plymouth.

[1] In December 1633, a smallpox epidemic killed both Wonohaquaham and Montowampate along with a large portion of the tribe,[7] leaving Wenepoykin and the Squaw Sachem as the leaders of a much smaller group.

During the next two decades, the size of the group further declined as the British Long Parliament and the Massachusetts General Court worked to relocate Native Americans into praying towns such as Natick, drawing some converts from within Wenepoykin's family.

In 1675, Wenepoykin and some of the remaining Pawtucket joined Metacomet in King Philip's War, which was a stark turning point in the history of Native Americans in New England, and for the Pawtucket/Naumkeag in particular.