Weetamoo (pronounced Wee-TAH-moo)[1] (c. 1635–1676), also referred to as Weethao, Weetamoe, Wattimore, Namumpum, and Tatapanunum, was a Pocasset Wampanoag Native American Chief.
She was the sunksqua, or female sachem, of the Pocasset tribe, which occupied contemporary Tiverton, Rhode Island in 1620.
Weetamoo was born in the Mattapoiset village of the Pokanoket or at Rhode Island's Taunton River area.
Weetamoo learned the ways of agriculture, building permanent and temporary shelters, prepare hides, hunting small animals, fishing, and cooking.
Weetamoo was also trained to fight and learned diplomacy and leadership by observing her father and other elders like Massasoit.
Her second husband, Wamsutta (alternatively known by the English as Alexander, a name which he retained until his death in 1662[2]) was the eldest son of Massasoit, grand sachem of the Wampanoag and participant in the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims.
Weetamoo challenged Wamsutta’s decision to sell Pocasset land and appeared before the General Court of Plymouth.
He informed Church that Wetamoo had attended a ritual dance hosted by Metacom with the intent to gain an alliance with her during King Philip's war.
Weetamoo was depicted by Nathaniel Saltonstall from Massachusetts "as Potent a Prince as any round about her, and had as much Corn, Land, and Men, at her Command" as King Philip.
According to Deputy Governor John Easton of Rhode Island, Weetamoo had serious considerations on siding with him but before they could form an alliance a group of English soldiers attacked her canoes in June 1675.
Her strategy intertwining with other leaders and their families to protect those who depended on them.Brooks Her role in King Philip's War was significantly decreased by the English particularly by Mary Rowlandson and Increase Mather.
However, in the communications he sent to London, Mather often described Weetamoo as a military threat of equal statue as Metacom.
[15] In February of 1676, Weetamoo led a raid on the English in the Battle of Blood Rock that resulted in the capture of Mary Rowlandson.
At this point in the war, places like Pocasset swamps were no longer a safe hideout as they had become accessible to troops.
As well, Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth Colony had announced that all enemies of war should be disposed of as best seemed fit by Colonel Benjamin Church.
Mather found her death ironic given that she drowned in the same river she had helped Metacom and his men escape early in the war.
Her head on display also stood as a trophy of the victory of the English in order to lower the spirit of her followers.
When the remaining Wampanoag people saw what the English had done Increase Mather stated: "They made a most horrible and diabolical lamentation, crying out that it was their queen's head.
If to lament the sad end of their queen was diabolical on the part of the Indians, what was this cruel mockery of their grief by a Christian minister, and what had the heathen to gain by listening to his teachings, or adhering to his practice?
[19] Nevertheless, Rowlandson, who was captured and held by Quinnapin for three months, left a vivid description of Weetamoo's appearance as well as her personality: A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands.
[20]Only women of rank were allowed to produce "Girdles of wampom and beads", and Weetamoo's production of these items reinforced her status.
Wampum belts would be strung together with shells and were often used among Native Americans to deliver messages accompanied by speeches.
[27] A 50-foot vessel, Weetamoo, built in 1902, "was named after the daughter of an Indian Chief in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem Bride of Penacook."
[29][30] To the Wampanoag people Weetamoo was a sunksqua, a bead worker, a dancer, a war chief, a storyteller, and so much more.