The Significance Of Squanto Essay Examples

Tisquantum, more commonly known as Squanto, was a member of the Patuxet Indian tribe, which was a part of the Wampanoag Confederacy. His date of birth is not known; curiously, it has been placed on January 1 by many historians, although some list the year as 1585, while others list it as 1592. While traveling in 1614, Tisquantum ran into a party led by John Smith’s lieutenants, Thomas Hunt. Hunt took Tisquantum into captivity and had a plan to sell him (along with some other captives who were Native Americans, and some corn and fish) in Spain. However, once Tisquantum had been spirited across the sea, there were some friars in Spain who figured out what Hunt was trying to do and took the Native Americans under their wings, in order to teach them Christianity. Tisquantum was able to convince the friars to allow him to go back home. He was able to make his way to London, where he found work and board with the shipbuilder John Slany – who also took him to Newfoundland with him. Tisquantum tried to join an expedition to travel from Newfoundland to New England, but it did not work, and he went back to England in 1618. In 1619, Tisquantum returned to New England – ironically aboard the ship of John Smith, whose lieutenant had kidnapped him in the first place. However, when he returned to his homeland, he found out that his entire tribe had been wiped out by an epidemic – possibly smallpox or leptospirosis. Tisquantum would eventually settle into a role as an assistant for the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the historical role for which he would have the greatest significance. However, the Wampanoag Indians, with whom Tisquantum would negotiate for the Pilgrims, may not have trusted him – and may have poisoned him during a negotiations setting. He became sick on the way back, bleeding from his nose. He died after a few days and was buried at Plymouth’s Burial Hill, in an unmarked grave.
Tisquantum’s most significant contribution to history, though, comes from the time he spent with the Pilgrims after their arrival from England. 102 of them arrived; however, only 45 of them passed away during that first winter. On March 22, 1621, Tisquantum was one of three men in a Native American delegation who had traveled to meet a group of immigrants who had moved into a former Indian settlement. The three men were Massasoit (the sachem, or leader, of the Wampanoag confederation), Samoset (the sachem of another group to the north, closer to Maine) and Tisquantum. Massasoit had not wanted to bring Tisquantum, because he thought that he would take the side of the foreigners, because of his time in England, but Massasoit required the use of an interpreter. Massasoit faced a significant dilemma; five years before, the disease had swept through his community (the same one that had killed every member of the Patuxets). As a result, the entire Wampanoag confederacy faced destruction, because the Narrangansetts, their enemies, had not suffered from the ravages of disease, and were poised to overrun the Wampanoag area. The dilemma centered around the decision to welcome the European settlers, or to run them off. The purpose of this meeting was to see if the Pilgrims would ally with the Wampanoags against the Narragansetts; if they would, then the Wampanoag would live peacefully with the Pilgrims; if not, they would get rid of them, one way or another.
Tisquantum’s role in this, as with much of his life, had to do with chance. Tisquantum had just shown up at the home of Massasoit in 1619; it was only because of his language skills that he came to this meeting. Samoset and Tisquantum went among the Pilgrims first, while Massasoit followed later with a show of force from the Wampanoags. After a brief period of panic, the Pilgrims broke out some moonshine and Tisquantum began translating the conversation back and forth. One of the terms of the agreement that came out was that Tisquantum would stay with the Pilgrims and help them settle in. He taught them how to grow maize, along with other agricultural tricks that helped them survive.
However, this was not a case of the kindly, naïve Indian helping the settlers, no matter what the hand puppets we listened to in elementary school might have told us. This was a pragmatic move by Massasoit to keep the Wampanoags from being conquered by the Narragansetts. In the long term, the Native Americans may have made a mistake by forming an alliance with the European settlers; prior to this, there had not been any harmony between the two groups, and the European settlement of the New World was anything but beneficial to the Native Americans. However, for this short time period, it was worth putting Tisquantum to work for the Pilgrims: it kept him from possibly undermining the work of the Wampanoags (as Massasoit feared) and it kept the Narragansetts from invading.