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The 'Nipmuck' (also spelled 'Nipmuc') are a group of Algonquian Indians native to Worcester County, Massachusetts.

Contents

Name

Language

Territory

Legal Status

Pre-colonial history

Colonial-era history

See also

References

External links

Name

Their name has also been spelled as Nipnet, Neepmuck, Neepnet, Neetmock, Neipnett and Nipmug. The name originated from the Algonquian language word "nipnet" (or something similar) meaning literally "small pond place" and is sometimes translated as "fresh water people." Lake Chaubunagungamaug, with which they have long been associated, may be the source of this name.^[1]

Language

The Nipmuck spoke an Algonquian language akin to that of their neighbors. Their language is now extinct. The only known source for the language is Gordon Day's (1975) redaction of Father Mathevet's 17th-century notes on the language of the 'Loup', who are believed to have been either the Nipmuck or else another closely-related tribe in central Massachusetts.
The "L-dialect" spoken by the Nipmuck was closely related to the "N-dialect" of the Massachuset.^[1]

Territory

The Nipmuck were once more numerous and wide-ranging than they are today. In early times, according to one appraisal:
The 500+ remaining Nipmuck recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts live in and around the Chaubunagungamaug Reservation in Webster and the Hassanamisco Reservation in Grafton. Their territory may once have extended into northern Rhode Island and northeast Connecticut.^[1]

Legal Status

Main articles: Nipmuck Nation


This Indian group has long been recognized by the state of Massachusetts, but in 2004 the Bureau of Indian Affairs decided that this group does not meet four of the seven mandatory requirements for Federal acknowledgment as a "nation".^[4]
This specific legal determination prevents the Nipmuck from dealing with the U.S. Government on a "government-to-government" basis.
The decision and was made on the basis of such points as Nipmuc families having long owned their land individually rather than communally and having been legally "detribalized" by the ''Massachusetts Enfranchisement Act of 1869''.^[5]
As such, this determination is in no way a defamation of the Nipmuc people past or present and the Nipmuck, like the Wampanoag, continue to have a special status within the Commonwealth.

Pre-colonial history

Coming from the southwest, Paleo Indians settled New England over 10,000 years ago, hunting the animals that inhabited the subarctic environment. During the Archaic Period (8000 BCE–1000 BCE) the climate slowly warmed, bringing new plants and animals as well as changes in human culture and lifestyle.
During this period, the Nipmuck's ancestors were producing stone bowls, making bark, woven and wooden containers, and developed a written language, which remained in use until the historical period. ''Pesuponcks'' (ceremonial stone sweat lodges) were used for purification rituals and many of these ancient chambers can still be found near the sites of Nipmuck villages.
During the Woodland Period (1000 BCE–1000 CE) and later, trade and with other peoples brought the "three sisters" (maize, beans, and squash), encouraging an agricultural based society. In time, Nipmuck territory was at the hub of the "Great Path" to all parts of the northeast. ^[6]
Nipmuck homes were framed of deciduous saplings covered with skins, bark and woven mats. The bow and arrow supplemented the use of spears in hunting and war.

Colonial-era history

As early as 1630 there is a record of a Nipmuck known as Acquittamaug walking to Boston with his father, each carrying a bushel and a half of corn from Woodstock, Connecticut, to the starving settlers for sale. Just a generation later the colonists were offering bounties on the scalps of Nipmuck men, women, and children.
Regarding the Nipmuck, one historian wrote:
In 1644, John Winthrop the Younger, son of the first leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, purchased the Tantiusques graphite mine and the surrounding land from the Nipmuck and began the first commercial mining operation on the site.^[7]
By the 1850s, much of the Nipmuck peoples had been brought into the fold of what the colonists called "Praying Indians". During King Philip's War large numbers of Nipmuck, including many sachem, were either killed in battle or captured and hanged.

See also

★ Nipmuck Nation

★ Hassanamisco Nipmuck

★ Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck

★ Lake Chaubunagungamaug

★ Tantiusques

★ www.historicalnipmuctribe.info

References

★ Day, Gordon M. 1975. ''The Mots Loups of Father Mathevet''. Publications in Ethnology, no. 8. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.
1. Nipmuc History
2. Nipmuc History
3. Nipmuc History
4. Martin Issues Final Determination to Decline Federal Acknowledgment of The Nipmuc Nation
5. [1] Proposed Finding Against Federal Acknowledgment of the Webster/
Dudley Band of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Indians
6. Landscape Planning Study
7. The Trustees of Reservations

External links

★ Nipmuc Tribal Web Site

★ Nipmuc History

★ Nipmuc Place Names of New England