Squanto's death

The sickness seems to have greatly shaken Bradford, for they lingered there for several days before he died. Bradford described his death in some detail:

In this place Squanto fell sick of Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose (which the Indians take as a symptom of death) and within a few days died there; desiring the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in Heaven; and bequeathed sundry of his things to English friends, as remembrances of his love; of whom they had a great loss.

Indian fever is considered an epidemic that affected Native American tribes tremendously. The main reason it affected natives is now thought to be because of the way they went about their daily life. Parts of daily life in native tribes that helps us understand why they caught Indian fever consists of but is not limited to : A constant exposure to excreta and rodents, being barefoot most of the time, visiting of the ill, and attendance of burials for the dead.^[1] This lifestyle exposes people to a bacteria named leptospirosis which is what is now thought to be the real reason behind Indian fever and what is believed to have killed Squanto.^[2]

Without Squanto to pilot them, the English settlers decided against trying the shoals again and returned to Cape Cod Bay.^[3]

The English Separatists may have comforted themselves by believing that Squanto had become a convert, but it is doubtful that he subscribed to Christianity in any orthodox way. William Wood writing a little more than a decade later explained why some of the Ninnimissinuok began recognizing the power of "the Englishmens God, as they call him": "because they could never yet have power by their conjurations to damnifie the English either in body or goods" and since the introduction of the new spirit "the times and seasons being much altered in seven or eight years, freer from lightning and thunder, and long droughts, suddaine and tempestuous dashes of rain, and lamentable cold Winters".^[4] Although the English counted Squanto and later Hobomok among their first converts, the two probably "hoped to add the Christian God to their personal arrays" of deities.^[5] Willison suggested another reason that Squanto likely wished for heaven: "for he may well have feared what would happen if he chanced to meet Massasoit in the Happy Hunting Grounds".^[6]

Philbrick speculates that Squanto may have been poisoned by Massasoit. His bases for the claim are (i) that other Native Americans had engaged in assassinations during the 17th century; and (ii) that Massasoit's own son, the so-called King Philip, may have assassinated John Sassamon, an event that led to the bloody King Philip's War a half-century later. He suggests that the "peace" Winslow says was lately made between the two could have been a "rouse" but does not explain how Massasoit could have accomplished the feat on the very remote southeast end of Cape Cod, more than 85 miles distant from Pokanoket.^[7]

Squanto is reputed to be buried in the village of Chatham Port.^[a]

Memorials and landmarks

As for memorials there is one place known to memorialize Squanto for his help to the pilgrims. The National Agricultural Center pays tribute to important machinery and people in America's farming history.^[9] This museum includes Squanto in their Agricultural Hall of Fame, memorializing him for his help he gave to the pilgrims.^[10]

The first settlers may have named after him the peninsula called Squantum once in Dorchester,^[11] now in Quincy, during their first expedition there with Squanto as their guide.^[12] Thomas Morton refers to a place called "Squanto's Chappell",^[13] but this is probably another name for the peninsula.^[14]

1. ↑ Marr, John S.. "New Hypothesis for Cause of Epidemic among Native Americans, New England, 1616–1619 - Volume 16, Number 2—February 2010 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC". Error: journal= not stated. DOI:10.3201/eid1602.090276.
2. ↑ Marr, John S.. "New Hypothesis for Cause of Epidemic among Native Americans, New England, 1616–1619 - Volume 16, Number 2—February 2010 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC". Error: journal= not stated. DOI:10.3201/eid1602.090276.
3. ↑ Winslow 1624, pp. 17–18 reprinted in Young 1841, pp. 301–02.
4. ↑ Wood, 1634, p. 94
5. ↑ Simmons, 1988, p. 40
6. ↑ Willison, 1945, p. 212
7. ↑ Philbrick, 2006, pp. 138 & 383
8. ↑ Nickerson, 1994, p. 200
9. ↑ National Agricultural Center: a 172-acre complex explores America's rural history.
10. ↑ National Agricultural Center: a 172-acre complex explores America's rural history.
11. ↑ (1804). "Chronological and Topographical Account of Dorchester". Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 9: 147–99, 164.
12. ↑ Young, 1841, p. 226 n. 3
13. ↑ Morton 1637, pp. 84, 93 reprinted in Adams 1883, pp. 216, 229.
14. ↑ Young 1841, pp. 190–91 n.3; Adams 1883, p. 216 n.3.

1. ↑ A marker on the front lawn of the Nickerson Genealogical Research Center on Orleans Road in Chatham states that Squanto is buried at the head of Ryder's Cove. Nickerson claims that the skeleton which washed out "of a hill between Head of the Bay and Cove's Pond" around 1770 was probably Squanto's.^[8]