Squanto

Tisquantum: An American Legend History is said to be written by the winners—revealing the perspective and bias of the victorious party. This becomes particularly problematic when the losing party doesn’t posses a written language, which is exactly what occurred pertaining to European encounters with Native Americans. Because Native Americans developed no written language and customarily passed down an oral history, much of the history is lost; what is known comes predominately from European accounts. This one sided version of history increases the potential for facts to become perverted. Many of the European narratives reflect a romanticized interpretation of history and for that reason should be received shrewdly. One figure in Colonial American history that has captured the imagination of many historians and writers over the years is the Native American Tisquantum. The facts of this particular Indian’s life are perhaps the subject of more historical and literary speculation than any of his peers. He makes appearances of various extent in assorted historical records under a number of designations including Tisquantum, Squantum, Tifquantum, and Squanto (the anglicized and the most recognized version of his name). Tisquantum himself did not leave any written records and there is no single report that gives even a close to complete account of his life, therefore only a fragmentary narrative exists that has been constructed from various historical documents and conjecture. What is known of Tisquantum’s early life is less than naught; even the year he was born is unknown. Most historical accounts generally agree that Tisquantum was born on January 1st; curiously however the exact year is under debate but is circa the 1580’s. Tisquantum was a member of the Patuxet tribe, located in Eastern Massachusetts on Plymouth Bay. The Patuxets were a tributary of the Wampanoag Confederacy in which a head sachem (chief/political leader) presided over a number of lesser