Description
Naumkeag is a historical tribe of Eastern Algonquian-speaking Native American people who lived in northeastern Massachusetts. They controlled territory from the Charles River to the Merrimack River at the time of the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640). The earliest historical records of the Naumkeag people are from European authors during the contact period from 1600 to 1630, supported by written reminiscences from Indigenous sources at the end of the 17th-century. At the time of the Great Migration to New England in the early 17th century, the Naumkeag population was already greatly depleted from disease and war. They engaged in a war with the Tarrantine (modern-day Mi'kmaq) people beginning in 1615.
Language
The Naumkeags were one of several Algonquin-speaking tribes in the coastal regions of present-day Massachusetts.
Culture
The Naumkeag had seasonal homes throughout the present day North Shore and beyond, which they would travel to and from in order to ensure the most beneficial conditions for themselves throughout the year. This seasonal movement contributed to the confusion, and later tension, with English settlers, who would appropriate empty Naumkeag structures for their own purposes, modifying them as they did to suit their European tastes and styles. For centuries this community moved through and lived upon this land. They followed the seasons, hunted, fished, raised families, grieved for their dead, nourished their living, shared the stories of their ancestors and considered themselves the caretakers of this place.