Description
The Nauset people, sometimes referred to as the Cape Cod Indians, were a Native American tribe who lived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They lived east of Bass River and lands occupied by their closely related neighbors, the Wampanoag. The tribe was one of the first to be visited by European explorers and colonists, who abducted some tribal members to sell into slavery in Spain and introduced diseases which reduced the Nauset population even before colonization of New England began on a large scale. The Pilgrims' first contact with the Nauset was during the Mayflower's landing near present-day Provincetown.
Language
Nauset, any member of an Algonquian-speaking Native North American tribe that occupied most of what is now Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.
Culture
Their principal village, Nauset, was near the present Eastham. Although their location indicates that fish furnished their chief sustenance, the Nauset were evidently cultivators of the soil, as supplies of corn and beans were obtained from them by the famishing Plymouth colonists in 1622. Their subsistence was probably based on fishing, hunting, and gathering wild foods; they are also known to have cultivated corn (maize), beans, and squash. They were semisedentary, moving between fixed sites in order to take advantage of seasonal changes in food resources.