NOTE:

It is important to note that regarding most historical records that make reference to Native Americans that the viewpoint is decidedly one sided. All researchers should take into consideration the cultural biases inherent at the time.

After literally thousands of years of occupation, the Americas were home to many scattered and varied tribes of Indigenous Peoples.  These people, like any people, had their successes and their failures.  They were neither the “Godless Savages” described in Puritan texts nor did they represent a faultless ‘Shangri-La’ lifestyle of perfect harmony.  There were frequent skirmishes among tribes. Activities such as trade, intermarriage, raiding and war were common elements of daily life for these native peoples.

Certainly, the arrival of Europeans in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s raised those tensions, and there survives reference to much debate and difference of opinion even within an individual tribe as to whether or not to allow this ‘unceasing march’ to continue across the continent.

Significantly, as has been noted, the arrival of Europeans had brought a plague of disease to the native peoples who, never having developed immunities to these new strains, succumbed by the thousands to diseases such as small pox.
  Of special relevance to our region is the story of Lord Jeffrey Amherst and Pontiac’s War.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_North_America#Arrival_of_Europeanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Amherst,_1st_Baron_Amhersthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac%27s_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Amherst,_1st_Baron_Amherstshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1shapeimage_4_link_2

Here is the account as told in the article by George Evans . . .

    "In the evening before the 13th of May 1704 the Indians went upon Mount Tom and observed the situation of the place. As the meadow was then covered by water, they supposed the village could be taken and that no aid could come seasonably from the town on account of the intervening flood. A little before daylight the Indians attacked. The people surrendered, and all of the families [Moses Hutchinson, John Searl, Benoi Jones, Samuel Janes] were killed or taken prisoners. Some of the prisoners were afterward rescued by the people from the town. Those commanded by Capt. Taylor went around by Pomeroy's meadow and met the Indians near Mount Tom, when a skirmish ensued, in which Capt. Taylor was killed."


Benjamin Janes escaped by running into a bushy ravine where he had hidden a canoe and paddling to Northampton gave the alarm.

It is assumed that those who were killed at the massacre of 1704

were buried in what has been identified as the first burial place in Easthampton, on an elevation in a field belonging to Augustus Clapp, and about fifteen rods southwest from his house. The DAR has erected a monument on East Street about opposite No.132 to commemorate the Pascommuck Massacre, and another on the site of the old cemetery.

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