Agawam (tribe)

The Agawam were a Native American people in New England at the arrival of the English colonists in the early 17th century. Decimated by pestilence shortly before the English colonization and fearing attacks from their hereditary enemies among the tribes of Maine, they invited the English to amalgamate with them on their tribal territory. Colonial law promulgated by the General Court of Massachusetts protected them, their land rights and their crops. The English defended them against further attacks. They had an open invitation to enter Puritan households. Often a small number would show up as dinner guests and were fed. By the time of King Philip's War in 1675 they had been assimilated. They played no part in the war.

The name is an anglicization of the native name assigned to the territory of a sovereign state consisting of the tribe. The English named the tribes after their native place names; therefore it is likely that the natives did also; i.e., Agawam is an English exonym based on a native endonym. The territory is written as Wonnesquamsauke, from wonne, "pleasant," asquam, "water" and auke, "place." The state extended from Cape Ann to the Merrimack River, covering the coastal region of the current eastern Essex County, a country of rivers, bays, barrier islands, necks and wetlands, location of Great Marsh, Plum Island and Newburyport Harbor. A number of place names were anglicised from the territorial name: Agawam and Squam from asquam,Annisquam from Wonnesquam. Inland the edge of their territory went from North Andover to Middleton, and from there to the Danvers River, which was the border with the Naumkeag tribe of Salem, Massachusetts.

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