Massasoit

Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin (c. 1581 – 1661) was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoags and "Massasoit" of the Wampanoag Confederacy. The term Massasoit means Great Sachem.

Massasoit Ousamequin lived in Montaup, a Pokanoket village at the site of what is now the town of Warren, Rhode Island. He held the allegiance of a number of lesser Pokanoket sachems.

Outbreaks of smallpox had devastated the Pokanokets, and Massasoit sought an alliance with the English against the neighboring Narragansetts who controlled an area west of Narragansett Bay in present-day Rhode Island. Massasoit forged critical political and personal ties with colonial leaders William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Stephen Hopkins, John Carver, and Myles Standish, ties which grew out of a negotiated peace treaty on March 22, 1621. The alliance ensured that the Wampanoags remained neutral during the Pequot War in 1636.

According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony's establishment.

There was some tension between Massasoit and the colonists when they refused to give up Squanto whom Massasoit believed to have betrayed him. This, however, was resolved in March 1623 when Massasoit was gravely ill and Edward Winslow nursed him back to health. After his recovery, Winslow reports that Massasoit said, "the English are my friends and love me... whilst I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me." In return for their kindness, Massasoit warned the Plymouth colonists of a plot against them. He had learned that a group of influential Massachusett warriors intended to destroy both the Wessagusset and Plymouth colonies, and he warned the Pilgrims in time.

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