Nashaway

The Nashaway (or Nashua or Weshacum) were a tribe of Algonquian Indians inhabiting the upstream portions of the Nashua River valley in what is now the northern half of Worcester County, Massachusetts, mainly in the vicinity of Sterling, Lancaster and other towns near Mount Wachusett. They are often associated with the Nipmuc, which along with variants such as Nipmug or Nipnet was the general term for all bands inhabiting central Massachusetts away from the coastlines and ending before the Connecticut River valley. The meaning of Nashaway is "river with a pebbled bottom".

The Nashaway's principal settlement was Waushacum (possibly meaning "surface of the sea"), a parcel of land in what is now Sterling that was located between two ponds of the same name. The territory of the Nashaway was bounded downstream (to the north) on the Nashua River by the Pennacook, a powerful tribe with which numerous alliances were formed, to the east by tribes related to the Massachusett, to the south of the headwaters by other Nipmuc bands and to the west by the Connecticut River where the Pocomtuc settled.

The first reports of the peoples of Massachusetts' interior were scant, and most of the tribes were grouped under the Nipmuc, the largest tribe in the area, but the sub-divisions had their own sachems and functioned independently of each other. Although they shared the similar L-dialect and other common customs, very little evidence is shown of any confederation except for the various skirmishes with English colonists that ultimately led to King Philip's War. Although now classified as Nipmuc, the bands were heavily allied and possibly confederated with the Pennacook.

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