In Search of Mascoma (Mascommah)

I am a history lover, and don't know as much as I would like to about Upper Valley history.  A question that I have always wondered is "Who was Mascoma".  In the lobbies of every Mascoma Bank, there is a framed letter explaining where that name came from.  You can see a copy of the letter here, http://www.mascomabank.com/lebanon-historical-society or in the lobby of any Mascoma bank.  I have always been interested in this, since, I, too, came from Western Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River, and moved north to the Upper Valley.  When I googled the name "Mascommah", I found a book, "Indian Deeds of Hampden County" by Harry Andrew Wright.  http://books.google.com/books/about/Indian_deeds_of_Hampden_County.html?id=Wq7j8EoY-m8C

Our Mascommah signed three deeds in this book.  One deed was to land along the Deerfield River, up to where the Deerfield River empties into the Connecticut, one deed was for land in Sunderland Massachusetts and surrounding towns.  I have seen some comments that suggest that this parcel of land extended west all the way to Newfane, Vermont.  The third deed was for land in Southern New Hampshire and Vermont, beginning north of Fort Dummer and extending up the Connecticut River past Putney. Mascommah didn't sign the actual deeds to the land, he signed confimations to the original deeds.  The original deeds were signed by women, the confirmations were signed by men, confirming that the signers of the original deeds had the authority to sell that land.

Each of the confirmations start out saying that "We the subscribers Indians of the Sauhtecook Tribe, whose ancestors habitations were by or near the Connecticut River, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay".  This tells us so much about Mascommah.  The Schagticoke Indians were formerly from Squakheag, which was the name of the Indian village where Northfield, Massachusetts is now.  They became refugees after King Philip's War, and ended up in what is sometimes called the first Indian reservation in America, Schaticoke in New York.  Eventually there were three refugee villages, one at Mississquoi, one at St Francis in Canada, and one at Schagticoke.  Over time, the Schaticoke Indians drifted to St Francis, with the last inhabitants of Schagticoke leaving during the French and Indian War.

When I was in the sixth grade, we learned about the Indian signers of the deeds turning over our town to the English.  When we asked what happened to these Indians, we were told that they all died of smallpox.  I had this vision of each Indian keeling over in the chair, gasping his last breath from this horrible disease, as soon as his quill lifted from the paper.  Clearly, that's not what happened.  These Indians had to leave and find somewhere else to live, especially after the King Philip's War.  They moved up the Connecticut River, and finally landed at Schagticoke. 

This also tells us that Mascommah identified himself and his ancestors primarily with the Connecticut River and the brooks and other waterways that emptied into that river.  This is one of the biggest pieces of evidence for him being the Mascoma of the river and lake.  The Mascoma empties into the Connecticut and so would have been of great interest to Mascommah. 

There is really very little evidence that this Mascommah is the Mascoma of the lake and river, although I believe that he is.  We have the evidence that he was very much "of the Connecticut River and its tributaries".  I was thinking that I would feel better if I could find another Indian from both Vermont and Massachusetts who had a body of water named after him.  Well, I couldn't find one.  But I did find Chief Greylock.

Chief Greylock was a contemporary of Mascommah's.  He led a war against the English settlers.  His base of operations was at Mississquoi.  He is commonly referred to as an Abenaki Indian and a member of the tribe indigneous to Vermont.  Greylock's war took place between 1773 and 1776, nine years before the deeds were signed.  You have to wonder if the signing of the deeds happened as a result of the defeat of Greylock by the English.

Here is the storyof Chief Greylock:

Chief Graylock was born around 1660 in a Waronoke Village, which is now the town of Westfield. His native name was Wawamolewat. The Waronokes were a part of the Pocumtuck Confederacy of Central Massachusetts. They were great fur trappers, they traded with the British, as the population increased, and game decreased, they no longer had a way of making a living. In 1674 the tribe moved to the Berkshires. Chief Graylock had a secret cave on the slope of Mt. Greylock located in Adams, Massachusetts where he harassed the British settlers as they moved into his domain. He also lived with the Waronoke Tribe near Stockbridge Massachusetts, then they moved on to Schaghticoke New York, and finally to Canada, where Chief Graylock met a Winooski woman. Together they settled down at Missisquoi Bay just north of the Vermont border. He built a huge fort there known as Graylock's Castle. " (From the Berkshire Web -http://www.berkshireweb.com/sports/hiking/graylock.html)

I use Chief Graylock as an example of an Indian who had a mountain in Massachusetts named after him - Mount Greylock, but was also associated with Vermont, Mississquoi, St Francis and Schagticoke.  These Indians were very geographically mobile.  Having been ejected from their true ancestral homelands, they moved from one refugee village to the other, combining and then recombining to create new villages and tribes.  Without a doubt, Greylock and Mascommah knew each other.  I personally thing that Greylock was dead by the time Mascommah signed the deeds.  I also think Mascommah was much younger.

To be continued.