Conclusion

Summary

In 1861 John Milton Earle, a commissioner appointed to inquire into the conditions of the Indians in Massachusetts, described the difficulties involved in enumerating the Native population of the commonwealth:

Situate as most of them are, near the seaboard, in the immediate vicinity of our fishing and commericial ports, the temptation to a race naturally inclined to a roving and unsettled life, are too great to be resisted, and nearly all of the males, first or last, engage in seafaring as an occupation. Thus, the men are drawn away from home, and are often absent for years at a time, frequently without their friends knowing where they are. The women, left behind, seek employment wherever it can be had, usually in the neighboring towns and cities …. After thus leaving home, they frequently remove from place to place, keeping up no correspondence or communication with those who have left; till at last their place of residence ceases to be known by their friends, and all trace of them is lost.

Earle went on to describe the Natick Indians as “scattered about the state, and comingled with other tribes, particularly the Hassanamiscoes.”

Earle's characterization of Massachusetts Indians as inveterate wanderers provides an important clue for understanding Indian history in New England. Though he appears to be perpetuating a familiar racist stereotype, Earle had in fact grasped the basic pattern Indian peoples had followed in order to survive the catastrophe of English conquest.