2-Natives and Tree Life

For further information see: http://massachusetttribe.org/ and Kathleen Joan Bragdon, Native Peoples of Southern New England, 1500–1650. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press., 1996), 38-41.

Early arrivals to North America developed into Algonkian-speaking Massachusetts tribes led by sachems, and they lived a seasonal nomadic life of coastal fishing and agriculture, hunting, and fishing inland. They saw trees as outgrowths of Manitou, the sacred and powerful spirits of the natural world.[1]

When they first encountered English sailing ships they saw the mast as a tree, the sail as clouds, and guns being fired as lightning and fire, part of the powerful Manitou of Nature.

Archeologists have found Massachusetts tribes' dug outs preserved in swamps, waterproofed by sap, made out of elm, chestnut, spruce, birch, or cedar. Such wooden vehicles were considered spirit guides or manitous.

[1] Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), pp. 76-77.