The Massachusetts Tribe, resided in and around what is now Greater Boston. In the Massachusetts language, the phrase “At the Great Hill,” refers to the Blue Hills that offer a southern perspective of Boston Harbor. This 15-minute video produced by World History provides the basic facts about this tribe for whom the Commonweath is named. Click here for this World History video posted on August 2, 2024.

The bulk of Massachusetts was converted to Christianity by missionary John Eliot (above, left) who also established prayer towns where converted Native Americans were supposed to abide by Colonial rules and adapt to European Society while still being able to speak their own language. He published the first Bible in their language in 1652. According to Anthropologist John R. Swanton (above, right), their domain reached as far north as present day Salem, Massachusetts, and as far south as Marshfield and Brockton.

The Massachusetts people grew corn, beans and squash and lived in wetus with the Europeans arrived first for trade and then for colonization.

Among the first European explorers to establish contact with the colonies in New England were the Massachusett and other coastal peoples, but an epidemic of leptospirosis in 1619 nearly wiped them out, with up to 90% fatality rates.