The Nantucket IndiansDouglas-Lithgow, R. A. (Robert Alexander)
History
The Nantucket Indians
Douglas-Lithgow, R. A. (Robert Alexander)
Indians of North America -- Massachusetts; Nantucket Island (Mass.) -- History
Here Tashama, often called “the last Sachem of Nantucket,” dwelt with
his son Isaac and his daughter Sarah. Benjamin Tashama died in 1770.
His brother, John Tashama, was alive in 1754, when he signed a petition
to the court. John had one son, Abram, mentioned by John Coffin and
Abishai Folger in a report dated May 25th, 1743.
Sarah Tashama married Isaac Earop, and on April 27th, 1776, a daughter
was born to them. She was named Dorcas Honorable. When this child grew
up she became a domestic in the family of Mr. John Cartwright, where
she lived for many years, and she died in 1822.[19]
[19] For these facts I am indebted to a statement made by Mr. Franklin
Folger in May, 1743. =Vide= “Inquirer and Mirror”, October 29, 1910.
=She was a full-blooded Indian, and the very last of her race on
Nantucket=; and thus, little more than two centuries from the discovery
of the island, passed away the only remaining one of the aboriginal
people who had dominated it from time immemorial.
Abram Api Quady or Quary, a half-breed, who lived in a hut at Shimmo
for many years, died in 1855 at the age of 83, respected by all who
knew him. He was the son of the notorious Quibby, already referred
to, and of Judith Quary—a half-breed fortune-teller well-known on the
island at one time. Abram, for obvious reasons, chose to assume his
mother’s name. A fine portrait in oil of this dignified old man may be
seen in the Nantucket Atheneum.
It may seem strange that no burial place of the Indians has been
discovered on the island of Nantucket, so far as I am aware. Skeletal
remains and a few bones have been discovered at one time and another,
and in various places, but I believe no regular place of Indian burial
has ever been found. This may be thus accounted for, viz.:
Island Indians usually buried their dead contiguous to the coast-line,
and the progressive erosion of the coast during two centuries may
have possibly washed such remains into the ocean. This is merely a
suggestion, and as I have but few proofs to offer, I am subject to
correction. It is probable, however, that the Indians buried their
dead in the neighborhood of Shawkemo, Pocomo, Folger’s Hill on the
Polpis road, at Quaise, beyond the present water-works, and at or near
Miacomet. It is recorded that there was a circular burying-ground for
one of the tribes near the head-waters of Lake Miacomet, and that
Benjamin Tashama was buried there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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