After and during the first two or three decades of the seventeenth century the Indians received from European traders, especially from the French and Dutch, cloth, kettles, hatchets, and many other objects, and the graves of that period have yielded numerous articles of this nature. The native industries of the people rapidly declined. It was principally among the women that the finer arts survived for a time, such as the better class of bag and basket making, porcupine and moose-hair embroidery, etc., although the men continued for a period the production of their excellent wooden bowls and drinking cups.[20]
Technological change was not, however, only a matter of the loss of skill at aboriginal crafts. The Indians were quick to learn useful new techniques from the English settlers. They learned the art of pewter casting, and thus produced pipes and buttons.[21] A further use for their new-found knowledge of metallurgy was noted by Governor Bradford:
They have also their moulds to make shotte, of all sorts, as muskett bulletts, pistoll bullets, swan and gose shote, and of smaler sorts; yea, some have seen them have their scruplates to make scrupins themselves, when they wante them, with sundery other implements, wher with they are ordinarily better fited and furnished then the English them selves.[22]
The history of contact between primitive peoples and Europeans has tended to be similar throughout the world, in that the first to contact and deal with the natives were usually entrepreneurs looking for new profits, followed by missionaries looking to save souls. The Wampanoags likewise experienced this phenomenon. While it was the intention of those who went there to settle to bring Christianity to the Indians, preparations for such a monumental task were not very well laid. English colonists had their hands full for a number of years just getting a living. They had made no provisions for the maintenance of missionaries to the Indians, and English congregations were not eager to spare their own ministers for the task. Thus, it was not until the middle of the seventeenth century at least before systematic attempts to change the Indians’ belief system were begun.
Notable among those who took up the mission to the Indians of southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island were Roger Williams, John Elliot, and the Mayhews, father and son. Quite a number of converts were made.[23] Converted Indians were encouraged to dwell together in what came to be dubbed “praying towns”. Such Indians were required to adopt European culture wholeheartedly in terms of dress, housing, habits, etc., and they were required to learn to read as part of their conversion so that they could study the scriptures. The majority of Indians seem to have refused conversion; however, the change on the part of some of them can hardly but have had influence upon the rest.
Another introduction from European culture was alcohol, previously unknown to the Wampanoags and their neighbors. This became a popular item of trade, and some Indians undertook the cultivation of apples for the purpose of making cider.[24]
FOOD QUEST
Annual Cycle: The environment of coastal southern New England was rich in a variety of wild food resources. Because these resources were available seasonally in several differing localities, the Wampanoags, who lived by a combination of hunting, fishing, collecting, and horticulture, moved several times during the year.
Beginning in about April, large numbers of Indians, probably the populations of several localized winter camping groups, would gather at the falls of certain rivers for the upstream runs of fish such as herring.[25] Migratory birds were also taken at this time.[26] The period of taking fresh water and androgynous fish along streams and in lakes continued until planting season, when the Wampanoags moved to the coast.