Tisquantum (Squanto)

My name is Tisquantum, but you may know me by the name Squanto. I was born around the year 1585 in my village, Patuxet, which was part of the Wampanoag people. Our home was right by the sea in the land that is now called Massachusetts. My early life was happy, and I learned how to live with the rhythm of the seasons. We were a community that worked together, farming our crops in the warm months, fishing in the rivers and the ocean, and hunting in the forests. The land gave us everything we needed, and I never imagined my life would take me far away from my home.

My life changed forever in 1614. An English captain named Thomas Hunt came to our shores, and he tricked me and several other men from my people into coming aboard his ship. We thought we were there to trade, but it was a trap. He sailed us far across the ocean to Spain, where he planned to sell us as slaves. It was a terrifying experience, but kind local friars saved me from that fate. From Spain, I eventually traveled to England. I lived there for several years and learned to speak the English language, but every day, my heart longed to return to Patuxet.

After many years away, I finally found a way to travel back to North America in 1619. I was so excited to see my family and my village again. But when I arrived, I found only silence. My home of Patuxet was empty. While I had been gone, a terrible sickness had swept through my village and taken all of my people. I had traveled across the world to come home, only to find that I was all alone. It was the most heartbreaking discovery of my life.

With my own village gone, I went to live with another Wampanoag group nearby, led by the great sachem, or chief, Massasoit. Then, in the spring of 1621, a new group of people arrived. They were English settlers who came to be known as the Pilgrims. At first, another man named Samoset made contact with them. But when the Wampanoag leaders learned that I could speak the newcomers' language, they asked me to help. Imagine the Pilgrims' surprise when I walked into their small settlement and greeted them in their own English tongue.

I saw that the Pilgrims were struggling. They did not know how to grow food in this new land, and they were hungry. I decided to help them, becoming a bridge between their world and mine. I taught them the Wampanoag way of planting corn, showing them how to place a fish in the ground with the seeds to make the soil rich. I also showed them the best places to catch fish and eels from the rivers and which plants in the forest were safe to eat. In 1621, I also served as an interpreter, helping Massasoit and the Pilgrims' leaders communicate so they could agree to a peace treaty and promise not to harm each other.

The lessons I shared with the Pilgrims worked. In the fall of 1621, they had a successful harvest with plenty of food to last the winter. To celebrate, the English settlers and about ninety Wampanoag men, including Massasoit, shared a great feast that lasted for three days. This event is now often remembered as the first Thanksgiving. My own life's journey ended not long after, when I became sick and died in 1622. Though my time as a peacemaker was short, I am remembered for helping two very different cultures learn to live together and understand one another.