Native American Burial Grounds
- What was Nantucket’s most lethal epidemic?
A: The “Indian Sickness” of 1763–64 Nantucket experienced deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic, but by far the most lethal...More Read more from What was Nantucket’s most lethal epidemic? - Who was Elizabeth Howard West?
Meet Elizabeth Howard West (and her cat)! West moved to Nantucket from New Bedford in the early 1880s with her...More Read more from Who was Elizabeth Howard West? - Who was Ruth (West) Coombs?
Ruth (West) Coombs was a Wampanoag singer born on Nantucket at the very end of the 19th century. She became...More Read more from Who was Ruth (West) Coombs? - Who was Tom Nevers?
He was actually Tom Never, a member of the Nantucket Wampanoag Never family. According to tradition, Tom Never kept watch...More Read more from Who was Tom Nevers? - Who were Nantucket’s “last Indians?”
For many years Abram Quary (Abraham Skootequary) was considered to be Nantucket’s “last Indian,” even though a woman, Dorcas Honorable,...More Read more from Who were Nantucket’s “last Indians?” - Who were some of Nantucket’s latter-day Wampanoag women?
When German-born artist Hermine Dassel came to Nantucket in 1851 to paint a portrait of Maria Mitchell, she stayed to...More Read more from Who were some of Nantucket’s latter-day Wampanoag women? - How many Wampanoags were on Nantucket when the first English settlers arrived in 1659?
Estimates vary greatly with general consensus being about 1,500 Nantucket Wampanoags in several groups governed by sachems. Zaccheus Macy, Nantucket...More Read more from How many Wampanoags were on Nantucket when the first English settlers arrived in 1659? - Mary Coffin Starbuck’s “Account Book with the Indians”
Mary Coffin Starbuck’s “Account Book with the Indians” is a sheepskin-covered ledger tracking the credits and debits of the two...More Read more from Mary Coffin Starbuck’s “Account Book with the Indians” - Preserving the Prehistoric Pottery of Nantucket
On a visit to the Whaling Museum, the first exhibit typically encountered is a display of Wampanoag artifacts. While these...More Read more from Preserving the Prehistoric Pottery of Nantucket - The Archaeology of the Polpis Road Bicycle Path
Nantucket Island was first explored by Native Peoples approximately 11,000 to 12,000 year ago during the early Holocene Paleolndian migration...More Read more from The Archaeology of the Polpis Road Bicycle Path - The Devastating “Indian Sickness” of 1763
There is no disputing that an epidemic of devastating lethality descended on Nantucket’s Wampanoag population in the winter of 1763–64. ...More Read more from The Devastating “Indian Sickness” of 1763