SQUANTO

The story of the Native American who helped Plymouth's English settlers survive their first year in the New World.

Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, was the Wampanoag Indian who served as the interpreter and guide for colonists who arrived on the Mayflower in 1621. American popular culture has preferred to render him as a simple “friend of the white man”; in this book, Barnard history professor Lipman restores his complexity. The author explores both the known and unknown elements of Squanto’s life to argue that he was a man motivated by “communal concerns and his personal ambition.” Lipman initially examines Tisquantum’s early years in Plymouth, known to Natives as Patuxet. In the absence of written records, he chooses an ethnographic approach, grounding his observations in “daily life, material culture, language, religion, social structure, and government” in Wampanoag society. Lipman then follows the adult Squanto, who was sold into the European slave trade, on his forced travels to Malagá, London, and Newfoundland. Though little is known of Tisquantum's time in exile, Lipman offers glimpses of captive life through the stories of other captured Natives. Lipman then reenvisions Squanto’s traumatic homecoming to a Patuxet ravaged by plague. Tisquantum navigated this new world using two historically documented skills: his linguistic fluency and ability to persuade, both of which had served him well during captivity. The author suggests that during this time, Squanto became deluded about his powers. His attempt to depose a Wampanoag leader named Ousamequin, "revealed his arrogant, conniving, and reckless side" and led to his downfall, followed by his death from what a white settler called “an Indean feavor.” Engaging and well researched, this book about the mysterious life of a Native American icon will appeal primarily to historians and those with an interest in early American culture.

A balanced, thoughtful blend of biography and history.