Paomet
Extinct Native American tribe from Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Paomet (also called Pamet or Paymet)[Note 1] were a tribe of Native Americans living near the Pamet River in modern Cape Cod in the 17th century. They were part of the Wampanoag confederation.[1]
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as a tribe | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( Massachusetts) | |
| Languages | |
| Wôpanâak | |
| Religion | |
| Unknown | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Wampanoag peoples |
History
Interactions with the Plymouth colony
Few written accounts of the history of the Paomet exist. All that is known about them comes from accounts by Europeans and from archeological research. The first written record of the Paomet appears in 1620 in an account of the Mayflower voyage.[2]
In 1620 a party of English pilgrims from the Mayflower led by military officer Captain Myles Standish encountered a group of Paomet natives on the shores of Cape Cod. The native party, who fled upon seeing the Englishmen, consisted of five or six people and a dog. The pilgrim scouting party later discovered evidence of habitation near the Pamet River including wetus (a type of traditional dwelling), evidence of agriculture, and a burial ground. Of note, Standish and his men discovered an English tea kettle and a metal bucket near the Paomet dwellings, suggesting prior contact with Europeans. Standish and his men also discovered corn and beans preserved by the natives, of which they stole around ten bushels. The scouting party also took the kettle and removed additional unspecified objects from the wetus and from the grave of a child.[3] The pilgrims later sent a message to the Massasoit sachem Ousamequin, the leader of the Wampanoag confederacy, offering compensation for the theft of the corn.[2]
On September 13, 1621, a group of Native American leaders signed an "instrument of submission" to the British King James. The Paomet were included in this agreement through the consent of Ousamequin.[4]
In 1623 Myles Standish befriended an unnamed Paomet native, who invited the Englishman to spend the night in his hut and promised him corn if he accompanied him back to Paomet lands. Later writers speculated that this was a plot to kill the Englishmen; if so neither of these attempts succeeded as Standish was unable to sleep due to the cold and failed to reach Paomet lands by boat due to heavy winds.[4] Ousamequin, who the English had assisted during an illness, reportedly confided that the Paomet and several other Wampanoag tribes were plotting an attack on the pilgrim's settlement, Plymouth Colony.[5]
In 1680 two "Indian(s) of Paomett" going by the English names of Peter and Joshua joined with an "Indian of Pottonumacutt" called Sampson to lay claim to part of the land on which Plymouth Colony was constructed. The colony paid the men five pounds and ten shillings and affirmed the right of the Peter, Joshua and their descendants to live on and collect specified resources from the land.[6]
Housing
Like other Wampanoag tribes, the Paomet people lived in wetus. Standish's 1620 scouting party gives a detailed description of the dwellings:
"The houses were made with young sapling trees, bended [stet] and both ends stuck in the ground. They were made round, like unto an arbor, and covered down to the ground with thick and well wrought mats, and the door was not over a yard high, made of a mat to open. The chimney was a wide open hole in the top, for which they had a mat to cover it close when they pleased. One might stand and go upright in them. In the midst of them were four little trunches knocked into the ground, and small sticks laid over, on which they hung their pots, and what they had to seethe. Round about the fire they lay on mats, which are their beds. The houses were double matter, for as they were matted without, so were they within, with newer and fairer mats."[2]
Sustenance
Agriculture
Standish's 1620 scouting party observed fields from which corn had been harvested and discovered ears of yellow, red, and blue corn preserved under heaps of sand. They further unearthed a bag of beans, baskets of wheat, and a bottle of oil. Standish and his men also noted walnut trees, sassafras, and strawberries growing near the fields.[2] In the Paomet houses, the party found dried acorns and tobacco seed along with other unidentified seeds.[2]
The details of the 1680 land agreement suggest that the Paoment also harvested cranberries, "hurtleberries" (likely blueberries, lingonberries, and/or huckleberries) and wild peas.[6]
Hunting, trapping, and fishing
Historical accounts and agricultural evidence suggest that the Paomet hunted with bows and traps[2] and caught fish using nets and harpoons.[7]
Deer appears to have been the most significant game animal.[7] An account of the 1620 scouting expedition recounts an incident in which the future Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford was caught in a Paomet snare trap:
"As we wandered we came to a tree, where a young spirit was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came looked also upon it, and as he went about, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. It was a very pretty device, made with a rope of their own making and having a noose as artificially made as any roper in England can make..."[2]
Standish's party also found the claws of eagles preserved in the Paomet wetus.[2] The remains of waterfowl and small animals have been unearthed from the shell strata at a site formerly inhabited by the Paomet.[7]
Pieces of herring and other fish were found by Standish's party in the Paomet wetus.[2] Remains of multiple fish species, including sturgeon, have been identified on archeological excavations. According to the presence and quantity of shellfish remains, oysters were likely the most commonly consumed shellfish, followed by clams and quahogs. The remains of scallops, mussels, and other shellfish were found in lesser quantities.[7]
The details of the 1680 land agreement suggest that the Paomet also harvested blubber from beached whales, orcas, and porpoises.[6]
Craftsmanship
Standish's 1620 scouting party observed several examples of Paomet craftsmanship in the wetus, including wooden bowels, trays, and dishes, earthenware pots, and baskets constructed of crab shells.[2]
Further artifacts have been unearthed from a stratified shell heap 1.5 miles northwest of Truro Center. These are believed to have been created by the Paomet people (as well as, possibly, by earlier inhabitants of the cape). Tools made of stone, bone, and antler have been excavated. Among these were knives, spearheads, scrapers, awls, bone harpoons, slate gorgets, stone net-sinkers, a drill, a stone ax, a whetstone, a drill, a celt, and a bone needle.[7]
Multiple fragments of pottery were also uncovered. Some of these incorporate shell fragments as a tempering agent while others appear to have been mineral-tempered. Several examples cord-marked pottery were found. Other pieces had been decorated with the backs of shells or other instruments.[7]
Burial practices
Standish's 1620 pilgrim scouting party encountered a site with heaps of sand, one of which was covered by old mats "and had a wooding [stet] thing like a mortar whelmed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little hole at the end thereof." Upon excavating it, they found a bow and what they presumed to be the decaying remains of arrows. They concluded that it was a grave and did not excavate this site further.[2]
The party later discovered a second site covered with boards. Underneath these, they found two mats, between which were a number of objects; these included a bow, dishes, and trays. Under the second mat was a board "about three quarters long, finely carved and painted, with three tines, or broaches, on the top, like a crown."
Beneath this was a third mat, under which the party found two bundles.[2] The larger bundle contained pieces or iron, a knife, a pack-needle, and the remains of a blond man bound in a pair of cloth breeches and a type of canvas cassock typically worn by sailors. The remains were enveloped in a fine, strong-smelling red powder[2] (now thought to have been red ochre).[7] The American writer James Thacher speculated that the corpse belonged to a sailor from a French ship which had been wrecked near Cape Cod a few years prior to The Mayflower voyage.[3]
The smaller bundle contained the remains of a small child adorned with white beads and a small bow "around three quarters long."[2]
Legacy
Place names
The Pamet River in Massachusetts is named after the Paomet people.[8] The town of Corn Hill was so named as it was the location where the Plymouth settlers stole corn from Paomet stores.[2]
Truro town seal
The former town seal of Truro, Massachusetts depicted a Native American in a feathered headdress standing in front of two tipis, resting one hand on a stalk of corn and holding a bow and arrow in the other. The figure was captioned "Corn Hill Pamet 1620." The seal has been criticized by residents and historians for its inaccurate depiction of the Paomet people.[9] A new seal approved in May 2026 does not depict any figures but includes the word 'Paomet' at the base of the seal.[10]
Monuments and future projects
In April 2023 Wampanoag leaders honored the Paomet people during a groundbreaking ceremony for a traditional wetu constructed on the tribe's former land.[1] This was completed in June 2023. Members of the Wampanoag community have rendered concepts for four additional memorials to the Paomet: a 16-foot sculpture of the giant Maushop from Wampanoag folklore at High Head; a garden path with a white pine tree at the center at Corn Hill; signage about the Paomet at Village Pond; and an art installation at Pamet Park consisting of a section of a traditional wetu fitted with a contemporary graphic and accompanied by a stone monument depicting a village scene.[11]
Notes
- Though the Pamet river was named for the Paomet people, the spelling 'Paomet' is more widely used to refer to the tribe (per Helen McNeil-Ashton, vice president of collections at the Truro Historical Society, quoted in Carson, 2026).