Editor’s Note: The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard: Colonization to Recognition, is a newly published book by Thomas Dresser of Oak Bluffs. What follows is an excerpt from the chapter Sachems Under Duress. It appears here with permission from the author.

The early 18th century was a turbulent time for Vineyard sachemships [Wampanoag villages]. Decimated by disease and overrun by colonial missionaries, sachems [chiefs] struggled to maintain their communities. Mayhew missionaries were omnipresent, exerting influence throughout the Wampanoag community. Francis Jennings noted, “Religion and government were so closely allied in Wampanoag society that when the Christian convert rejected powwows he simultaneously rejected the sachem’s authority that derived from the ritual and doctrine in the powwows’ custody.” This led to a loss of influence by the sachem, who was often undermined by the colonial authority.

The native population across the Vineyard by 1720 was split among six villages with 155 families, totaling some 800 people. “Each of these villages was supplied with an Indian preacher,” claimed Experience Mayhew. Forty years later, in a census of 1764, there were only 313 Indians: 86 in Edgartown, 39 in Tisbury and 188 in Chilmark.

The role of the sachem was gradually reduced and then replaced by the town meeting form of government. Nevertheless, Wampanoag communities maintained traditional roles of sachems and medicine people, although their influence had waned.

In both Nunnepog and Sengekontacket, the sachems maintained their leadership role into the 1700s. But when a sachem failed to adhere to church hierarchy, that sachem was relegated to a superfluous role. Sengekontacket and Nunnepog had unfenced boundaries, which meant incursions by wandering animals, aggressive farmers and the vagaries of colonial land ownership laws. Sachemships in the Sengekontacket and Nunnepog communities eroded.

Nunnepog was a sachemship on a coastal pond, Edgartown Great Pond. At the end of the 17th century, the population was 84, with minimal tribute offered to the sachem. Colonists continued to seek more land. Indians sold land to pay off creditors. Sachem Isaac Tocano bought up land in Nunnepog in 1709 but then willed it to Englishmen, which hurt the tribe.

Wunnattuhquanmow, the female sachem of Nunnepog, became sachem in name only. Toward the end of her life, she claimed ownership of land from Edgartown Great Pond to Oyster Pond, yet by the mid-1740s, it was no longer her land to claim. Nunnepog could not sustain a sachem.

Sengekontacket stretched from the inland saltwater pond by present-day State Beach in Oak Bluffs through Farm Neck and across to the lagoon in Vineyard Haven. After contact, it was known for its rich, salt grass, ideal for grazing livestock, which made it a target for colonial farmers. The people of Sengekontacket lost their sachemship as well and relocated either to Christiantown, Chappaquiddick or Gay Head.

Gay Head in 1700 was home to 500 Wampanoags. In an effort to separate the Gay Head Indians from other sachemships on the Island in 1714, Wampanoags built fences and a ditch to further isolate the peninsula — even though, as it was, Gay Head was geographically apart from the rest of the Island.

By the mid-1700s, Aquinnah, Chappaquiddick and Christiantown had evolved into a guardianship government authorized by Boston’s colonial legislature. In 1746, the Massachusetts Bay Colony named these three as the surviving Indian plantations on Martha’s Vineyard. These communities thus managed to hold their territory, as they were protected by the colonial government. Guardians were appointed for each plantation. The role of the guardian was to oversee the community, act as justice of the peace and authorize land sales. With decent men, it was, perhaps, a decent concept for the colonial government, as the guardian served as a liaison between the natives and the colonists. When evil or weak men were named guardians, the plan failed the Wampanoags immeasurably.

In the 1680s, Sachem Jacob Seeknout wanted colonists to respect the Wampanoags on Chappaquiddick, the island across Edgartown Harbor. Seeknout treated both the English and Wampanoags with an even hand. Pasture rights, not land sales, were hotly contested. At the end of the 17th century, 140 Wampanoags and 200 colonists coexisted on Chappaquiddick. In 1716, the proprietor of Chappaquiddick sought to have more cattle graze, up to 1,000 at once. This led to a lawsuit by the Wampanoags. The proprietor withheld rent to the Wampanoags, which resulted in more legal issues. And when Indians sued for their rights, it was costly and inconclusive and allowed the colonists to expand their land-grabbing activities.

Four years later, in 1720, Seeknout sold Simeon Butler a “sachem right” on Poucha Pond, and more land was sold to Ben Hawes, a conniving colonial attorney. Once the sachem sold his land, he could no longer provide for his poor, which demeaned his status.

Wampanoags had land on the North Neck of Chappaquiddick. They were both diplomats and defenders of their property — proper stewards. Like Gay Head, however, many young men left to seek their fortunes at sea, either from the Vineyard or out of Nantucket on whalers.

Colonists overran Indian land on Chappaquiddick in the mid-1700s. Guardian John Sumner was a judge, merchant and livestock aggressor. He actively opposed the Wampanoags. There was no relief. The Wampanoags filed complaints with King George III in England in 1762, 1768 and even 1773, on the eve of the American Revolution — all to no avail.