Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin was the sachem or the intertribal chief of the Wampanoag Nation
Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin was the sachem or the intertribal chief of the half-centuryNation. The Wampanoag, whose people still live in New England today, once had tribal lands that stretched from Cape Cod to Rhode Island. Massasoit means Great Sachem.
In the early 1600s, Massasoit's people had been seriously weakened by a series of epidemics and were vulnerable to attacks by the Narragansetts.
When the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts in 1620, one of the first native leaders the Pilgrims met was Massasoit, he formed an alliance with the colonists at Plymouth Colony for defense against them. It was through his assistance that the Plymouth Colony avoided starvation during the early years.
At first, for the most part, the relationship between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims was friendly and cooperative. In fact, they signed a treaty in 1621 and the reign of Massasoit marked a 40-year-period of peaceful relations.
The alliance came under other tension in later years, as the colonists expanded into new lands in order to support their growing colony. The half-century of peace that Massasoit so assiduously maintained collapsed soon after his death.