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For other uses, see Canonicus (disambiguation).
Canonicus
Narragansett leader
Preceded byWessonsuoum, 1520 - 1560
Succeeded byMiantonomoh
Personal details
Born1565
Cape Cod, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA
DiedJune 4, 1647
Cape Cod, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA
RelationsNephew, Miantonomoh
Known forChief of the Narragansett tribe when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
Canonicus' mark as seen on the 1638 deed of Providence to Roger Williams
The original 1636 deed to Providence, signed by Chief Canonicus

Canonicus (c. 1565 – June 4, 1647) was a Native American sachem (chief) of the Narragansett people. After the arrival of the Cháuquaquock ("knife-men"[1] in Narragansett, that is, the Pilgrims) in 1620, he shrewdly shielded the remaining territory of his people, mitigating the colonial assault on the Narragansett heartland. For decades he largely dodged repeated provocations to war and rebuffed settler land grabs while buffering his core Narragansett nation with a periphery of allied subtribes and colonialist opponents of his main existential threats: the growing Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony with their allied Wampanoag tribe to the east and the declining but still dangerous Pequot warriors to the west.

Biography[edit]

Canonicus was born in 1565.[2][3][4] [5]

Canonicus was chief Sachem of the Narragansett people, the most powerful of Native American tribes of the Eastern Algonquian language group which inhabited what later became southern New England. The size of the Algonquian-speaking population in southern New England ranged from 50,000 to 144,000,[6] with Canonicus' Narragansett and sub-tribes comprising some 7,000 to 30,000,[7] and could raise a war party of thousands.[8][9] This tribal strength, together with the Narragansetts familiarity with the Dutch, with whom they had been trading with for many years prior, renders highly dubious the first iconic story of Canonicus' encounter with the English propagated by the then-governor of the starving 140-person Plymouth colony,[10] William Bradford, that the sachem, after seeing the English's gunpowder and bullets, "was awed into silence and respect of the English."[11]

Explorer Giovanni da Verazzano in 1524 described the Narragansetts the encountered sachems (likely Canonicus' grandfather, Tashtassuck [9]

"Among them were two kings, who were as beautiful of stature and build as I can possibly describe. The first was about XXXX years old, the other a young man of XXIIII, and they were dressed thus: the older man had on his naked body a stag skin, skillfully worked like damask with various embroideries; the head was bare, the hair tied back with various bands, and around the neck hung a wide chain decorated with many different colored stones. The young man was dressed in almost the same way. These people are the most beautiful and have the most civil customs that we have found on this voyage. They are taller than we are; they are a bronze color, some tending more toward whiteness, others to a tawny color; the face is clear-cut; the hair is long and black, and they take great pains to decorate it; the eyes are black and alert, and their manner is sweet and gentle, very like the manner of the ancients.".[12]

Canonicus led not only the Narragansetts, but the sachemdoms of Chickataubut (of the Pokanoket/Wampanoags) in Massachusetts, some Nipmuck bands, Eastern Niantic of southwest Rhode Island, as well as the Coweset, Hawomet, Pawtuxet and Mashapaug of upper Rhode Island, and Manisseans of what is now Block Island.

Canonicus was one of the first Native Americans encountered by the Pilgrims after landing at Plymouth. He was the grandson of sachem Tashtassuck, "incomparably greater than any in the whole land in power and state",[9] and son of his children, Wessonsuoum and Keshechoo

As a challenge to the head of Plymouth colony, William Bradford, Canonicus sent a bundle of arrows in a leather wrap tied with a snake skin.[5] In reply, Bradford filled the wrap with gunpowder and lead round shot and returned it to Canonicus.[5]

This first exposure to explosive powder and metal was met with "superstitious awe," in the words of Lossing, who added:

"They were sent from village to village, and excited so much alarm, that the sachem sued for peace, and made a treaty of friendship; which he never violated, notwithstanding, he often received provocations that would have justified him in scattering all compacts to the winds."[5]

The peace that resulted extended between the Narragansett and the English colonists extended beyond Canonicus's death in 1647.[5]

When Roger Williams and his company felt constrained to withdraw from Massachusetts Bay Colony, they sought refuge at Narragansett, where Canonicus made them welcome.[13] In 1636, he gave Williams the large tract of land which became the first nucleus of the colony of Providence Plantation. In 1637, Canonicus was largely responsible for the Narragansetts' decision to side with the English during the Pequot War.

Canonicus was succeeded by his nephew Miantonomoh; he returned to power after Miantonomoh was killed in 1643.[14] On April 19, 1644, Canonicus made a formal treaty acknowledging the sovereignty of Britain. The influence of his counsels lasted for many years after his death, and the Narragansett tribe maintained peaceful relations with the English until King Philip's War in 1675.[13]

Legacy[edit]

See also[edit]

Referencs[edit]

  1. ^ A key into the language of America, Roger Williams, 1643, Reprinted 1827, p.52
  2. ^ Grand Sachem Canonicus Of The Narragansett Indian Nation.
  3. ^ Robert John Cook, descendant of Canonicus
  4. ^ Publications Of The Rhode Island Historical Society, Volume VIII. 1900
  5. ^ a b c d e Benjamin J. Lossing, Eminent Americans, Comprising Brief Biographies of Leading Statesmen, Patriots, Orators and Others, Men and Women, Who Have Made American History. New York: John B. Alden, 1886; pg. 15.
  6. ^ William Simmons, Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620-1984, Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1986
  7. ^ Francis Brinley, A Brief Account of the several Settlements and Governments in and about the Lands of the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in Mass. Historical Society Collections
  8. ^ Uncas and Miantonomoh - A historical discourse, 1842, William Stone, p.24
  9. ^ a b c History of Massachusetts Bay, Hutchinson, 1765, p.458
  10. ^ Patricia Scott Deetz and James Deetz,Population Of Plymouth Town, Colony & County, 1620-1690
  11. ^ The Book of the Indians of North America, Samuel Gardner Drake
  12. ^ Giovanni da Verrazzano, Letter to King Francis I of France, 8 July 1524
  13. ^ a b Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Canonicus" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  14. ^ William Allen,[1]An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary: Containing an Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in North America from Its First Settlement, and a Summary of the History of the Several Colonies and of the United States,Edition: 2, W. Hyde & Co., 1832

External links[edit]


Category:1560s births Category:1647 deaths Category:17th-century Native Americans Category:Native American leaders Category:Narragansett people Category:Rhode Island colonial people

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