25 Facts About Squanto

Squanto was among several captives traditionally claimed to have been ransomed by local Franciscan friars who focused on their education and evangelization.

Squanto eventually travelled to England and from there returned to his native village in America in 1619, only to find that an epidemic infection had wiped out his tribe; Tisquantum was the last of the Patuxet and went to live with the Wampanoags.

Squanto then lived with the Pilgrims for 20 months as an interpreter, guide, and advisor.

Squanto introduced the settlers to the fur trade and taught them how to sow and fertilize native crops; this proved vital because the seeds the Pilgrims had brought from England mostly failed.

Squanto lived in Plymouth, and the Archangel did not sail that far south on the voyage of 1605.

Squanto sailed to Plymouth harbor ostensibly to trade with the village of Patuxet, where he lured 20 Indians aboard his vessel under promise of trade, including Tisquantum.

Squanto urged Massasoit to become friends with the Plymouth colonists, because his enemies would then be "Constrained to bowe to him".

Squanto spent the day giving them intelligence of the surrounding tribes, then stayed for the night, leaving on Saturday morning.

Squanto told them, except they got fish and set with it [corn seed] in these old grounds it would come to nothing.

Squanto assured them that his 30 tributary villages would remain in peace and would bring furs to Plymouth.

Squanto held Tisquantum with a knife to his breast, but Hobomok broke free and ran to Plymouth to alert them, thinking that Tisquantum had died.

Squanto's name was Obbatinewat, and he was a tributary of Massasoit.

Squanto explained that his current location within Boston harbor was not a permanent residence since he moved regularly to avoid the Tarentines and the Squa Sachim.

Squanto took them to see the squa sachem across the Massachusetts Bay.

Squanto affirmed that the reports of plenty that many report "to their friends in England" were not "feigned but true reports".

Squanto did not describe any harvest festival with their native allies.

Not long after the shallop departed, "an Indian belonging to Squanto's family" came running in.

Squanto betrayed signs of great fear, constantly looking behind him as if someone "were at his heels".

Squanto was taken to Bradford to whom he told that many of the Narraganset together with Corbitant "and he thought Massasoit" were about to attack Plymouth.

Squanto sent word back that he would send word to the governor, pursuant to the first article of the treaty they had entered, if any hostile actions were preparing.

Squanto asked the Plymouth colony to house and feed these newcomers, provide them with seed stock and salt, until he was able to send the salt pan to them.

Squanto announced that he would be sending another ship that would discharge more passengers before it would sail on to Virginia.

Squanto requested that the settlers entertain them in their houses so that they could go out and cut down timber to lade the ship quickly so as not to delay its departure.

Squanto suggests that the "peace" Winslow says was lately made between the two could have been a "rouse" but does not explain how Massasoit could have accomplished the feat on the very remote southeast end of Cape Cod, more than 85 miles distant from Pokanoket.

Squanto is, or at least a fictionalized portrayal of him, thus a favorite of certain politically conservative American Protestant groups.