Weetamoo

Weetamoo (1635 – 1676), also referred to as Weetamoe, was a Pocasset Wampanoag Native American woman who was born circa 1635 in Mettapoiset, village of the Pokanoket, and died at Taunton River in 1676. Her father was Corbitant, sachem of the Pocasset tribe in present day North Tiverton, RI, circa 1618-1630. She was the wife of Wamsutta, the eldest son of Massasoit, who participated in the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. After Massasoit died, Wamsutta became Chief of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoag allied with the English against the Narragansett tribe, but the English broke this treaty, and Wamsutta became sick and died during talks with the English. Believing that the English were somehow responsible for the death of Wamsutta, Weetamoo and her brother-in-law, Metacomet---the husband of Weetamoo's younger sister Wootonekanuske---attacked the English in June 1675. This began the conflict now known as King Philip's War. Fact|date=February 2008

Eventually, the English defeated the Wampanoag tribe in August 1676. Weetamoo drowned in the Taunton River trying to escape. Her dead body was mutilated, and her head was displayed on a pole by the English, amidst much weeping by her warriors.

Weetamoo's adolescent life was made into a children's historical novel in "The Royal Diaries" series entitled "Weetamoo, Heart of the Pocasetts: Rhode Island-Massachusetts, 1653.

Weetamoo also appears in print in Mary Rowlandson's "The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Rowlandson, who was captured 1676 and held by Weetamoo's relative Quinnapin for three months, considered Weetamoo a "proud hussy" and often complained of her strict control, Fact|date=March 2007. She leaves a vivid description of Weetamoo's appearance as well as personality:

"A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads."