Nipmuc (from Nipamaug,
'fresh-water fishing place'). The inland tribes of central Massachusetts
living chiefly in the south part of Worcester county, extending into
Connecticut and Rhode Island. Their chief seats were on the headwaters of
Blackstone and Quinebaug rivers, and about the ponds of Brookfield.
Hassanamesit seems to have been their principal village in 1674, but their
villages had no apparent political connection, and the different parts of
their territory were subject to their more powerful neighbors, the
Massachuset,
Wampanoag,
Narraganset, and
Mohegan, and even tributary to
the Mohawk. The Nashua, dwelling
farther north, are sometimes classed with the Nipmuc, but were rather a
distinct body. The New England missionaries had 7 villages of Christian
Indians among them in 1674; but on the outbreak of King Philip's war in
the next year almost all of them joined the hostile tribes, and at its
close fled to Canada or westward to the
Mahican and other tribes on the
Hudson.
The following villages and bands probably belonged to
the Nipmuc:
