Editing Lynn, Massachusetts (section)

=== Indigenous ===
The area that is now known as Lynn was inhabited for thousands of years by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] prior to [[British colonization of the Americas|English colonization]] in the 1600s. At the time of European contact, the area today known as Lynn was primarily inhabited by the [[Naumkeag people]]<ref name="Perley-1912">{{Cite book|last=Perley|first=Sidney|url=http://archive.org/details/indianlandtitles00perl|title=The Indian land titles of Essex County, Massachusetts|date=1912|publisher=Salem, Mass. : Essex Book and Print Club|others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> under the powerful [[sachem]] [[Nanepashemet]] who controlled territory from the [[Mystic River|Mystic]] to the [[Merrimack River|Merrimack]] Rivers. Colonists would not establish a legal agreement with the Naumkeag over the use of their land in Lynn until 1686 after a smallpox epidemic in 1633, [[King Philip's War]], and missionary efforts significantly reduced their numbers and confined them to the [[Praying town|Praying Town]] of [[Natick, Massachusetts|Natick]].<ref name="Perley-1912" />