Editing Salem, Massachusetts (section)

=== Naumkeag ===

[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] lived in northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to [[European colonization of the Americas]]. The peninsula that would become Salem was known as ''Naumkeag'' (alternate spellings Naemkeck,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=John|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100693021|title=A description of New England; or, The observations, and discoveries of Captain Iohn Smith (admirall of that country) in the north of America, in the year of our Lord 1614; with the successe of sixe ships, that went the next yeare 1615; and the accidents befell him among the French men of warre: with the proofe of the present benefit this countrey affoords; whither this present yeare, 1616, eight voluntary ships are gone to make further tryall.|date=1837|publisher=P. Force|location=Washington}}</ref> Nahumkek,<ref>{{Cite web|title=The south part of New England as it planted this yeare, 1634|url=https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:q524n611v|access-date=2021-11-09|website=www.digitalcommonwealth.org|language=en}}</ref> Neumkeage<ref name=":0">{{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>) by the native people who lived there at the time of contact in the early 1600s. Naumkeag was a major settlement for the indigenous group that controlled territory from the [[Merrimack River|Merrimack]] to the [[Mystic River|Mystic]] rivers. The English and other Europeans referred to them as the [[Naumkeag people]]. There are probable indigenous settlement sites near the mouths of the North, South, and Forest rivers in Salem.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Massachusetts Historical Commission|title=MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Salem|url=https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcpdf/townreports/Essex/sal.pdf|journal=Mass Historical Commission}}</ref>

The contact period was a disastrous time for the Naumkeag. Many Naumkeag died in a war with the [[Tarrantine]] and as a result of a [[virgin soil epidemic|smallpox epidemic]] in 1617–1619, including their powerful sachem [[Nanepashemet]]. The disease had probably been contracted by members who came into contact with European fishermen or explorers. Their strength was reduced just prior to the arrival of English settlers in 1626 to what became modern-day Salem. In 1633, a second smallpox epidemic struck, killing two of Nanepashemet's successors, [[Montowampate|Montowompate]] and [[Wonohaquaham]], and leaving his remaining heir [[Wenepoykin]] scarred. So it was that English settlers met little resistance on their arrival in Salem. Although [[Wenepoykin]] would join [[Metacomet]] in [[King Philip's War]] in 1675, the English settlers at this point had the numerical superiority to defeat Metacomet's indigenous coalition.

It was not until 1686, when the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] Charter was recalled by [[James II of England|King James II]] in the creation of the [[Dominion of New England]] that Wenepoykin's heirs pressed their claim to the land of Salem, for which they were paid twenty pounds.<ref name=":0" />