by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: October 25, 2009   Last Updated: November 03, 2009

We know that the first winter that the Pilgrims experienced in the New World was a horrible one. More than half of the people who came over on the boat had died from what was referred to as "the great sickness," and they lacked sufficient food. Malnutrition was a serious problem, and the homes they had built for themselves were woefully inadequate in terms of warmth.

They were always aware of the Indians' presence, but they did not encounter them until that following spring. On March 16, 1621, an Indian by the name of Samoset walked into the Pilgrims town. He was dressed in nothing but a loin cloth and moccasins, and he spoke in broken English, but he told them that he had learned English from fisherman in Mohegan Island, Maine, the place from which his tribe had originally come.

They had never encountered any Indians before, and they learned from him that they had built their settlement on the land that had belonged to the Patuxet Indians, and all but one of them had died in 1617 of the plague. At that time, they had no idea who this Squanto was or how important he would be to their very survival.

*Squanto's Imprisonment -

He also told them the story of how the unscrupulous Captain Thomas Hunt had managed to trick about 20 Indians to board his ship, claiming that he was going to trade with them. Instead, he imprisoned them and sailed off to Spain to sell them into slavery. Those Indian prisoners wound up with some Spanish monks who gave them their freedom. One of the Indians among the group was a man by the name of Squanto.

*The Pilgrims befriend Squanto -

Squanto was a Patuxet Indian who had spent several years in England after gaining his freedom, and that was where he learned English. Thanks to his time in England, the Pilgrims were able to speak with and understand an Indian. Squanto turned out to be an amazing asset and friend to the Pilgrims.

*Squanto teaches the Pilgrims how to survive -

The Pilgrims were not equipped to survive in New England, and it was Squanto who taught them how to fish for herring, and to use the herring as fertilizer when they planted corn, pumpkin and beans. He taught them to look at the leaves on the trees to determine when it was planting time, and they would know that because the leaves would be the size of squirrel ears. He taught them how to find clams and eels in the river and how to hunt in the woods for deer, bear and wild turkeys.

*Squanto facilitates a peace treaty -

Thanks to Squanto, he facilitated a meeting in which

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