A Brief History Of The Indigenous Peoples Of The Granbys

The Granby Oak, subject of a recent article, got me thinking about what times were like in our town during its very early years. The native residents of Granby surely were witness to the young life of that wonderful old tree.

The Algonkian people included bands of the Agawam and Tunxis tribes. In Salmon Brook and the westerly section of Turkey Hills, the Massaco and Poquonock were members of the Tunxis Tribe.

The Massacoes' main village was in the Weatogue section of Simsbury and the Poquonocks', as you might guess, Windsor. The Agawams had several camps, including one near Congamond Lakes. Because the native American did not subscribe to the idea of owning land, only being stewards of it, the tribes tended to claim areas for villages, but shared hunting grounds. 

The Massacoes had a winter village in the northern section of Granby near today’s Massachusetts border. Summer camps were made up of smaller groups residing in wigwams made of tree branches and bark, however during the winter, they would join together with other tribes and live in log structures.

Recent thermal imaging technology has discovered the shadows of a large fortress near the north end of Lake Manitook. Spring typically brought native men up the Farmington River to catch shad and salmon in the rapids near the Spoonville Dam.

Also, along the Salmon Brook they fished using nets, hooks and spears. For centuries, the streams and marshes drew hunters for the waterfowl, turtles, frogs, beaver, otter and muskrat. They tracked deer, bear, fox, wolves, and the occasional panther or moose. Hundreds of species of birds, including wild turkey, migrated through these hunting grounds. Prized cloaks woven of wild turkey feathers were common in this part of New England.

 Bows and arrows were used for hunting, but more often, trapping was used by hunting parties, driving the game into narrowing, funnel-shaped corridors fashioned from brush and other undergrowth. While the men hunted, the women cultivated vegetables -- mostly corn, beans and squash. They planted their fields along the fertile flood plains along the rivers. Even though the men might help with farming, only the men tended the tobacco crops. Food stored for winter was either dried or smoked, for neither salt nor vinegar was ever used.

 The paths or trails used by these early New England natives were mapped by an Englishman named Mathias Spiess of Manchester. He believed there were two main thoroughfares were used by messengers and seasonal migration of tribes between the villages and the campgrounds.

A north-south trail called the Warranoke Path, which followed the same track that would one day become the Farmington Canal, wound around the Congamond Lakes up to Westfield. Also, there was an east-west trail that led from Salmon Brook to Poquonock. The well-known Metacomet Trail was neither created nor used by the native Indian. It was blazed in the 1930s by the Boy Scouts; the natives much preferred trails through the lowlands.

 Each tribe or clan was led by a sachem, or chief – a position acquired by birthright. Although the position was typically filled by a man, occasionally a woman would be chosen, if she were the only suitable member of the established royal family.

In some areas of New England, there was great distrust and rivalry among the various tribes. Alcohol and firearms were introduced to the native tribes, which only intensified their warfare. In this area as well, the tribes tended to vie with one another, but tended to be relatively friendly and peaceful toward the English. On every occasion when the local tribes disputed with English settlers’ right to parcels of land, the claim was settled by negotiations. In most cases, when local colonists worried about an Indian attack, they worried about raiding parties from distant tribes.

 By the mid-16^th century, some Indian leaders became alarmed at the encroachment of the English and their swelling population. The colonists had domesticated animals and had attitudes about land use and ownership that was a foreign concept to the American Indian. Many members even espoused Christianity and the white man’s code of laws. Local Indian leaders felt their influence ebbing and their way of life threatened. 

 A general uprising occurred in 1675. It was called King Philip’s War because it was led by Philip of the Wampanoag tribe in the Springfield area. For two years, native bands terrorized much of New England. They killed settlers and destroyed buildings and crops. Colonists in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island banded together to eliminate the hostile Indians. During this time the settlement in Simsbury was destroyed and the inhabitants fled to Windsor. Eventually dissension and poor organization brought an end to the raids. Most of the remaining natives in this area joined a tribe in the Stockbridge, MA, area.

 In the years that followed, with a need for security, several homes were built in the Granbys that were considered garrisons or fort houses. These buildings may have been built of brick or with outside walls that were double the traditional thickness. The need for garrisons in the Granbys ended by 1725. Tensions had subsided and the few native Americans who remained hunted freely in the surrounding forests, while the settlers lived and worked without fear of attack.