First Encounter — Pilgrims and Native Americans
Nauset Indians and the Mayflower Pilgrims took place on December 8, 1620. (Ecology Prime™ photo by Eric McLamb)
On December 8, 1620, the English Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower – the early foreign settlers of New England – first encountered the indigenous people of the New World in present day Cape Cod, Massachusetts: The Nauset Indians. Today, this same place is called First Encounter Beach in Eastham, Massachusetts, United States.
Having left England a few months earlier seeking religious freedom from the Church of England and the English monarchy, the Pilgrims intended to reach further south in the Virginia territory
but ended up landing in Cape Cod due to rough seas that altered their course. Starving and
desperate for food, the Pilgrims seized a stash of maize in the area of Cape Cod Bay near the
current town of Eastham, leaving a note (in English!) promising to make restitution as soon as
possible.
The morning after the Pilgrims set up camp on shore, the Nauset Indians attacked them,
resulting in a brief skirmish. There were no injuries or deaths in this encounter, and the
Pilgrims departed the area. On December 16, 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth on the
opposite, westside portion of the Cape Cod Bay where they would establish their first
settlement, thus establishing the first colony in New England.
The Pilgrims chose Plymouth as the place to settle because of its proximity to fresh water, suitable land for farming, and safe access for ships. Several months later, the Pilgrims made good on their promise to repay the Nauset for the maize they took, and the Nauset would eventually become the Pilgrims’ closest allies.
By the early 1800s, the Nauset tribe population had fallen to four members and would become nonexistent. Today, they are survived by the larger tribal family with which they were affiliated: the Wampanoag Tribe.
