This was the story which Moshup told Tackanash and his dog. If it is not true, I am not the liar…”
The story ends with a traditional oral formula affirming truth while allowing mythic interpretation. It suggests that the story’s purpose is not literal fact, but to teach lessons about respect for nature, balance, and community.
Extremely fatigued, he lay down to sleep, and dreamed that he must not quit the island again. When he waked, he wished much to smoke, but, on searching the island for tobacco, and finding none, he filled his pipe with poke, which our people sometimes use in the place of tobacco. Seated upon the high hills of Wabsquoy, he puffed the smoke from his pipe over the surface of the Great Lake, which soon grew dim and misty. This was the beginning of fog, which since, for the long space between the Frog-month and the Hunting-month, has at times obscured Nope and all the shores of the Indian people.
This is another etiological moment, explaining how fog was created. The act of blowing smoke connects spiritual practice (smoking the pipe) with the shaping of the environment, showing the interdependence of nature and spirit in Native belief systems.
Moshup, angry that he could not catch him, and fearing that, if the creature hatched others of equal appetite and ferocity, the race of Indians would become extinct, one day waded into the water after him, and continued in pursuit till he had crossed to the island which sent the hot winds, and which is now called Nope. There, under a great tree, he found the bones of all the children which the great bird had carried away. A little further he found its nest, with seven hatched birds in it, which, together with the mother, he succeeded after a hard battle in killing
This is the heroic climax of the story, where Moshup restores balance by defeating the destructive creature. The “hot winds” and distant island symbolize danger and moral testing. The emphasis on children’s bones underscores the themes of loss, survival, and renewal.
they! Once upon a time, Moshup said, a great bird whose wings were the flight of an arrow wide, whose body was the length of ten Indian strides, and whose head when he stretched up his neck peered over the tall oak-woods, came to Moshup’s neighbourhood. At first, he only carried away deer and mooses; at last, many children were missing.
The giant bird recalls the Thunderbird, a symbol of power, storms, and transformation in many Native traditions. Its attacks on children represent threats to the community’s future, motivating Moshup’s role as protector.
Moshup told the Pawkunnawkut that he once lived upon the main land. He said that much people grew up around him, men who lived by hunting and fishing, while their women planted the corn, and beans, and pumpkins. They had powwows, he said, who dressed themselves in a strange dress, muttered diabolical words, and frightened the Indians till they gave them half their wampum
This section contrasts the ancient world with later, possibly corrupted traditions. The negative description of “powwows” reflects colonial bias, as 19th-century authors often misinterpreted Native spirituality. Originally, a “powwow” was a healer or spiritual leader, not a deceiver.
I hear the stranger ask, “Who was he?” I hear my brothers ask, “Was he a spirit from the shades of departed men, or did he come from the hills of the thunder? I answer, he was a Spirit, but whence he came, when first he landed in our Indian country, I know not. It was a long time ago, and the Island was then very young, being just placed on the back of the Great Tortoise which now supports it
The storyteller speaks directly to the audience, reflecting the interactive nature of oral storytelling. The reference to the island resting on the Great Tortoise ties this legend to the Turtle Island creation story, shared among many Native peoples. This places the Wampanoag within a broader Indigenous worldview.
His principal food was the meat of whales, which he caught by wading after them into the great sea, and tossing them out, as the Indian boys do black bugs from a puddle. He would, however, eat porpoises, when no larger fish were to be had, and even tortoises, and deer, and rabbits, rather than be hungry. The bones of the whales, and the coals of the fire in which he roasted them, are to be seen now at the place where he lived. I have not yet told my brothers the name of this big man of Nope—it was Moshup.
This connects Moshup to nature and landscape formation. Whale bones and coals are offered as evidence that the story explains real-world geography. These are etiological details elements that explain how natural landmarks came to be, a common feature in Indigenous mythology.
He was always good-natured and cheerful, save when he could not get plenty of meat, or when he missed his usual supply of the Indian weed, and the strong drink which made him see whales chasing deer in the woods, and frogs digging quawhogs
Moshup is portrayed as both divine and humanlikehe feels hunger and irritation. “Indian weed” refers to tobacco, a sacred plant in many Native rituals. The mention of “strong drink” may reflect later European influence on the story, showing how oral tales sometimes absorbed colonial details.
He was taller than the tallest tree upon Nope, and as large around him as the spread of the tops of a vigorous pine, that has seen the years of a full grown warrior. His skin was very black; but his beard, which he had never plucked nor clipped, and the hair of his head, which had never been shaved, were of the color of the feathers of the grey gull.
Moshup’s physical traits combine human and natural elements, showing harmony with the environment. His enormous size represents strength and power, while his dark skin and gray hair connect him to both land and sea, major parts of Wampanoag life.
When Tackanash and his dog arrived at the island, he found the man whose existence had been doubted by many of the Indians, and believed to have been only seen by deceived eyes, heard by foolish ears, and talked of by lying tongues, living in a deep cave near the end of the island, nearest the setting sun.
Here, Tackanash discovers Moshup, a legendary being whose existence had been uncertain. The cave symbolizes mystery and connection to the earth, while the “setting sun” hints at the western direction often associated in Native cosmology with endings, wisdom, or the spirit world.
Once upon a time, in the month of bleak winds, a Pawkunnawkut Indian named Tackanash, who lived upon the main land, near the brook which was ploughed out by the great trout, was caught with his dog upon one of the pieces of floating ice, and carried in spite of his endeavours to Martha’s Vinyard Island
This paragraph sets the scene like a traditional folktale (“Once upon a time”). It introduces Tackanash, an ordinary person who stumbles into a mythic experience. The “month of bleak winds” suggests winter, symbolizing hardship or transition, while the floating ice represents the boundary between the human world and the spirit world.
Once upon a time, in the month of bleak winds, a Pawkunnawkut Indian named Tackanash, who lived upon the main land, near the brook which was ploughed out by the great trout, was caught with his dog upon one of the pieces of floating ice, and carried in spite of his endeavours to Martha’s Vinyard Island….
This paragraph sets the scene like a traditional folktale (“Once upon a time”). It introduces Tackanash, an ordinary person who stumbles into a mythic experience. The “month of bleak winds” suggests winter, symbolizing hardship or transition, while the floating ice represents the boundary between the human world and the spirit world.
Most Native American peoples shared information solely through the spoken word. These oral cultures present unique challenges to historians,
This introduction explains that Native American history was primarily oral, meaning it was passed down through storytelling rather than writing. For historians, oral traditions like this one are essential because they reveal cultural values, worldview, and cosmology even when written records are absent.