Nobscusset Indian Burial Ground in Dennis, Massachusetts

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Dennis, Massachusetts, USA

Coordinates: 41.74513, -70.18304
Cemetery ID:

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The people of the area today known as Cape Cod were engaged in beaver skin trade with both England and France. In 1614, English Captain Thomas Hunt captured over 20 Nausett (the Nobscussett Indians were part of the Nausett confederation) and Patuxet Indians, brought them to Spain, and sold as many as he could into slavery. The captures outraged the Indians and they stopped the trading. In 1618/19, a plague killed most of the Nobscussett. Possibly, the buring of the dead from this plague marks the origin of this Burial Ground.

The Nobscussett was the first tribe to meet the Mayflower Pilgrims. The Pilgrims had come ashore looking for food and found bushels of corn that the Nobscussett had left as an offering for their ancestors. The Pilgrims took as much of the corn as they could before the Nobscussett were able to get them out of the area.

Years later, the Pilgrims returned to the Nobscussett. The Pilgrims began converting them to Christianity, and the Nobscussett became one of several tribes in Massachusetts that became known as "Praying Indians". In 1793, the Nobscussett Indians were all killed by neighboring Indian tribes.

The Town of Dennis voted to fence in this burial ground in 1828, and have been maintaining it ever since. There is a hedge-lined trail from Route 6 to the Burial Ground.