Deed of Pacomtuck land granted by Chauk to Dedham residents

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From the collections of PVMA • Digital image © Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. • Image use information


About this item

This is a deed for land that would become the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts. A group of Englishmen from Dedham, Massachusetts, delegated John Pynchon, a well-known and powerful landowner in Springfield, Massachusetts, to represent them in this sale. A sachem named Chauk represented the Pocumtuck, the Indigenous people whose homelands encompassed the land described in the deed. However, Chauk was probably not Pocumtuck.  Also, although it was noted that the Pocumtuck people would retain fishing, hunting, and gathering rights, the sale of their homeland was not a concept they would have understood.  They and Chauk might have thought they were agreeing to share use of the land, but they did not believe it  could be owned. European notions of exclusive land ownership and Native beliefs of stewardship and usage were ultimately incompatible. Disagreements immediately arose as settlers moved into Deerfield and elsewhere and asserted what they saw as their exclusive rights to the land they had purchased.

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Details

Item typeLegal Documents
Deed
AuthorChaqve, sachem of Pacomtuck, Chauk alias
Date1665
PlaceDeerfield, Massachusetts
TopicLand, Environment, Geography
Native American
EraColonial settlement, 1620–1762
MaterialPaper
Process/FormatHandwriting
Dimension detailsProcess Material: manuscript, paper, ink Height: 7.50 in Width: 12.00 in
Catalog #L98.012
View this item in our curatorial database →
Chaqve, sachem of Pacomtuck, Chauk alias. Deed of Pacomtuck land granted by Chauk to Dedham residents. 1665. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l98-012/. Accessed on October 10, 2024.

Please note: Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.