Wampanoag
/ˌwɑːmpəˈnoʊæɡ/noun
A member of an Indigenous Algonquian people traditionally inhabiting parts of present-day southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Did you know?Wampanoag comes from the Massachusett language, in which the name referred to eastern people associated with the first light of day—not to a supernatural belief, but to geographic orientation.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Eastern Algonquian
Eastern Algonquian
*wapan-
“Dawn, daylight, or the east—the direction from which dawn appears”
Before European contact
Massachusett
Wôpanâak
“An eastern person or people of the dawn”
17th Century
English colonial records
Wampanoag
“An English-recorded form of the Indigenous ethnonym”
18th–19th Centuries
English
Wampanoag
“The name used for the Indigenous nation of southeastern New England”
Modern English
English
Wampanoag
“The Wampanoag people, their nation, language, or cultural identity”