Sagamore (title)
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A sagamore is the head of a Native American tribe. One source explains:
According to Captain John Smith, who explored New England in 1614, the Massachusett tribes called their kings "sachems" while the Penobscots (of Maine) used the term "sagamos" (anglicized as "sagamore"). Conversely, Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley of Roxbury wrote in 1631 that the kings in the bay area were called sagamores but were called sachems southward (in Plymouth). The two terms apparently came from the same root. Although "sagamore" has sometimes been defined by colonists and historians as a subordinate lord, modern opinion is that "sachem" and "sagamore" are dialectical variations of the same word.[1]
In some texts, the title sagamore is confused with a given name leading to such tautologies as "the great Native warrior, Chief Sagamore of American author James Fenimore Cooper's novel, The Last of the Mohicans".[2] Cooper's text does not contain this confusion but precedes sagamore with the appropriate article where needed.
[edit] References
- ^ The Daily Times Chronicle, Winchester Edition, December 1999
- ^ The Sagamore-Reminiscent of the Grand Hotel Era
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