Masackic (The Meadows)

On the floodplain of the Connecticut River, gravel and dirt roads cut through the swamplands. This region is called the Meadows, and it is marked by the recycling center, the Stebbins Nature Preserve, and a variety of wildlife — particularly birds — which attracts enthusiasts from across the region. 20th century archaeologists — Frederick Ward Putnam of Harvard University and Robert Lowrie of American International College — guess that Native people made seasonal use of the floodplain for over 3,500 years before European settlement, although this number may be conservative. Native knowledge — “deep time” stories which may preserve the original formation of the river valley by a glacial retreat — would suggest consistent human habitation in the region dating back nearly 20,000 years. 

In the centuries since European settlement and wars against Native people, the place-names of the Connecticut River Valley remain marked by Indigenous spatial logics. “Connecticut” itself is the Algonquin word for “long river,” and many of its towns bear similar place names. The cities of “Chicopee” and “Agawam” are the two most obvious examples, with “Agawam” meaning “low land” and Chicopee referring to the “raging waters” of the Chicopee River. These connections are prized by current inhabitants in unfortunate ways; in September 2020 the Agawam School Committee voted against changing its mascot from a Native American caricature. Contrary to popular local belief, Chicopee and Agawam are not the only towns in the region with Native names. Longmeadow is a literal translation of the Algonquin word “Masacksic,” and the region is named as such in a variety of early English records — including the original 1636 deed for Springfield.

The process through which the English obtained this Native land, called “the deed game” by Lisa Brooks, involved a variety of strategies which were designed to disempower Indigenous individuals and societies. Native people often interpreted treaties as joint land use agreements rather than permanent sales — the original deed for Springfield guaranteed Indian rights to maintain their current agricultural land along with “liberty to take Fish and Deer, ground nuts, walnuts akornes… and also if any of oru cattle spoil their corne, to pay as it is worth.” This deed ceded part of “Masaksicke” to the English. The rest of Longmeadow — essentially everywhere else in the walking tour — was purchased in 1652 with a payment to an Agawam man named Coa. Another aspect of the deed game is the question of ownership — the English made deals with Indians who did not have the right to sell the land they sold. Whether or not Coa was actually qualified to sign Longmeadow away cannot be known, but we do know a few details of his life. Both he and his wife Niarum had financial dealings with the English, and Coa once took Springfield resident Francis Ball to court — and won damages — after Ball struck Niarum with a stick. In the 1652 deed which he signed with the English, the region was already being referred to as “long meddowe” instead of Masacksic.

Longmeadow’s history is now marked by a bevy of English names. The deed which Coa signed in 1652 was witnessed by Thomas Stebbins; the modern nature reserve is named for Fannie Stebbins (presumably a descendant). The low-lying region was the site of the original Longmeadow settlement until floods drove the colonists uphill — to the heart of the present town — in 1692. The roads that connect the two portions of town include Ely Road and Cooley Drive, named for two of the founding English families. At Longmeadow’s 1883 centennial celebration, Reverend John W. Harding explained that “these men … were all of good English stock, a remarkably homogeneous community… Coltons, Burts, Cooleys, Blisses, Elys, Keeps, Hales, Fields, Stebbinses, Wolworths, Whites, Steels, Booths, Chandlers, Coomeses, Wolcotts, Ashleys, McGregorys, Dwights, Peases, and other honorable names.”

The Centennial Celebration also reminds us that the profound renaming was that of the town itself. Although “Longmeadow” is a direct translation of an Algonquin word, speakers at the event were eager to explain that “LONGMEADOW is one of the few fortunate towns of our new and imitative country whose name is at once original, significant, and musical.” Professor R.S. Storrs, speaking from the perspective of the town itself, explains that “my Saxon children - latest and best beloved of all my offspring” replaced the “red man” who “made me no large return of filial service or love.” It was the “pale face” who “first syllabled my liquid name.” Anecdotally, residents of neighboring communities sometimes equate the name “Longmeadow” with the town’s disproportionate whiteness and wealth. The only surviving, popular use of the word “Masacksic” is as the title of the Longmeadow High School’s yearbook. For thousands of years prior, it had been uttered very differently.

Brooks, Lisa Tanya. Our Beloved Kin: a New History of King Philip's War. Yale University Press, 2018.

Bruchac, Margaret M. “Historical Erasure and Cultural Recovery: Indigenous People in the Connecticut River Valley.” University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2007.

Palpini, Kristin. “Agawam Keeps Native American Sports Mascot, Bucks National Trend.” The 

Hampden Daily Voice, September 9 2020. https://dailyvoice.com/massachusetts/hampden/news/agawam-keeps-native-american-sports-mascot-bucks-national-trend/793919/#:~:text=On%20Tuesday%2C%20Sept.,district's%20Native%20American%20caricature%20mascot.

Storrs, Richard Salter, J. W. Harding, and Jabez Colton. Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883. Longmeadow: Centennial Committee, 1884.

Wright, Harry Andrew. The Story of Western Massachusetts. Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1949.