Waban

'''Waban''' ({{circa|1604}} – {{circa|1685}})<ref>Namesake information for steamer USS ''Waban'' in the ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'' at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w1/waban.htm dates Waban's death at late 1676 or early 1677</ref> was a Native American of the Nipmuc group<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040329013548/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w1/waban.htm U.S. Naval Historical Center, ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'': USS ''Waban''] ship namesake paragraph</ref> and was thought to be the first Native American convert to Christianity in Massachusetts.<ref>[http://www.wabanimprovement.org/waban%20early%20days/wabanwind.htm Waban, the Wind] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20040329013548/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w1/waban.htm ''Dictionary of Amwerican Naval Fighting Ships'': USS ''Waban'']</ref>

==Early life and first contact with the English== Little is known about Waban’s youth. By the 1640s he was recognized as the principal man of the Nonantum Native American tribe on the Charles River. On 28 October 1646 Eliot preached the first recorded Massachusett-language sermon in Waban’s wigwam.<ref name="EliotTracts">{{cite book |last=Eliot |first=John |title=The Day Breaking, If Not the Sun Rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New-England |url=https://archive.org/details/daybreakingingos00elio/page/n3 |year=1647 |publisher=London: Rich. Cotes |pages=1–8}}</ref> Invited to ask questions, Waban responded not with theology but with a request for written confirmation “of all the compasse of that hill, upon which the wigwams then stood,” aiming to secure land for his people.<ref name="Lopenzina">{{cite thesis |last=Lopenzina |first=Drew |title=Red Ink: Native Americans Picking up the Pen in the Colonial Period |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst |year=2006 |pages=146–148}}</ref> He also volunteered his eldest son to be educated in the nearby English town of Dedham—an early instance of calculated engagement with colonial power.<ref name="Clark">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Kieran |title=Education and Empire in Early New England |year=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=72–74}}</ref>

==Role in founding the praying towns== Puritan chroniclers credited Waban’s land petition with catalyzing Eliot’s plan for a settled Christian community. Around 1651 many Nonantum families relocated to Natick, the first officially recognized praying town.<ref name="Shepard">{{cite book |last=Shepard |first=Thomas |title=Clear Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking Forth upon the Indians in New England |year=1648 |publisher=London: Richard Cotes |pages=30–33}}</ref> While English leaders viewed the move as a tool of conversion and social control, Waban leveraged it to preserve Massachusett territory amid accelerating colonial encroachment.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fitzgerald |first=Michael P. |title=Praying Towns and Indigenous Land Strategies in 17th-Century Massachusetts |journal=New England Quarterly |volume=95 |issue=2 |year=2022 |pages=175–204}}</ref> In Natick he served as constable and counsellor, mediating disputes between Native and English jurisdictions.

==Christian profession and political stance== Although lionized by missionaries as a model Christian, Waban’s own 1652 confession remained ambivalent—he admitted he “did not truly pray to God in my heart,” a statement that satisfied Puritan authorities while preserving personal agency.<ref name="Lopenzina"/> Later fictional dialogues published in the so-called Eliot Tracts exaggerated his zeal, reflecting colonial expectations more than Native realities.

==King Philip’s War and later years== During King Philip's War (1675–1676) Waban, his family, and hundreds of other “praying Indians” were forcibly confined to Deer Island in Boston Harbor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schultz |first=Eric B. |author2=Michael J. Tougias |title=King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict |year=2000 |publisher=Countryman Press |pages=119–122}}</ref> Released in the spring of 1676, the aging leader—then ill with dysentery—recovered and spent roughly his final decade near Cambridge on land granted by colonist Thomas Oliver.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leach |first=Douglas Edward |title=Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip's War |year=1958 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=241–242}}</ref> He likely died about 1685/86.

==Family and successors== Waban’s son, commonly known as '''Thomas Waban''' (also ''Weegramomenit''), emerged as town clerk and leading figure in Natick from the 1690s into the 1720s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mandell |first=Daniel R. |title=Thomas Waban and the Politics of Natick, 1690–1728 |journal=Historical Journal of Massachusetts |volume=43 |issue=1 |year=2015 |pages=4–28}}</ref> A younger namesake continued to hold local office into the 18th century, illustrating the family’s sustained influence.

==Legacy== * The village of '''Waban, Massachusetts''', a neighborhood of Newton, is named in his honor. * Waban’s interactions with Eliot remain central to scholarship on Indigenous literacy and cultural negotiation in colonial New England.<ref name="Lopenzina"/>

==Namesakes== One of the villages of the city of Newton, Massachusetts, is named Waban, while Nonantum is another village in the city.

A lake in Wellesley, Massachusetts, partially on the grounds of Wellesley College, is named Lake Waban.

Waban Hill is a geologic feature in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, in the eastern part of Newton, Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html |title=Praying Indians |access-date=2007-07-30 |archive-date=2006-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060613231358/http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

One U.S. Navy ship, USS ''Waban'', a steamer in commission from 1898 to 1919, has been named for Waban, and kept the name (as ''SS Waban'') while in post-Navy mercantile service from 1919 to 1924.

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== *Jennings, Francis. ''The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest.'' New York: W.W. Norton, 1975. *Tinker, George (Tink). ''Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide.'' Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040329013548/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w1/waban.htm U.S. Naval Historical Center, ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'': USS ''Waban''] (ship namesake information)

==External links== *[http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html ''Praying Indians''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060613231358/http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html |date=2006-06-13 }} *[https://www.wabanimprovement.org/oldsite/waban%20early%20days/wabanwind.html ''Waban, the Wind'', by Arthur M. Southwick]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waban}} Category:Converts to Protestantism from paganism Category:17th-century Native American leaders Category:Newton, Massachusetts Category:People from colonial Massachusetts Category:1600s births Category:1680s deaths Category:People from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Category:Massachusett people Category:Native American history of Massachusetts Category:Native American people from Massachusetts