Virtual Tour Detail

Massachusetts existed long before English settlers arrived on its coast. According to one translation, the word "Massachusetts" is a native place name meaning "at the Range of Hills," a reference to the present Blue Hills in Milton and Canton. It was the seat of the Massachusetts nation. For thousands of years, Native people have inhabited this region, lving in family groups, forming trade networks, and developing political confederacies.

Native people moved with the seasons. Networks of waterways–canoe routes or adjacent footpaths–wove individual communities into nations, including the Wampanoag, Massachusett, and Nipmuc. All shared a common heritage as part of the Algonquian family.