Alexander Quapish
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1741 Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Great Britain |
| Died | 23 March 1776(1776-03-23) (aged 34–35) Needham, Massachusetts, Great Britain |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United Colonies |
| Years of service | 1775 |
| Battles/wars | |
| Children | 1 daughter |
Alexander Quapish (1741 - March 23, 1776), also known as Alexander Quabish,[a] was a Wampanoag veteran of the American Revolution.
Quapish was born in 1741 in Wampanoag territory in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.[2][3][1][4] He moved to Dedham, Massachusetts and married Sarah David, a Christian indigenous woman from that community in 1767, having filed his intention to do so on October 27.[2][5][6][7][b] He may have moved to Dedham because both Yarmouth and Dedham were associated with groups of Christian Indians.[1] Both Sarah[8] and Quapish[1] were known as the "last Indian" in Dedham.
Quapish and Sarah had at least one child, a daughter named Alice.[3] No living descendants were known to exist as of 2020, however.[1]
Quapish enlisted in Dedham as a private in the 13th Massachusetts Regiment on May 8, 1775, shortly after both Sarah's death and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[2][5][3][1][4] His company was commanded by Captain Daniel Whiting and Colonel Jonathan Brewer.[2][5][4]
In June, he fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.[2][3] On July 3, 1775, he was selected to serve on the main guard under Lt. Col. Loammi Baldwin.[5] His name appears on both the August and October rolls of the company, and an order for a bounty coat was dated Prospect Hill on 22 December 1775.[5]
In November 1775, Quabish became ill.[2] He was taken to the Needham Leg home of 14-year-old Michael Bacon, with whom he camped in Cambridge during the Battle of Bunker Hill.[2][3][4] He was cared for by the Bacons beginning on November 15, 1775, and died there on March 23, 1776, of unknown causes.[2][5][3][4] At the time, Needham Leg, known today as South Natick was predominantly a Native American enclave.[2][3][4]
Bacon's father, Michael Bacon, Sr., then petitioned the Great and General Court for compensation for caring for Quapish and then burying him.[2] The elder Bacon's petition was endorsed by three Needham selectmen, and accompanied by a bill of £6, 8s. of which eight shillings were for a coffin, and three shillings for "Diging his Grave."[5][3]
Where Quapish was buried is not entirely clear.[6][7] It is likely he was buried in the Pond Street Burial Ground in Natick, Massachusetts.[2][3][6][c] He may also have been buried in Dedham or Needham.[7]
In 1856, Quapish was disintered from Dedham by Henry Jacob Bigelow of the Warren Anatomical Museum at the Harvard School of Medicine.[2][3][1][7] The records are not clear how his remains ended up in Dedham, or when.[3] The only records in the museum describe him as "Qualish, the last of the Indian tribe at Dedham, Mass.; was buried in 1774; aet. 68."[1]
In 1990, the Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and Quapish's remains were turned over to the federal government.[2][3] Of more than 1,000 sets of remains, Quapish's were the only to which NAGPRA researchers, the Warren Museum, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology were able to attach a name.[2][6] In accordance with the law, representatives of three Wampanoag-affiliated tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, and the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, were contacted about taking possession of the remains.[3][6]
In 2010, the National Park Service shared a YouTube video, narrated by students from the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School, telling Quapish's story.[4][9] The film was funded in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation.[9] Several years after that, the Needham Cares sculpture outside of Needham High School references Quapish's stay at the Bacon's home and the care he received there in his final days.[4]
In Dedham, Quabish Road is near the site where Sarah was buried.
After Quapish was identified, the tribes then determined where his final resting pace would be.[6] In December 2020, members of the Mashpee Wampanoag and Nipmuc Nations led a ceremony in which Quapish's remains were reburied in the Pond Street Burial Ground.[2] The ceremony was officiated by Chief Caring Hands of the Natick Praying Indians.[6][10]
The Natick Selectmen voted just before Thanksgiving 2020 to allow the burial in what is now known as the Natick Praying Indian Burial Ground on Pond Street, which is Town-owned.[7][10]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: https://www.nps.gov/people/alexander-quapish.htm
