Squanto

Squanto, also known as Tisquantum (c. 1580–1622), was a Patuxet man from what is now Massachusetts. He was captured by an English explorer in 1614 and sold into slavery in Spain, where he learned English. After several years in Europe, he returned to North America with an English trading expedition and reached his homeland around 1619, only to find that his village Patuxet had been decimated by disease.

Squanto is best known for his assistance to the Plymouth Colony. In 1621, he acted as interpreter, guide, and intermediary between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag, including their leader Massasoit. He taught the settlers agricultural techniques for crops such as maize and how to use fish as fertilizer, and helped them establish a treaty with the Wampanoag that aided the colony's survival during its early years.

Squanto died in 1622 at Plymouth after contracting an illness that swept the settlement. His life is often cited as an example of early intercultural contact in New England; historians emphasize the broader and more complex context of Indigenous–European relations in the period, rather than a single, simplistic narrative.