The World Travels of Tisquantum, Aka Squanto

How a lost people’s lone (and lonely) survivor saved the Pilgrims

Illustration depicting Native American Squanto (aka Tisquantum, died 1622), of the Patuxet tribe, serving as guide and interpreter for the pilgrim colonists at the Plymouth Colony and Massasoit, circa 1621. He died after contracting smallpox while guiding William Bradford's expedition around Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images

In 1614, a Patuxet lad named Tisquantum was kidnapped by English explorer Thomas Hunt. The Patuxet lived in what would later be called coastal Massachusetts, one of many bands spread out over scores of villages and towns collectively organized as the Wampanoag Confederacy.

Tisquantum was never seen by his people again.