Last Updated on October 18, 2013 by Dennis
Aberginian Indians. A collective term used by the early settlers on Massachusetts bay for the tribes to the northward. Johnson, in 1654, says they consisted of the “Massachuset,” “Wippinap,” and “Tarratines.” The name may be a corruption of Abnaki, or a mispelling for “aborigines.” The Wippanap are evidently the Abnaki, while the Tarratines are the same Indians, or a part of them.
Alternative Spellings
- Abarginny – Johnson (1628) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d s., II, 66, 1814.
- Abergeny – Williams (1643) ibid., 1st s., III, 204, 1794.
- Aberginians – Wood (1634) quoted by Schoolcraft, Personal Memoirs, 644, 1851.
- Aberieney – Levett (1628) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d s., VIII, 174, 1843.
- Aborginny – Humphrey’s Acc’t, 281, 1730 (incorrectly quoting Johnson, 1628).