Dear 100 Hour Board, Why do we have a statue of Massasoit on campus?
Dear Confused Coed, Oh yeah. The Naked Indian. He was one cool guy. And a lot of BYU students are actually related to him. Cool eh? One girl that was featured in the 2 December 2002 Daily Universe named Maria Sederberg said her mom’s family, having been in America since the early 1600s, had a male ancestor marry a granddaughter of the Indian. So now we like him. Massasoit was born in the village of Pokanoket near present-day Bristol, Rhode Island, around 1590. Also known as Ousamequin, or “yellow feather” he was a chief of the Wampanoag tribe. Massasoit signed a peace treaty with the Pilgrims on March 22,1621. It was an agreement that was never broken, and the two groups enjoyed a peaceful coexistence. His friendship with the settlers helped keep the Wampanoags neutral in the Pequot War of 1636. Massasoit remained an ally of the Pilgrims until his death in 1661. The statute, which is technically a copy made from the plaster mold Dalin used to cast the original Massasoit, has been a cam
