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. Not long after the kidnapping, a devastating disease swept through the region. Tens of thousands of American Indians—indeed, the vast majority of the area’s native inhabitants—perished. Now, entire villages lay completely empty. One of them was a seaside community that had previously been home to the Patuxet. An eerie quiet fell upon the place. Six years passed. When the Mayflower landed at a location its passengers—the Pilgrims—called New Plymouth, the ship was actually landing at the now-empty site of the forsaken Patuxet village, completely reclaimed by nature since the time of the plague. Pilgrim leader William Bradford described the …