The bogs and red maple swamps dotting the landscape of Southeastern Massachusetts provide ideal cranberry habitat and produced a bountiful natural harvest for Native Americans for centuries before the Pilgrims landed in New England.  Cranberries were an important staple for the Native Americans, who gathered the wild berries for food, medicine, and ceremonial purposes.  The Narragansetts and Wampanoags called the cranberry "sasemin" [plural: "saseminneash"] ( Burrows 1976).
        Shortly after the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, the Native Americans introduced them to the valuable native berry.  Within a couple of decades, the cranberry became ensconced in the colonists' diet and culture.  The Pilgrim's Cook Book of 1663 described cranberry sauce;  the "Compleat Cook's Guide" of 1683 mentioned cranberry juice; and cranberries were served at the Commencement Dinner at Harvard University in 1703 (Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association).  [Photo: Mario's Bog, Brewster, MA.  © M. Salett 1997]

 

How Native Americans used Cranberries

How Colonists used Cranberries

 
    Although wild cranberries were plentiful, Native Americans and colonists recognized the risks of overharvesting the popular fruit.  As early as 1670, the Pilgrims set aside the Province Lands at the tip of Cape Cod for conservation, and enacted strict laws regarding the rights of individuals to pick cranberries on these public lands (Gemming 1983).   By 1773, towns in Plymouth county and on Cape Cod passed laws forbidding townspeople to pick unripe berries -- punishable by fines.  As demand for cranberries rose in the early 1800's, several towns passed local ordinances restricting cranberry harvesting on town-owned lands to local residents or tribes only.