As early as 1623, the Plymouth colonists described giving chickens to the Pokanoket Sachem Massasoit when he was sick and expected to die. Edward Winslow arrived at the Sachem's house and saw the condition he was in. He then sent a messenger back to Plymouth to get a bottle of drink and "also for some chickens to make him broth." But when the messenger returned with the chickens? "The (Massasoit) would not have the chickens killed, but kept them for breed." (Winslow 1623: 34).

Chickens and roosters became part of what the Natives eventually called Netasuaog, or the ones that are house fed (Trumbull 1908:84). Roger Williams stated in 1643 that "This name the Indians give to tame beasts, yea, and birds also which they keep tame about their houses." (Williams 1971: 173).

It would appear that by 1643 at the latest, European domestic animals were fairly common around Native home sites. Chickens and roosters were variously referred to as either Chicks or Monish, which means the spotted or dark colored ones (Williams 1971: 127; Trumbull 1908: 64). The Native name of the Pleides constellation is Chippapuock, meaning the brood hen or literally the one that separates herself, which may refer to European nesting hens and any nesting bird.

The ideal rooster was described as being "..large and well sised bodie, long from the head to the rumpe, and thicke in the garth. Feathers would be very long, bright, and shining, covering from head to shoulders, his legs strait, and of strong beame, with large longe spurres, sharpe and a little bending.. and for the generall colour of the dung hill cocke, it would be red, for that is medicinall, and oft used in Cullisses and restoratives." (Markham 1614:110-111).

Because chickens are relatively easy to keep and are prodigious breeders, they made the ideal first domestic animal to be brought to New England by the Plymouth colonists. These factors also made them ideal domestic animals to be introduced and given to the Natives; they were plentiful, cheap, easy to keep and versatile. Added to this value was the color of the birds from the Native perspective. If the poultry that was kept by the Plymouth colonists were in fact red dung hill fowl, as it appears that they were, then their red color coupled with the fact that they originated from the English would have made them doubly attractive to them.

The color red, as well as white, black or dark blue, and yellow, was one of the colors that held ceremonial and religious import in Native life. Redness in an object is reflective of the light of a fire and by association with life itself. Red also has the association with the qualities of blood, ochre, copper, certain fruits and berries and red cedars. Redness connotes the animate and emotive aspect of Life and is combined and associated with white and black in a cognitive system of the colors of life (Hamell 1983:7).

Objects from the Europeans that were of these colors, such as copper kettles, white and dark blue or black beads and colored cloth were believed to carry the spiritual power of the Europeans as well as power associated with these colors in Native society. When the Sachem Massasoit was cured by Edward Winslow in 1623, he decided to keep the chickens brought to him so that he could raise them. He may have felt at this time when he had just been saved from death by the English, that by keeping these birds, which he knew were often made into a curative soup by the English in times of illness, then perhaps he too could control the power to cure some of the illnesses that were affecting his people following the first contact with Europeans and the pandemic of 1616-1619 that followed. The use of these birds during curing ceremonies and their color corresponded with his belief system quite well.

Based on the context within which the remains were recovered, the chicken remains appear to have been purposefully buried in this separate pit feature. The bird may have been killed and eaten as part of a curing ceremony similar to that described by the Jesuits among the Iroquois called a tabagie. At these tabagie, or solemn feasts, the sick person could request things that he or she felt would make them better and often times dogs were desired, killed and eaten at the feast (Butler and Hadlock 1994:17). This chicken may have been eaten separate from other foods and the bones ceremonially placed in this separate distinct feature.

Alternately, the chicken may have been acquired from the English or from other Natives who had gotten them from the English and then the owner killed the bird and skinned it to make a bag. If this was the case, it may explain the missing wing and cranial bones. As had been found out by personal experience, when making a bag of bird skin, the outer bones of the wings, the carpometacarpus and phalanges are left to dry with the skin and the head can be removed, cleaned and replaced in the head skin to fill it out.

Feathers hold special significance to Native People across America. They were used in seventeenth century New England as hair knot ornaments and marks of status, they were woven into mantles and capes by the older men of the communities and used as the fletchings on arrows. But their use transcended a utilitarian value, they, like shells, bones, teeth, claws, quills, beaks and horns represent gifts from the animal world to the human. These items are believed to hold within themselves a form of power that lies dormant with the killing of an animal and is subsequently reawakened when a human uses the items in their lives (Whitehead 1991 in Weinstein 1994:182).

"Feathers are powerful objects. When a bird dies it looses its power until the feathers or skins, or both are reused in some way. Once reused, the formerly inanimate or dormant materials become animate with power again." (Weinstein 1994:183). The use of the rooster skin or at least the feathers would not have been a foreign concept for the Natives living in Kingston in the early seventeenth century.

It is known that the New England and the North Carolina Natives would dry whole birds out and important people such as Sachems and medicine people would wear them. William Wood, in 1643, described a well-dressed Sachem as having eagle feathers in his hair and a hummingbird dangling from his ear (Wood 1977:85). George Weymouth reported in 1623 that the more common Native people that he saw wore white feathered skins of an unidentified fowl about their heads and that the feathers from the tassel gent were saved for "persons of estimation among the Indians to wear in the front of his locak, with traine upright, the body dried and stretched out (Winship 1905: 94).

The red skin of an animal that both the English and the Natives may have considered a medicinal bird, made into a personal bag or just worn on the person, can be concluded to have been a very handsome, respectable and powerful item for a Native person. At the same time, the use of the feathers of any bird would incorporate the abilities and power of that bird to the person wearing it. Another example would be the use of turkey feathers as hair ornaments or woven into mantles. Using the turkey feathers would have allowed people to incorporate the turkey's abilities and mantles may have served as protective items from malevolent spirits the way that clothing, body adornment or tattooing does for the Micmac (Whitehead 1988:13).,

The rooster remains recovered from the Tura site probably represents something more than just the remains of someone's chicken dinner. The context within which the bones were found, a separate discrete deposit of only the rooster bones and a few possibly accidental artifacts deposited from the backfilling of the pit, not a shell midden or refuse pit containing a mixture of discarded artifacts and food remains, leads one to speculate that this feature had a special meaning to its creator. Distinct deposits of articulated or semi-articulated animal remains are known from various archaeological sites and usually take the form of dog burials.

While it can not be stated unequivocally that the rooster remains recovered are not just some sort of Native pet burial, by looking at the position that feathers, colors, and birds have in eastern Massachusetts Native culture, it can be stated with confidence that this animal held a position of high power in the culture. The rooster's power was a result of its red color, its position as a bird, and its association with the English. By either killing and eating this bird or just using the feathers, the Native people that had this bird probably felt that they were able to assume some of the bird's power and by association some of the power of the English settlers. They may have felt that the power they attained would help to protect them against the English and their diseases, guns, and the changes they were creating in the Natives' traditional way of life.