Peat Moss Diapers

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Cape Cod Indians were as ingenious as the Cape Codders who followed them to settle on the narrow land. And even peat moss, or bog moss, as it is often called, had its purpose. This tight springy and wool-like stuff, which the Indians called Sphagnum, was used as tinder, when it was bone dry, for fires, as insulation for winterized tepees, and even, in cooked form, as a sort of staple mush or stew.

But the most amusing and ingenious use for the moss was for the Indian papooses. It served as their diapers! A bit scratchy perhaps, but absorbent and disposable.

Just as in Plymouth Colony, the early Cape Codders learned much from their Indian friends about how best to survive. The Cape Cod settlers welcomed what seemed at first strange and unorthodox advice from the Native Americans.

It is historically known that the Monomoyicks of Chatham supplied Governor Bradford with eight hogshead of corn and beans in 1623, thereby pulling the Colony through one of its worst famines. By this, and similar actions, historians prove that the Cape Cod Indians, for a reason no one seems to know, showed amazing friendliness to the “invading” white man.

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