<Tr> <Td> Assonet </Td> <Td> Freetown </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> and approximately 50 more groups </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> Traditionally Wampanoag people have been semi-sedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites in present - day southern New England . The men often traveled far north and south along the Eastern seaboard for seasonal fishing expeditions, and sometimes stayed in those distant locations for weeks and months at a time . The women cultivated varieties of the "three sisters" (the intercropping of maize, climbing beans, and squash) as the staples of their diet, supplemented by fish and game caught by the men . Each community had authority over a well - defined territory from which the people derived their livelihood through a seasonal round of fishing, planting, harvesting, and hunting . Because southern New England was thickly populated by indigenous peoples, hunting grounds had strictly defined boundaries . </P> <P> The Wampanoag, like many indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, have a matrilineal system, in which women controlled property (in this case, the home and its belongings, as well as some rights to plots within communal land), and hereditary status was passed through the maternal line . They were also matrifocal: when a young couple married, they lived with the woman's family . Women elders could approve selection of chiefs or sachems . Men acted in most of the political roles for relations with other bands and tribes, as well as warfare . Women with claims to specific plots of land used for farming or hunting passed those claims to their female descendants, regardless of their marital status . </P>

Corn beans and squash the three most important crops of the wampanoag were also known as