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Cataumet was originally inhabited and named by the Succonessitts Indians, a tribe belonging to the greater Cape Wampanoags. They were known to be independent and peaceloving, and showed particular friendliness to the early white explorers and settlers. The Succonessitts while sharing many of the American Indian traditions, did make their pipes from wood and lobster claws instead of stone, and had their own house like variation of the TP. Settlement was primarily on the coast, and shell deposits later discovered indicated where they lived. Eventually, the greater area was settled by colonists in 1640. While Jonathan Bourne, a whale-oil capitalist and the person Bourne county was named after, showed interest in improving the condition of the local Indians, he also sought to replace their sacred deity Kiehtan with Christianity. Eventually, the culture of the Indians dissolved, but their naming of Cataumet remains today.