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[2ptTakrill]

The idea was based upon what is in the book, a work of fiction. I'm not making an argument, just offering a suggestion based upon what someone else printed as part of the setting.
The honest truth is you can't use real tribes (or other historical groups) accurately without offending someone. No one alive today can accurately say what did or didn't happen as all records are recorded with a biased view point. This is doubly true in an admitted work of fiction.
If I was writing this book the first thing I would do is make up groups and advise that they have no real world counterparts....

[2ptTakrill]

No one said the natives were cannibals. The Boston Unveiled book tells of how native mages used cannibal spirits to attack the settlers, spirits not the natives. Then it tells of how the original Ebon Knot Cabal used a dread ritual to summon the Prince of 10,000 Leaves to rewrite history so that the natives never released those spirits against them.
It was the last surviving member of that Cabal that started the Red Word, as the meal in a cannibal ritual.
The native shamans were just using a violent spirit as a weapon. That is what Spirit mages do.

[2ptTakrill]

Given that it is a 5 dot Hallow that no one else had claimed it should be somewhat hidden. This leaves the question of how your characters found it, did they inherit it?

For a less difficult background that is still interesting how about tying it to Prohibition?
Place the Hallow in a hidden cellar down in the basement where the remains of a Prohibition still, possibly even a small speak easy, lie forgotten. Any drink produced with the still, even if the alcohol content is weak, absorbs the Mana producing liquid Tass.

For a small but potentially interesting mystery...

[2ptTakrill]

Roxbury has a strong history of crime and violence and as written in Boston Unveiled even today it resists attempts at gentrification. It is also home to Mama Desta, a Tremere Lich.
It would fit that the duplex once served as a crack house and a house of prostitution, mixing the business of both.
If it is a 5 dot Hallow then it will have a long history with the Awakened, or if a new Hallow something extreme must have happened here to form it.
Going the former I would give it a mixed resonance of lost innocence and cannibalism.
The lost innocence would be an echo of whatever...

[2ptTakrill]

Tricks and deceptions played by other people would be very appropriate, just has rage Spirits feed from people on the highway.
The real question is should there be additional qualifiers, such as malicious intent or actual harm being done.

[2ptTakrill]

How about Ghosts re-enacting events that never happened? Sort of "What-Ifs".

[2ptTakrill]

One kind of Essence should be obvious, whiskey. Perhaps it feeds by being around someone who has consumed enough whiskey to suffer the Drugged Tilt, and being a trickster Spirit in order to consume that Essence it then has to play a trick on said individual. Little things like making a drunk forget where he parked his car or return to the wrong home.
For Bans how about his Influence and Numina don't work on Tea Tootlers? For Banes cold water, strong coffee and an AA sticker wrapped around a baseball bat.
For Numina how about Dement, Hallucination and Implant Mission (people get the...

[2ptTakrill]

A small Mystery idea:
The Cabal stumbles upon an automobile accident that resulted in multiple fatalities, perhaps by seeing a picture of the scene or being present and having their Peripheral Mage Sight ping. Further investigation discovers three things:
1- The exact same accident has occurred at that spot several times over the years, possibly even giving birth to an urban legend.
2- At the site in Twilight the ghosts of those who died there re-enact the accident with the participants frequently changing to reflect the different, identical events.
3- As they study the...

[2ptTakrill]

The original poster isn't the only one who might gain from this, especially when some people came to the table later.

[2ptTakrill]

It would also be appropriate if high Gnosis Mages don't always die but just drop out. After all, when you are playing with the very fabric of reality do you really care who is Heirarch?
Arch-Masters do this as a matter of course and even Lex Magica, so why would multi tier Masters be any more inclined to stay involved. Especially since that usually involves lesser Mages trying to tell them what they can and can't do.

[2ptTakrill]

From most of the examples in the books it seems that newbies usually do join existing Packs (Coteries, Cabals etc..) with the PCs being an aberration based on the fact that it is boring to play the Pack gopher.
Also in the case of Werewolf I would argue that the Pack is a closed structure, sticking to the Wolves you know and trust with everyone outside being a possible challenger or threat.

[2ptTakrill]

The biggest limitation to Scrutiny, as I see it, is that you can't scrutinize a Mystery until you get your proverbial mitts on it.
The reason no one knows what's in the Secret Concord is because the only non signatory to ever see it supposedly died immediately afterwards.
No one has Scrutinized the Celestial Flange because no one can even verify that it exists.
Even in cases where you can Scrutinize something that doesn't guarantee that you will get all of the answers you need. Its like a cop who tries to follow the money only to have the trail disappear in the Caimans. Sometimes...