Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program
History Of Connecticut's Water Trails
Native Americans
The Pequot
An Algonquian
tribe of Connecticut. Before their conquest by the English in 1637 they
were the most dreaded of the southern New England tribes.
Location
At the time of their first contact with Europeans, southeastern Connecticut from the Nehantic River (Niantic River) eastward to the border of Rhode Island. Both the Pequot and the Mohegan were originally a single tribe which migrated to eastern Connecticut from the upper Hudson River Valley in New York, probably the vicinity of Lake Champlain, sometime around 1500.
The real territory of the Pequot was a narrow
strip of coast in New London County,
extending from
Niantic River to
the Rhode Island boundary, comprising the present towns of
New London, Groton,
and Stonington. They also extended a few
miles into Rhode Island to Wecapaug River until driven out by the
Narraganset about 1635. This country had been previously in possession of
the Niantic, whom the Pequot invaded from the north and forced from their
central position, splitting them into two bodies, thenceforth known as
Eastern and Western Niantic. The Eastern Niantic put themselves under the
protection of the Narraganset, while the western branch became subject to
the Pequot and were settled on their west border. The conquerors rapidly
extended their dominion over the neighboring tribes, so that just previous
to the Pequot war Sassacus was the head over 26 subordinate chiefs and
claimed control over all Connecticut east of Connecticut river and the
coast westward to the vicinity of Guilford
or New Haven,
while all of Long Island except the extreme west part was also under his
dominion. Nearly all of this territory, excepting Long Island, was claimed
by Uncas, the Mohegan chief, after the conquest of the Pequot.
Name
From the Algonquin word "pekawatawog or pequttoog"
meaning "destroyers" ," or "the men of the swamp,"Also called: Pekoath,
Pequant, Pequatoo (Dutch), Pequod, Pequin (Sequin), Pyquan, Sagimo, and
Sickenames (Dutch).
Algonquin. Y-dialect, also spoken by the Mohegan,
Narragansett, Niantic, and the Montauk and Shinnecock from the Metoac on
the eastern end of Long Island. Historically, the Pequot spoke a dialect
of Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language, an Eastern Algonquian
language. After the Treaty of Hartford concluded the Pequot War,
speaking the language became a capital offense, and it became largely
extinct.
Connecticut Village Locations
Asupsuck - in the interior of the town of Stonington. Aukumbumsk (Awcumbuck) - in the center of the Pequot country near Gales Ferry. Aushpook - Stonington
Cosattuck - Cuppunauginnit (Cuppunaugunnit)
-
Stonington Mangunckakuck - Mashantucket (Maushantuxet) - at Ledyard. Monhunganuck - near
Beach Pond in the town
of Voluntown. Mystic - near West Mystic on the west side of Mystic River Nameaug - near New London. Natchaug -
Noank Noank - at the present place of that name - Noank. Oneco - at the place of that name in the town of Sterling.
Paupattokshick - Pawcatuck (Paucatook,
Paweatuck) -
probably on the river of the same name (Pawcatuck River),
Washington County, R. I. Pequotauk, near
New London and
North Stonington Pequot (Pequotauk) - Southeastern Connecticut
Poquonock - inland from Poquonock Bridge -
North
and Central Connecticut and Windsor Sauquonckackock – on the west side of Thames River below Mohegan. Shenecosset - near Midway in the town of Groton. Tatuppequauog - on the Thames River below Mohegan. Weinshauks – near Groton.
Wequetequock - Wunnashowatookoog – Quinebaug River
Allied or Subject
Tribes
Eastern and Central Metoac Manchaug, Massomuck,
Monashackotoog (Nipmuc) -
Upper Thames River Valley. Tolland and Windham Counties Menunkatuc (Mattabesic) -
West
Central Connecticut, Middletown, and Haddam Pequannock (Mattabesic) –
Trumbull and Colchester
Quinebaug (Nipmuc) -
Upper Thames River Valley and Tolland and Windham Counties Quinnipiac (Mattabesic) -
Central Coastal Connecticut, and New Haven Siwanoy (Wappinger) -
Greenwich Western Niantic - Coastal Connecticut, and Niantic River to Connecticut River
If the Mohegan are included, the Pequot probably
numbered around 6,000 in 1620. After a major smallpox epidemic during
the winter of 1633-34 and the separation of the Mohegan, there were
still about 3,000 Pequot in 1637. Less than half are believed to have
survived the Pequot War of that year. At
present, the State of Connecticut recognizes two Pequot tribes:
Mashantucket and Paucatuck. The 600 Paucatuck (Eastern Pequot) have
retained the Lantern Hill Reservation (226 acres) at
North Stonington
but are not
federally recognized. The Mashantucket (Western Pequot) received federal
recognition in 1983. Created from lands purchased from the profits of a
bingo operation and successful land claim settlement, their Ledyard
reservation has expanded to 1,800 acres. Dramatic changes occurred after
a gambling casino began to generate enormous profits in 1992, and with
320 members, the Mashantucket have suddenly discovered that they have
many "long-lost relatives."
At the period of
their greatest strength the Pequot probably numbered at least 3,000
souls, but have been estimated much higher.
The Pequot's lived in wigwams in some 20 villages
along the New England coast. Highly-organized, aggressive and warlike,
the Pequot dominated Connecticut before 1637, a pattern continued later
by the closely related Mohegan. As were their neighbors, the Pequot were
an agricultural people who raised corn, beans, squash, and tobacco.
Hunting, with a focus on fish and seafood because of their coastal
location, provided the remainder of their diet. The women gathered most
of the food, clothing and housing were also similar - buckskin and
semi-permanent villages of medium-sized longhouses and wigwams.
Armed with ball-clubs, bows with brass-tipped arrows
and a few guns acquired from trading with English and Dutch settlers,
the Pequot's were strong militarily. Pequot villages were almost always
heavily fortified. The Pequot were not that much larger than the tribes
surrounding them, but they differed from other Algonquin in their
political structure. Highly organized, the strong central authority
exercised by their tribal council and grand sachem gave the Pequot a
considerable military advantage over their neighbors. In this way, the
Pequot were more like the
Narragansett of Rhode Island and the
Mahican
of New York's Hudson Valley (with whom they are frequently confused).
Obviously a result of constant intertribal warfare
over an extended period, the central political power of the Pequot was
an exception among the eastern Algonquin tribes who usually lived in
peace with each other and therefore had little need of a tribal
organization beyond a few villages under a common sachem.
Native American migration was not that common until
European settlement started displacing the eastern tribes and began a
chain reaction of movement to the west. It appears that most of the New
England Algonquin occupied their homelands for hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of years before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
However, the Pequot-Mohegan and the related tribes
appear to have been an exception to this general rule. By their own
traditions, the Pequot originally came from the upper Hudson Valley
where they may well have been a part of the mysterious Adirondack who
dominated the individual tribes of the Iroquois before the formation of
the Iroquois League. Once they had joined together, the Iroquois were
able to defeat the Adirondack whose departure from the New York
mountains which bear their name left a large area near Lake Champlain
relatively unoccupied. Even though they were physically separated during
the historic period, the persistent, mutual animosity which existed
between the Pequot and Mohawk after contact seems to confirm this
possibility.
In the 17th century the Pequot tribe, rival of the Narragansett, were centered along the Thames River in present-day southeast Connecticut. As the colonists expanded westward, friction began to develop. Points of tension included unfair trading, the sale of alcohol, destruction of Pequot crops by colonial cattle and competition over hunting grounds. Further poisoning the relationship was the disdain in which the Native Americans were held by the colonists; many felt no qualms about dispossessing or killing those whom they regarded as ungodly savages. In the years to follow, hostilities between the settlers, Narragansett’s, Pequot’s and smaller tribes were quick to escalate into the first Indian War - the first war between natives and Europeans on the continent. Further provocations triggered more retaliation until the terrible climax in 1637 when nearly 300 Pequot men, women and children were burned out of their village, hunted down, and massacred.
Situated behind Long Island, the Pequot and their neighbors had little contact with Europeans before 1600. However, the effects from the European presence in North American reached them soon afterwards. Warfare precipitated by the start of the French fur trade in the Canadian Maritimes swept south at the same time that a sickness left among the Wampanoag and Massachuset by English sailors on a slave raid depopulated New England and spawned three separate epidemics between 1614 and 1617. The Pequot and Narragansett emerged from the chaos as rivals for the honor of the most powerful tribe in the area. The first meeting of the Pequot with Europeans occurred in 1614, when the Dutch traders from the Hudson River Valley began expanding east along the northern shore of Long Island Sound beyond the Connecticut River. Although the Dutch also visited the Narragansett villages in Rhode Island, the Pequot's location in eastern Connecticut gave them an advantage over their rivals. They were not only closer to New Netherlands (New York), but they controlled the lower Connecticut River, the traditional native trade route to the beaver areas of the interior.
By 1622 the fur trade on the
lower
Connecticut River
had grown enough that the Dutch established a permanent trading post
near Hartford. Their intention was to trade with all of the tribes in
the region, but, the Pequot had other ambitions and were determined to
dominate the Connecticut trade. The Pequots viewed the
Connecticut River
and adjacent lands as their dominions. The Western Niantic’s, who were
comprised of other tribes including the Menukatunk’s, were Pequot
tributaries.
Meanwhile, a people who the Pequot called the "Owanux"
(Englishmen) also made their first appearance. For the first years after
1620, it appeared the tiny English colony at Plymouth would fail. But
somehow, against all odds, it survived, and by 1627 the Dutch had become
concerned enough about the possibility of English competition in the fur
trade that they sent a representative to Plymouth to negotiate a trade
treaty. The resulting document guaranteed the Dutch a monopoly along the
entire southern coast of New England including the Connecticut Valley.
At most, the Dutch gained only a few years with this maneuver. After the
Puritans began arriving in Massachusetts after 1630, Plymouth's
agreement with the Dutch was generally ignored. By 1633 Boston traders
had reached the Connecticut River and built a trading post at
Windsor. A
violation of their 1627 agreement, the English post intercepted furs
from the interior before they could reach the Dutch downstream. The
Dutch responded by purchasing land from the Pequot (actually the Pequot
sold land belonging to the Mattabesic) and built a fortified trading
post (House of Good Hope).
The division had its roots in the personal rivalry
between Sassacus and his son-in-law Uncas. Both had been sub-sachems and
expected to succeed the grand sachem Wopigwooit when he died in 1631.
However, the Pequot council selected Sassacus, and Uncas never accepted
this. Their rivalry continued afterwards in bitter council debates over
the fur trade. With Sassacus favoring the Dutch, a pro-English faction
gathered around Uncas. The arguments grew increasingly heated which made
trade along the Connecticut River dangerous for both Dutch and English
with the different Pequot factions killing and robbing traders
unfortunate enough to cross paths with the wrong group of them. Uncas
was eventually forced to leave and form his own village. Other Pequot
and Mattabesic soon joined him, and taking their name of Uncas' wolf
clan, the Mohegan became a separate tribe hostile to the Pequot.
Despite their agreement with the Dutch which
included a promise not to interfere with trade on the river, in 1634 the
Pequot attacked the Narragansett, on their way to House of Hope. The
attack was not so much to seize a disputed hunting territory in
southwest Rhode Island, but to keep these powerful rivals away from the
new Dutch post. This event caused the Narragansett to prepare for war.
Before the war started, efforts to control fur trade
access resulted in a series of escalating incidents and attacks that
increased tensions on both sides. Political divisions between the Pequot
and Mohegan widened as they aligned with different trade sources the
Mohegan with the Puritan English, and the Pequot with the Dutch. The
next step was for the Pequot to use a combination of intimidation and
war to tighten their grip on the region's trade by subjugating the
neighboring Nipmuc and Mattabesic. However, some Mattabesic chose to
ignore them and tried to trade with the Dutch in Hartford forcing the
Pequot to attack several groups of Mattabesic who had gathered near the
Dutch trading post for trade.
The resident trader for the Dutch West India
Company, Jacob Elekens, had grown annoyed with the Pequot efforts to
monopolize the fur trade, and to retaliate, they cut off trade with the
Pequot’s and seized Tatobem, a Pequot sachem, and threatened to kill him
unless the Pequot ended their harassment and paid a ransom for his
release.
The Pequot brought 140 fathoms of wampum to the post
for Tatobem's release, which Elekens accepted, but having expected
beaver rather than these strange little shell beads, he killed Tatobem,
and all that the Pequot got in exchange for their wampum was his dead
body. Understandably outraged, the Pequot attacked and burned the
trading post, but fur trade was far too important for the Pequot and
Dutch to permit a dead sachem and charred trading post stand in the way
of mutual prosperity.
The Dutch replaced Elekens with Pieter Barentsen who
spoke Algonquin and was trusted by the Pequot, and after a suitable
round of apologies and gifts "to cover the dead," trade resumed. Two
important changes resulting from this brief confrontation which had
lasting impacts. The Dutch never again attempted to prevent the Pequot
from dominating the other tribes in area and in effect granted them a
monopoly in the Connecticut fur trade. Unchallenged, the Pequot
aggressively expanded their control over the Mattabesic tribes along the
Connecticut River, either by forcing them to sell their furs to Pequot
traders or exacting a heavy tribute for the privilege of trading
directly with the Dutch.
The incident had also made the Dutch aware of the value which the natives placed on wampum, and they were quick to realize its potential as a rudimentary currency in the fur trade. Living near the coast, the Pequot did not really have that many beaver in their own homeland, and there was only so much profit to be gained from their role as middlemen in the fur trade. They did, however, have a great deal of wampum, either of their own manufacture or from tribute received from subject tribes. So they were pleased when the Dutch began to accept wampum as payment for goods in lieu of fur. The problem was the Pequot did not have nearly enough wampum to pay for everything they wanted, especially firearms. They solved this by crossing Long Island Sound in their canoes and conquering the Metoac. Since the Metoac were the source of the best wampum in the Northeast, the tribute the Pequot received annually afterwards from the Long Island tribes made them rich and powerful.
Another incident resulting from the death of Tatobem was the murder of John Stone, a smuggler, privateer, and slaver, a Boston trader of questionable honesty and seven of his crewmen were killed by the Western Niantic, tributary clients of the Pequot, in retaliation for atrocities committed by the Dutch. In truth, neither "murdered," "Boston," or "trader" does true justice to the memory of this man. Stone was from the West Indies, an occasional trader but full-time pirate, and the Puritans had just banished him from Boston for lewd and immoral conduct. Setting sail from Boston, contemplating his mistreatment by the Puritans, Stone stopped at the mouth of the Connecticut River on the way to Virginia to compensate himself by capturing Western Niantic women and children to sell as slaves in Jamestown. Unfortunately, he got himself killed in the process.
Rather than concluding that perhaps Stone was a man
who had reaped as he had sown, Boston's Puritan clergy suddenly forgot
his many past transgressions and mounted their pulpits to condemn the
Pequot as "demons from hell." As tension mounted, Sassacus put aside his
personal distaste for the English and dutifully travelled to
Massachusetts to initiated peace negotiations with the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. He wanted the English to re-establish trade and arbitrate a
peace settlement with the Narragansett’s. The Bay Colony responded with
demands for exorbitant tribute (1000 fathoms of wampum) and the
surrender of Stone's Western Niantic killers for execution, which
Sassacus refused to do. The talks collapsed at this point, Sassacus went
home with both sides still angry, and the matter simmered for another
year.
In 1635 John Winthrop's Massachusetts Bay Company
built Fort Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Although
isolated in the midst of hostile Pequot and Western Niantic, it
effectively blocked Dutch access to the river and forced them to close
the House of Good Hope at Hartford. The separation of the Mohegan and
were hit hard by European diseases, for which they had no immunity
during the winter of 1633-34 had cost the Pequot almost half of their
people. Small pox, chicken pox, yellow fever and other epidemics reduced
the Pequot population had dwindled from about 13,000 to 4,000.
Afterwards they could no longer count on the support of the Dutch.
Taking advantage of their weakened condition, the
Narragansett struck and reclaimed the lands in southeast Rhode Island
they had surrendered in 1622. The following year Thomas Hooker and the
first English settlers arrived in Connecticut and settled at
Hartford.
The Pequot saw themselves being overrun, and while the Mohegan and Mattabesic were welcoming the newcomers, there were numerous
confrontations between the English and Pequot which stopped just short
of open warfare. For the Pequot, the land being taken was not nearly as
important as the loss of their control over subject tribes. After a
great deal of harassment, the English in Connecticut learned to hate the
Pequot.
Then on July 20, 1636, a respected trader named John
Oldham and friend of the Narragansett’s was attacked on a trading voyage
to Block Island. He and several of his crew were killed and his ship
looted by Narragansett-allied Native Americans who sought to discourage
English settlers from trading with their Pequot rivals. The murderers
were Block Islanders, a branch of the Narragansett’s, however, they
escaped capture and were given safe haven by the Pequot’s. In the weeks
that followed, colonial officials from Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island,
and Connecticut, assumed the Narragansett were the likely culprits.
Knowing that the Native Americans of Block Island were allies of the
Eastern Niantic, who in turn were allied with the Narragansett, Puritan
officials became equally suspicious of the Narragansett. Even so, the
colonial English response to Oldham's death, the last in a series of
escalating incidents, was the beginning of the Pequot War. The incident
led Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Endicott to call up the
militia. What followed was the first significant clash between English
colonists and Native Americans.
News of Oldham's death became the subject of sermons in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Richard Mather, in a sermon delivered in Boston, denounced the Pequot as the "accursed seeds of Canaan," in effect turning the confrontation in Connecticut into a "holy war" of the Puritans against the forces of darkness. With these fiery words urging them to action, in August, Governor Vane sent John Endecott, without bothering to consult the colonists in Connecticut, to exact revenge on the Indians of Block Island with orders to kill every man and take the women and children prisoners. Endecott's party of roughly 90 men sailed to Block Island and attacked a Niantic village there. Most of the Niantic escaped, but 14 were killed, while two of Endecott's men were injured. The Puritan militia burned their village to the ground. Whatever crops the Niantic had managed to store for the winter which the English could not carry away with them were burned as well. Endicott then loaded his men back into the boats and sailed over to Fort Saybrook to add some additional soldiers for the second part of his mission - a visit to the Pequot village at the mouth of the Thames river to demand 1,000 fathoms of wampum for the death of Oldham and several Pequot children as hostages.
Endicott’s arrival at Saybrook was the first indication the Connecticut colonists had of what had happened and since they would bear the brunt of the Pequot and Niantic retaliation. The Puritans at Saybrook were not happy about the raid, however, the situation was already beyond repair so they agreed that some of them would accompany Endecott as guides. Endecott sailed along the coast to a Pequot village, where he repeated the previous year's demand of payment for the death of Stone and more for Oldham.
The Pequot were just as stunned to learn what had happened as the English had been at Saybrook. After some discussion, Endecott concluded that the Pequot were stalling and attacked. The Pequot ruse had worked however, and the Pequot were able to escape into the woods. The former Puritan Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony once again had to content himself with burning a Native American village and crops before sailing home. Satisfied he had "chastised" enough heathen for one day, Endicott loaded his men into the boats and returned to Boston.
Pequot Raids
Despite this, the Pequot were still formidable and claimed the nominal allegiance of 26 subordinate sachems from other tribes. However, the loyalty of many of their allies was suspect, and when the war began, many of them remained neutral to see "which way the wind blew" before committing themselves. John Endecott's Massachusetts Bay Colony forces had gone home, but Connecticut Colony Puritans were left to deal with the anger of the Pequot.
Rather than feeling chastised, the Pequot were
furious. During the winter they plotted revenge The Pequot attempted to
enjoin their allies, some 36 tributary villages, to their cause but were
only partly effective. They sent war belts to the Narragansett and
Mohegan asking their help in a war against the English. The Western
Niantic joined them but the Eastern Niantic remained neutral. However,
because of their past actions, the Pequot had few friends, and the
English found it fairly easy to isolate them. The traditional enemies of
the Pequot, the Mohegan and the Narragansett, openly sided with the
Puritan English. The Narragansett had warred with and lost territory to
the Pequot in 1622. Roger
Williams used his influence with the Narragansett to convince them not
only to refuse the Pequot belt but to ally with the English.
Uncas and the Mohegan also declined and chose instead to fight
their former tribesmen. The English secured the assistance, or at least
the neutrality, of these neighboring tribes, and then marched against
the Pequot.
Through the fall and winter, Fort Saybrook was effectively besieged. Any who ventured outside were killed. As spring arrived in 1637, the Pequot stepped up their raids on Connecticut Colony towns. Early in 1637, Sassacus ordered a series of raids against the Connecticut settlements to retaliate for Endecott's raid of the previous summer. A punitive expedition, led by John Endicott, enraged the Pequots. On April 12, Wongunk chief Sequin and Two hundred warriors attacked Wethersfield with Pequot help, killing six men and three women, a number of cattle and horses, and taking captive two young girls (the daughters of Abraham Swain, later ransomed by Dutch traders).
The war party loaded their loot into canoes and went home via the Connecticut River. Passing the fort at Saybrook, they taunted the garrison by waving the bloody clothes of their victims.
In all, the towns lost about 30 settlers. They tortured many of their victims, as was the custom of some Eastern tribes, and reinforced their reputation for cruel savagery.
In May, leaders of Connecticut Colony's river towns
met in Hartford formally
declared war, raised a militia, and placed John Mason in command. Mason
set out on what seemed a suicide mission with 90 militia and 70 Mohegan
warriors (despite doubts about their loyalty) under Uncas to repay the
Pequot. Passing down the Connecticut River, they stopped at
Fort Saybrook, Mason was
joined by John Underhill and another 20 men. Underhill and Mason
proceeded up the coast to the principal Pequot village, near present-day
Groton, but the Pequot chose to defend their fortified village waiting
for them at Mystic. Ill-equipped to take it, Mason sailed east, and
stopped at the village of Misistuck (Mystic).
The Mystic Massacre
Seeing he was badly outnumbered, Mason prudently decided not to land and continued east to Rhode Island. The Pequot watched his departure and became convinced the English had abandoned the attack and were retreating to Boston.
This engraving shows a fortified Pequot village in Mystic, surrounded by English soldiers and their Native American allies. The ensuing massacre went down as one of the most significant events in American history.
Believing that the English had returned to Boston, Massachusetts, the Pequot sachem Sassacus took several hundred of his warriors to make another raid on Hartford. As it turned out, this was a terrible mistake. But John Mason had only gone to visit the Narragansett, who joined him with several hundred warriors.
When Mason reached the Narragansett villages, he was
able to ally himself with Mohegan, Narragansett, and Several allied
Niantic warriors, 200 warriors joined his ranks, and he received their
permission to travel overland through Narragansett territory for a
surprise attack on Mystic from the rear.
On May 26, 1637, the colonists with a force up to about 400 fighting men, attacked Misistuck by surprise.
They had not only arrived undiscovered, but the Pequot warriors who normally would have defended Mystic were absent. Lulled into a sense of false security by the sight of the English retreat to the east, the Pequot had formed a war party and gone to raid the settlements near Hartford.
He estimated that "six or seven Hundred" Pequot were there when his forces assaulted the palisade. Some 150 warriors had accompanied Sassacus, so that Mystic's inhabitants were largely comprised of Pequot women, children, and old people.
Surrounding the palisade and encircling their foes under the cover of night, Mason ordered that the enclosure be set on fire then shot the natives as they fled from their homes. Mason's order to his soldiers and Narragansett allies was "Let us burn them." Justifying his conduct later, Mason declared that the holocaust against the Pequot was also the act of a God who "laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to scorn making [the Pequot] as a fiery Oven . . . Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling [Mystic] with dead Bodies." Mason also insisted that should any Pequot attempt to escape the flames, that they too should be killed.
Following Mason's orders, the Narragansett and Mohegan finished any Pequot the English missed. Of the 600 to 700 Pequot at Mystic that day, only seven were taken prisoner while another seven made it into the woods to escape.
The Narragansett and Mohegan warriors who had fought alongside John Mason and John Underhill's colonial militia were horrified by the actions and "manner of the Englishmen's fight because it is too furious, and slays too many men." They were aghast when the English indiscriminately slaughtered Pequot women and children Repulsed by the "total war" tactics of the Puritan English, and the horrors that they had witnessed, the Narragansett returned home.
Believing the mission accomplished their grim work
completed, John Mason also set out for home and made a hasty retreat
(actually, a headlong rush) to his boats waiting at a rendezvous on the
Thames. The militia became temporarily lost, but in doing so Mason
narrowly missed the returning Sassacus and his Pequot Indians.
Sassacus' and his warriors seeing what had occurred, gave chase to the Puritan forces to little avail. During the race for the river, Mason also almost stumbled into a returning 300-man war party, but the Pequot were distracted by the smoke from their burning village. The English reached their boats after suffering only two killed and 20 wounded and promptly left. Their native allies were not so fortunate. Abandoned to find their own way home, half of them never made it.
Hartford declared June 15th as a day of prayer and thanksgiving for the "victory" at Mystic. The English, however, were not satisfied with merely winning the war and had decided to destroy the Pequot.
The colonists and their allies had also set an unfortunate precedent in the Pequot War by ignoring the conventions of European warfare to punitively devastate the homes and lives of men, women and children.
This terrible slaughter so crippled the Pequot that after a few desperate but unsuccessful efforts at resistance they determined to separate into small parties and abandon their country. Some went to Long Island, others fled to the interior of Connecticut.
Puritan Hunting Pequot
The slaughter at Mystic broke the Pequot, and deprived them of their allies. Forced to abandon their villages, the Pequot fled mostly in small bands-- to seek refuge with other southern Algonquian peoples.
Despite the obvious loss of life, the Pequot still
had most of their warriors, but the attack demonstrated their fortified
villages were vulnerable and deprived the Pequot of the support they
needed from their allies. Starving and unable to plant their crops, the
Pequot abandoned their villages, separated into small bands, and fled
for their lives. As small groups, they were easy prey, and few escaped.
Many were hunted down by the Mohegan and Narragansett warriors. The
largest group, led by Sassacus, was denied aid by the Metoac (Montauk,
or Montaukett) from present-day Long Island. Sassacus led roughly 400
warriors west along the coast coast and its seafood because they were
short of food. They were trying to make their way towards the Dutch at
New Amsterdam and their Native allies. Slowed by their women and
children, the Pequot crossed the
Connecticut River, the Pequot killed three men that they had
encountered near Fort Saybrook. This was unfortunate, because it told
the English exactly where they were. By 1630, under their chief,
Sassacus, they had pushed west to the
Connecticut River.
More than anything else, the English wanted Sassacus.
At the end of June, Thomas Staughton landed at Pequot Harbor with 120
men. Finding the Pequot forts abandoned, he started west in pursuit. He
was joined by Mason joined at Saybrook with 40 men plus Uncas and his
Mohegan scouts. With the Mohegan pointing the way, they followed the
slow-moving band of Sassacus west. Intent on capturing Sassacus, any
Pequot encountered enroute were automatically smashed if they offered
the slightest resistance or refused to cooperate - one Pequot sachem
near Guilford Harbor was beheaded and his head placed in a tree as a
warning (the location is still known as Sachem Head).
The English finally caught up with the refugees at Sasqua, a Pequannock (Mattabesic) village near present-day Fairfield, Connecticut.
The Pequot retreated to a hidden fort in a nearby a
swamp and were surrounded. After negotiations, 200 Pequannock (mostly
women and children) were allowed to leave with the Mattabesic. But the
Pequot were well-aware of the fate awaiting them and refused to
surrender In the ensuing battle, Sassacus was able to break free with
perhaps 80 warriors, but 180 of the Pequot were killed or captured. The
180 Pequot captured near Fairfield were distributed as slaves: 80 to the
Mohegan; 80 to the Narragansett; and 20 to the Eastern Niantic
There they had numerous quarrels with colonists,
culminating in the murder by the Pequot’s of a trader, John Oldham, on
July 20, 1636. The first of the many wars between colonists and Native
Americans was fought in 1637 between the Pequot’s and New England
settlers. The Pequot’s were a warlike tribe centered along the
Thames
River in southeastern Connecticut.
On August 24 Governor John Endicott of Massachusetts Bay Colony organized a military force to punish the Native Americans, and on May 26, 1637, the first battle of the Pequot War took place when the New Englanders, under John Mason and John Underhill, attacked the Pequot stronghold near present-day New Haven, Connecticut. The Native Americans forts were burned and about 500 men, women, and children were killed. The survivors fled in small groups. The scattered fugitives were shot down wherever found by the neighboring tribes, until the survivors at last came in and asked for mercy at the hands of the English. A party of 70 had previously made submission to the Narraganset and become a part of that tribe.
Sassacus and his followers had hoped to gain refuge among the Mohawk in present-day New York. His logical choice for refuge should have been the Mahican (Dutch allies and close relatives), but the Mahican were subject to the Mohawk at the time, so Sassacus was forced to turn to his old enemies for help. The Mohawk, however, had never forgotten who the Pequot were and had seen the display of English power, and they never stood a chance. They chose instead to kill Sassacus and his warriors. The Pequot had no sooner reached the Mohawk village, than, without being allowed to speak in council, he and most of his warriors were killed. The few who escaped joined the Mahican at Schaghticoke.
The Mohawk cut off Sassacus' head and sent it as tribute to Hartford, as a symbolic offering of Mohawk friendship with Connecticut Colony. Puritan colonial officials continued to call for the merciless hunting down of what remained of the Pequot months after war's end.
Since the General Court in Hartford levied a heavy
fine on any tribe providing refuge to the Pequot, there was no place for
them to go. The remaining Pequot were hunted down by the English,
Mohegan, and Narragansett, and the war ended in a series of small but
deadly skirmishes. The remaining Pequot sachems asked for peace and
surrendered. With the Pequot defeat, English settlement filled in
Connecticut Valley and by 1641 had extended down the coast of western
Connecticut as far as Stamford.
The Aftermath
In September, the victorious Mohegan and Narragansett met at the General Court of Connecticut and agreed on the disposition of the Pequot and their lands. The agreement, known as the first Treaty of Hartford, was signed on September 21, 1638. It was also called the Tripartite Treaty, declaring the Pequot nation to be dissolved. Those Pequot who had survived the war and massacre at Mystic were distributed as slaves to the Mohegan, Narragansett and the Metoac. Others were enslaved and shipped to Bermuda or the West Indies, or were forced to become household servants in Puritan households in Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay. The Pequot chieftain Sassacus and the few who escaped with him were put to death by Mohawk Indians. His tribe was virtually exterminated. The few remaining Pequots were dispersed among other southern New England tribes. Renowned warrier Uncas, son in law of Sassacus, allied his forces with the English colonists in the war and defeated the rival Narragansett in 1643.
Moreover, colonists appropriated Pequot lands under claims of a "just war", and attempted to legally extirpate the Pequot by effectively declaring them extinct and making it a crime to speak the name Pequot. Those few Pequot who managed to evade death or slavery were later recovered from captivity from the Mohegan and assigned reservations in Connecticut Colony.
This was the first instance wherein Algonquian peoples of what is now southern New England encountered European-style warfare. The idea and reality of total war was essentially new to them. After the Pequot War, the uneasily allied colonies represented such a power that no Native alliance could stand against them for a generation. In 1675, a fairly long period of peace came to an end with King Philip's War.
Although it has been customary to regard the Pequot as exterminated in this war, such was far from being the case. They numbered 3,000 or more at the beginning of the war, and only about 700 or 800 are known to have been killed. The rest joined other tribes or finally submitted to the English. Several years afterward a Pequot chief was found living on Delaware River, and there can be no question that many others had found refuge with the Mahican and other western tribes. In June 1637, after the dispersion of the tribe, those about New Haven and on Long Island were reported to number 350 warriors, or about 1,250 souls. Those portioned out among the friendly tribes in September 1638, numbered 200 warriors, with their families, or about 700 in all. Of these, one-half went to the Mohegan, 80 warriors to the Narraganset, and 20 warriors to the Niantic. They occupied six separate villages among these tribes, in addition to those villages which were occupied jointly. At the same time there were a large number on Long Island who remained there in subjection to the English; others were in the vicinity of New Haven and among the Nipmuc and neighboring tribes; many were scattered as slaves among the English settlements, and others had been sent to the West Indies.
Under the Mohegan, the lives of the Pequot were
harsh. They were separated into small groups and forbidden to call
themselves Pequot. This was bad enough, but the English demand of annual
payments of wampum for sparing their lives made the Pequot a burden for
the Mohegan who worked them like dogs. The Pequot who had been given to
the Native American allies of the colonists were treated so harshly by
their masters that that the English, who usually overlooked these things
found it necessary, in 1655, to gather them into two villages near
Mystic River, in their old
country, and place them under the direct control of the colonial
government. These eventually became the Mashantucket (Western Pequot)
reserve at Ledyard (1666) and the Pawcatuck (Eastern Pequot) reservation
at Lantern Hill (1683). Here they numbered about 1,500 in 1674. They
decreased rapidly, as did the other tribes, and in 1762 the remnant
numbered 140 souls, living in Maushantuxet, at
Ledyard, Conn. In 1832 these
were reduced to about 40 mixed-bloods, who still occupied their reserve
and cherished the old hatred of the Mohegan, who lived a few miles
distant.
Separation from the Mohegan helped, but it did not
change the obligation of the Pequot to support the Mohegan in times of
war. Pequot warriors joined Mohegan war parties, one of which captured
the Narragansett sachem Canonchet during the King Philip's War
(1675-76).
Many of the Pequot gradually drifted away from the
confines of their small reservations, and their numbers in Connecticut
continued to decline until there were only 66 by the time of the 1910
census. Currently, there are almost 1,000 Pequot, but things have
changed dramatically for the Mashantucket in recent years. Connecticut
sold off 600 acres of their reservation without permission in 1856, and
a lawsuit filed in 1976 to recover this land resulted in a $700,000
settlement. Federal recognition was received in 1983, and after a
successful bingo operation, an incredibly profitable gambling casino was
opened in 1992 which has made the Mashantucket Pequot the wealthiest
group of Native Americans in the United States. After a 350 year truce,
the Mashantucket may actually have won the Pequot War.
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