MOHEGAN

Algonquian-speaking Indian tribe who originally occupied most of what is now the upper Thames valley in Connecticut, U.S. They later seized from other tribes land in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Mohegan economy was based on the cultivation of corn (maize), hunting, and fishing. At the time of the first European settlement of New England early in the 17th century, the Mohegan and the Pequot tribes were ruled jointly by the Pequot chief, Sassacus, but later a rebellion of the subchief Uncas led to Mohegan independence. After the destruction of the Pequot in 1637, most of the Pequot survivors and the former Pequot territories came under Mohegan control. Uncas strengthened his position by making an alliance with the English; and, at the end of King Philip's War against the colonists, the Mohegan were the only important tribe remaining in southern New England. White settlements gradually displaced the Mohegan, and their numbers dwindled. Many of them scattered, joining other Indian settlements; a remnant of mixed ancestry remains in the area of Norwich, Conn. See also Pequot.