PEQUOT

any member of a group of Algonquian-speaking Indians who lived in the Thames valley in what is now Connecticut, U.S.; in the 1600s their population was estimated to be 2,200. Their subsistence was based on the cultivation of maize (corn), hunting, and fishing. The Mohegan and the Pequot were jointly ruled by the Pequot chief Sassacus until a rebellion of the subchief Uncas that resulted in Mohegan independence. From 1620 the Pequot and British settlers had lived side by side in mutual helpfulness and peaceful trade. Gradually, however, Pequot resentment swelled against new colonists who pushed their way westward frequently in a high-handed manner. The Pequot were especially fearful of British territorial intrusion because they were already squeezed into the region between Narragansett Bay and the Connecticut River. The tribe had also stirred the ire of the British by limiting its trade to the Dutch. Several incidents had taken place between the Pequots and the settlers before the summer of 1636, when a Boston trader was murdered, presumably by a Pequot, on Block Island. A punitive expedition that was sent by Massachusetts authorities to destroy native villages and crops only succeeded in arousing the tribe to make a more determined defense of its homeland. Puritan clergymen encouraged violence against the Pequots, whom they regarded as infidels, and the British settlers agreed to take up arms. In a short but vicious war, fought under Captain John Mason with the aid of Mohegans and Narragansets, the main Pequot fort at Mystic, Conn., was surprised and burned, and between 500 and 600 inhabitants were burned alive or slaughtered. Defeated, some Pequot decided to separate into small bands and abandon the area; many who fled were killed or captured by other Indians or the English; many were sold into slavery in New England or the West Indies, and the Mohegan obtained control of Pequot lands. Those who surrendered were distributed among other tribes, but received such harsh treatment that in 1655 they were placed under the direct control of the colonial government and resettled on the Mystic River. Their numbers declined rapidly, and in the late 20th century there were approximately 200 members of the tribe.