Their larger numbers are explained in part by their not succumbing to the diseases that brought down the more powerful Wampanoags, who lived mostly in southeastern Massachusetts but also in part of eastern Rhode Island. By the time of King Philip’s War, there were 5,000 Narragansetts living throughout Rhode Island. Rhode Island’s modern-day Narragansetts are mostly of Niantic descent, but they’re joined by some who descend from the actual Narragansett nation, which was perhaps the largest tribe in Rhode Island during the 17th century. By that time, their numbers had dwindled, and eventually their final bits of land were taken from them.īy clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy This tribe of Narragansetts (as colonists increasingly came to call all Rhode Island Indians) continued to live on their land through the late 1800s. Ninigret met on several occasions with colonists, and he even refrained from participating in King Philip’s War. Their leader, Ninigret, managed to prolong their viability by keeping distance from the Native Americans who rebelled against the colonists. Rhode Island’s Niantics, distinct from but related to the Niantics of southeastern Connecticut, lived in the southern part of mainland Rhode Island, where the sea borders modern-day Westerly and Charlestown. Their fate after King Philip’s War, in which they battled the colonists, is little documented, but it’s believed that most survivors fled west into Canada, and those who stayed behind joined with the few Indian groups that remained friendly to the colonists. The Nipmuc Indians lived principally in central Massachusetts but also occupied some land in Northern Rhode Island. Metacom or Philip, the Native American Wampanoag chief in full body view, holding a spear. But peace between the Native Americans and the English would last only a few decades, until King Philip’s War. The Pequots could not have been conquered without the assistance of the Mohegans and the Narragansetts, with whom the English signed a treaty of friendship in 1637. Again most of the Indians were killed, with the remaining 180 Pequots taken hostage and brought to Hartford. During the next two months, the remaining members of the severely crippled Pequot league moved west toward New York but were met in a massive swamp, which would later become Fairfield, by Mason and his battalion. The second Pequot encampment attempted to thwart the invasion but was easily driven to retreat. The settlers, led by John Mason, struck the largest Pequot community at dawn and killed most of its inhabitants, burning the wigwams and shooting any who attempted to flee. The Pequots were concentrated in a pair of encampments near what is now Norwich, Connecticut, each of these a several-acre enclosure of a few dozen wigwams. Believing it wise to approach from the least likely side, the group attacked from the east, sailing to Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay and marching west with a force of about 400 Narragansetts looking on. These tensions escalated the following spring into the great Pequot War of 1637, during which about 130 European settlers from the Connecticut River towns, along with 70 allied Mohegans, developed a plan to destroy their enemy. The Pequots continued to strike, attacking and murdering several Wethersfield families during the winter of 1636-1637 and unsuccessfully attempting to establish a warring pact with their neighbors, the formidable Narragansett Indians of nearby Aquidneck Island. They further raised the ire of the settlers when they killed the respected explorer John Oldham off the coast of Block Island in 1636, an act that led to immediate reprisals in the form of burnings and raids by English troops. In the 1630s the Pequots killed a pair of British merchants whom they encountered sailing up the Connecticut River on a trading mission. This warlike mentality quickly led to their near-extinction as colonists killed them and even turned friendlier tribes, such as the Narragansetts and the Connecticut Mohegans, against them. Photo courtesy of the Tomaquag Museum.Īmong the five, the Pequots-who lived mostly in what is now southeastern Connecticut but also in southwestern Rhode Island-exercised the greatest degree of autonomy and defiance of the settlers. The museum is operated by the Narragansett Tribe. Learn more about Indigenous culture and arts (both historic and contemporary) at the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter. When Europeans first began to explore what is now Rhode Island in the 1500s, there were five indigenous groups living here: the Pequots, the Nipmucs, the Niantics, the Narragansetts, and the Wampanoags.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |