Pequot
, "destroyers." The tribe known as Mohegan ("wolf") sprang from a Pequot faction in the early seventeenth century. See also Narragansett.
Location Pequots lived in eastern Connecticut and extreme northeastern Rhode Island in the early seventeenth century. Their main villages were situated on the Thames and Mystic Rivers. Today, most Pequots live in southern Connecticut. Brotherton Indians, who include Pequot descendants, live in Milwaukee, Racine, and Green Bay, Wisconsin. There are other descendants among the Schaghticoke tribe in northwestern Connecticut.
Population There were approximately 4,000 Pequots in 1600 and about 25 Mashantucket Pequots in 1907. In the mid-1990s there were a handful of families on the Schaghticoke Reservation; 1,650 Brotherton Indians; about 600 Paucatuck Pequots; about 300 Mashantucket Pequots; and about 1,000 Mohegans.
Language Pequots spoke an Eastern Algonquian language.
Historical Information
History The Pequot may have arrived in their historical territory from the Hudson River Valley-Lake Champlain area, wresting land from the Narragansett and the Niantic in the late sixteenth century. In the early seventeenth century, the grand sachem Sassacus dominated 26 subordinate sagamores. However, the people were driven out of Rhode Island by the Narragansett in 1635. About that time Uncas, son-in-law of Sassacus, led a group of Pequot to establish another village on the Thames River; that group became known as Mohegans.
Soon after the Dutch arrived in the region, they began trade with the Pequots, who sold them land at the future site of Hartford. However, control of that land had been disputed, and the British favored more local Indians. As tensions worsened, the Mohegan saw a chance to end their subordinate status. In 1637, they and the Narragansett aided British forces in attacking a Pequot village, killing between 300 and 600 people. The rest of the tribe fled to the southwest. Many were captured, however, and sold into slavery or given to allied tribes as slaves. Some did escape to Long Island and Massachusetts, where they settled with other Algonquins.
Surviving Pequots were forced to pay tribute to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and were prohibited from using the name Pequot. Sassacus and a large group of followers were killed by Mohawks while trying to escape. Uncas then became chief of the Pequots and Mohegans, now all known as Mohegans. He remained firm in his friendship with the colonists, fighting the Narragansett in 1657 and Britain’s enemies in King Philip’s war.
Although the Pequot/Mohegan survived that conflict, they and other local Indians were severely diminished, and they ceased to have a significant independent role other than as servants or indigents. Some joined other Indian tribes, such as those who passed through Schaghticoke in upstate New York to join the western Abenaki. In 1655, freed Pequot slaves in New England resettled on the Mystic River. The people suffered a continuing decline until well into the twentieth century.
The tribe divided in the later seventeenth century, into an eastern group (Paucatucks) and a western group (Mashantuckets). The former received a reservation in 1683, and the latter were granted land in 1666. Most of their land was later leased to non-natives and lost to Indian control.
In the 1770s, some Mohegans joined a group of Narragansetts, Mahicans, Wappingers, and Montauks in creating the Brotherton (or Brothertown) tribe in Oneida territory (New York). The community was led by Samson Occom, an Indian minister. In the early nineteenth century, this community, joined by groups of Oneidas and Stockbridge (Mahican) Indians, was forced to migrate to Wisconsin, where they received a reservation on Lake Winnebago that they shared with the Munsee band of Delaware Indians. The reservation was later divided and sold.
By the early twentieth century, most Brotherton Indians had been dispossessed, but the community remained intact, mainly because members kept in close contact and returned regularly for gatherings and reunions. Mohegan Indians began a political revival in the early twentieth century, forming the Mohegan Indian Council and becoming involved with the Algonquin Indian Council of New England.
Religion The people recognized a supreme deity as well as lesser deities. Medicine men called powwows used herbs, sweats, plants, and songs to cure illness and banish evil spirits. The people also celebrated a variety of the Green Corn festival.
Government Village bands were led by sagamores, or chiefs, who maintained their influence through generosity and good judgment. A council of important men together took all major decisions. There may have been a hereditary component to the position of village sagamore. There may or may not have been a grand sachem who led the bands in precontact times. Certainly, that was the case in the early seventeenth century, when Sassacus dominated the Pequot as well as some Long Island bands.
Customs Unlike many northeastern tribes, the Pequot dispersed in summer to designated resource sites such as fishing weirs, shellfish gathering places, gardens, and marshlands and came together in winter villages. They also dispersed in early winter to hunting camps. Leading men might have more than one wife, in part so that they could entertain more frequently and more lavishly and in part to built alliances with other families. Corpses were wrapped in skins and woven mats and buried in the ground with weapons, tools, and food. The ultimate destination was the land of the dead. Houses were abandoned after a death.
Dwellings Villages were usually located on a hill and were often palisaded. Consisting of at least several houses, they were moved when the supply of firewood was exhausted. People lived in bark or woven mat houses, framed with saplings or poles bent and lashed together. Smaller houses (roughly 15 feet in diameter) held two families. Square openings in the roof provided barely adequate ventilation. Doorways were low and mat covered. Larger bark-covered longhouses (up to 100 feet long and 30 feet wide) with multiple fires held up to 50 people.
Bedding consisted of skins and mats laid directly on the floor or on platforms raised 12-18 inches off the ground. Cooking pots were placed on poles suspended on forked sticks driven into the ground. There was a central village plaza for games and meetings. Temporary villages were located along the coast in summer and in the woods in winter.
Diet Women grew corn, beans, and squash; men grew tobacco. Corn was used in stew; cornmeal was also made into cakes and baked in hot ashes. The people gathered shellfish along the coast in summer. They also ate an occasional beached whale. Although deer was the animal staple, men hunted an enormous variety of large and small game as well as fowl, the latter including turkey, quail, pigeon, and geese. Deer were stalked and may have been hunted in communal drives. Fish and wild vegetables, nuts, and berries complemented the diet.
Key Technology The Pequots used hickory or witch hazel bows and arrows tipped with flint, bone, shell, or eagle claws. Fish were caught with nets, spears, and bone hooks. Other key items included rush baskets, carved wood bowls and utensils, Indian hemp cordage and twined baskets, wooden mortars, pottery jars, and stone woodworking tools.
Trade The Pequot were part of long-standing ancient trade networks. They engaged in little longdistance trade. Trade items included clay pots, carved wood bowls, chestnuts, and wampum (whelk and quahog shells that were ground into beads using stone drills). Wampum had ceremonial and mnemonic uses before it became a symbol of status and a medium of exchange in the postcontact period.
Notable Arts Porcupine quills were soaked, softened, and dyed and then used to decorate clothing. Jewelry was made from shell, bone, and other material. Pottery was generally basic although often decorated by incision.
Transportation Canoes were of the birch bark and especially the dugout variety.
Dress Deer, especially the white-tailed deer, furnished most of the people’s clothing. Men generally wore breechclouts, leggings (in winter), and moccasins; women wore skirts or dresses and moccasins. Both donned fur robes in cold weather. Clothing was often decorated with quillwork as well as feathers, paints, and shells.
War and Weapons The bow and arrow were the basic weapon, along with spears and clubs. Enemies included the Long Island Montauk, the Narragansett, and the Niantic. The people had few known allies.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Mashantucket (western) Pequots own about 1,800 acres of land in New London County (Ledyard), Connecticut, which they acquired in 1667. Their 1974 constitution calls for an elected tribal council with a chair. The 1990 Indian population was 55.
The Paucatuck (eastern) Pequots occupy the approximately 226-acre Lantern Hill State Reservation in New London County (North Stonington), Connecticut (established in 1623). The 1990 Indian population was 15.
The Golden Hill Reservation (Paugussett Tribe [Pequot and Mohegan]), New London and Fairfield Counties, Connecticut, was established in 1886. The people are governed by an elected tribal council and officers. The community has purchased roughly 700 acres on the Thames River and hopes to acquire Fort Shantok State Park. The 1990 resident Indian population was two.
Schaghticoke State Reservation, Litchfield County, Connecticut, was established in 1792. It consists of about 400 acres and is governed by a tribal council. About five families lived on the reservation in the mid-1990s.
The Brotherton Tribe maintains a headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and is governed by an elected, nine-member tribal council.
Economy The Mashantucket economy is dominated by an enormously successful bingo operation and casino. The Mohegans operate a casino as well.
Legal Status The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Indian Tribe are federally recognized tribal entities. The Paucatuck Pequots are recognized by the state of Connecticut and have applied for federal recognition. The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is recognized as a self-governing entity and has applied for full federal recognition. The Brotherton Indians of Wisconsin have petitioned for federal recognition. The Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe has been denied federal recognition.
Daily Life Paucatuck Pequots continue to fight for full federal recognition as well as full recognition by the state of Connecticut of their rights and land claims. They are also attempting to ease the factionalism that has troubled them for some time. The Mashantucket Pequots were recognized and their land claims settled by Congress in 1983. A museum and cultural center are planned. They publish the Pequot Times.
Elements of the Pequot language exist on paper and are known by some people, especially tribal elders. Various gatherings and family reunions continue among the Brotherton people of Wisconsin. The spiritual center of the tribe is in Gresham, Wisconsin. Traditional culture has disappeared, but these people remain proud of their heritage.
The Mohegan have a land claim pending against the state of Connecticut for roughly 600 acres of land alienated in the seventeenth century. The Tantaquidgeon museum is a central point of reference for the tribe, as is the Mohegan church (1831) and the Fort Shantok burial ground. The people celebrate the wigwam festival or powwow, which has its origins in the Green Corn festival of ancient times.
