The Narragansetts were one of the leading tribes of New England, controlling the west of
Narragansett Bay in
Rhode Island and portions of
Connecticut and eastern
Massachusetts, from the
Providence River on the northeast to the
Pawcatuck River on the southwest. The first European contact was in 1524 when explorer
Giovanni de Verrazzano visited Narragansett Bay. Between 1616 and 1619, infectious diseases killed thousands of Algonquians in coastal areas south of Rhode Island. The Narragansetts were the most powerful tribe in the southern area of the region when the English colonists arrived in 1620, and they had not been affected by the epidemics. Chief
Massasoit of the
Wampanoags to the east allied with the colonists at
Plymouth Colony as a way to protect the Wampanoags from Narragansett attacks. In the fall of 1621, the Narragansetts sent a sheaf of arrows wrapped in a snakeskin to Plymouth Colony as a threatening challenge, but Plymouth governor
William Bradford sent the snakeskin back filled with gunpowder and bullets. The Narragansetts understood the message and did not attack them. European settlement in the Narragansett territory did not begin until 1635; in 1636,
Roger Williams acquired land from Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi and established
Providence Plantations. Williams was brought to the top of Sugarloaf Hill in nearby Wakefield when treating with the Narragansett tribe. They pointed toward this large settlement and told him that it was called
Nanihigonset. This site is now believed to be the center of the Narragansett geography, where they coalesced as a tribe and began to extend their dominion over the neighboring tribes at different points in history.
Pequot War During the
Pequot War of 1637, the Narragansetts allied with the New England colonists. However, the brutality of the colonists in the
Mystic massacre shocked the Narragansetts, who returned home in disgust. After the Pequots were defeated, the colonists gave captives to their allies the Narragansetts and the
Mohegans. The Narragansetts later had conflict with the Mohegans over control of the conquered Pequot land. In 1643,
Miantonomi led the Narragansetts in an invasion of eastern Connecticut, where they planned to subdue the Mohegans and their leader
Uncas. Miantonomi had an estimated 1,000 men under his command. The Narragansett forces fell apart, and Miantonomi was captured. The Mohegans then took Miantonomi to Hartford to turn him in for his execution, to which they were in favor but did not want blood on their hands, so they returned him to the Mohegans for his demise. While travelling back in the forests of northern Connecticut, Uncas's brother slew Miantonomi by bludgeoning him on the head with a club. The following year, Narragansett war leader
Pessicus renewed the war with the Mohegans, and the number of Narragansett allies grew. The Mohegans were on the verge of defeat when the colonists came and saved them, sending troops to defend the Mohegan fort at Shantok. The colonists then threatened to invade Narragansett territory, so
Canonicus and his son Mixanno signed a peace treaty. The peace lasted for the next 30 years.
King Philip's War Christian missionaries began to convert tribal members, and as many Indians feared that they would lose their traditions to assimilation with colonial culture, the colonists' push for religious conversion collided with Indian resistance. In 1675,
John Sassamon, a converted "
Praying Indian", was found bludgeoned to death in a pond. The facts were never settled concerning Sassamon's death, but historians accept that Wampanoag
sachem Metacomet (known as Philip) may have ordered his execution because Sassamon cooperated with colonial authorities. Three Wampanoag men were arrested, convicted, and hanged for Sassamon's death. Metacomet subsequently declared war on the colonists and started
King Philip's War. He escaped an attempt to trap him in the Plymouth Colony, and the uprising spread throughout Massachusetts as other bands joined the fight, such as the Nipmuc. The Indians wanted to expel the colonists from New England. They waged successful attacks on settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but Rhode Island was spared at the beginning, as the Narragansetts remained officially neutral. However, the leaders of the United Colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut) accused the Narragansetts of harboring Wampanoag refugees. They made a preemptive attack on the Narragansett
palisade fortress on December 19, 1675, in a battle that became known as the
Great Swamp Fight. Hundreds of Narragansett non-combatants died in the attack and burning of the fort, including women and children, but nearly all of the warriors escaped. In January 1676, colonist Joshua Tefft was
hanged, drawn, and quartered by colonial forces at
Smith's Castle in
Wickford, Rhode Island for having fought on the side of the Narragansetts during the Great Swamp Fight. The Indians retaliated for the massacre in a widespread spring offensive beginning in February 1676, in which they destroyed all Colonial settlements on the western side of Narragansett Bay. The settlement of Providence Plantations was burned on March 27, 1676, destroying Roger Williams's house, among others. Other Indian groups destroyed many towns throughout New England, and even raided outlying settlements near Boston. However, disease, starvation, battle losses, and the lack of gunpowder caused the Indian effort to collapse by the end of March. Troops from Connecticut, composed of colonists and their Mohegan allies, swept into Rhode Island and killed substantial numbers of the now-weakened Narragansetts. A force of Mohegans and Connecticut militia captured Narragansett sachem Canonchet a few days after the destruction of Providence Plantations, while a force of Plymouth militia and Wampanoags hunted down Metacomet. He was shot and killed, ending the war in southern New England, although it dragged on for another two years in Maine. After the war, the colonists sold some surviving Narragansetts into slavery and shipped them to the
Caribbean; others became
indentured servants in Rhode Island. The surviving Narragansetts merged with local tribes, particularly the Eastern Niantics. During colonial and later times, tribe members intermarried with colonists and Africans. Their spouses and children were taken into the tribe, enabling them to keep a tribal and cultural identity.
18th century Ninigret, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts during King Philip's War, died soon after the war. He left four children by two wives. His eldest child, a daughter, succeeded him, and upon her death, her half-brother Ninigret succeeded her. He left a will dated 1716–17, and he died about 1722. His sons Charles Augustus and George succeeded him as sachems. George's son Thomas, commonly known as King Tom, succeeded in 1746. While King Tom was sachem, much of the Narragansett land was sold, and a considerable part of the tribe emigrated to the State of New York, joining other Indians there who belonged to the same Algonquin language group. Nevertheless, in the 1740s during the
First Great Awakening, colonists founded the Narragansett Indian Church to convert Indians to Christianity. In the ensuing years, the tribe retained control and ownership of the church and its surrounding , the only land that it could keep. This continuous ownership was critical evidence of tribal continuity when the tribe applied for federal recognition in 1983.
19th century In the 19th century, the tribe resisted repeated state efforts to declare that it was no longer an Indian tribe because its members were multiracial in ancestry. They contended that they absorbed other ethnicities into their tribe and continued to identify culturally as Narragansetts. The tribal leaders resisted increasing legislative pressure after the
American Civil War to "take up citizenship" in the United States, which would have required them to give up their treaty privileges and Indian nation status. The Narragansetts had a vision of themselves as "a nation rather than a race", and they insisted on their rights to Indian national status and its privileges by treaty. While testifying about this issue in a meeting with a committee of the state legislature in 1876, a Narragansett delegation said that their people saw injustices under existing US citizenship. They noted
Jim Crow laws that limited the rights of Black people despite their citizenship under constitutional amendments. They also resisted suggestions that multiracial members of the tribe could not qualify as full members of the tribe. The Narragansetts had a tradition of bringing other people into their tribe by marriage and having them assimilate as culturally Narragansett, especially as their children grew up in the tribe. According to a record of their statement, they said: We are not negroes, we are the heirs of Ninagrit, and of the great chiefs and warriors of the Narragansetts. Because, when your ancestors stole the negro from Africa and brought him amongst us and made a
slave of him, we extended him the hand of friendship, and permitted his blood to be mingled with ours, are we to be called negroes? And to be told that we may be made negro citizens? We claim that while one drop of Indian blood remains in our veins, we are entitled to the rights and privileges guaranteed by your ancestors to ours by solemn treaty, which without a breach of faith you cannot violate. From 1880 to 1884, the state persisted in its efforts at "
detribalization." The tribe had agreed to negotiations for the sale of its land, but quickly regretted the decision and worked to regain the land. In 1880, the state recognized 324 Narragansett tribal members as claimants to the land during negotiations. The state put tribal lands up for public sale in the 19th century, but the tribe did not disperse, and its members continued to practice its culture.
20th century The Narragansetts lost control of much of their tribal lands during the state's late 19th-century detribalization, but they kept a group identity. The tribe incorporated in 1900 and built their
longhouse in 1940 as a traditional place for gatherings and ceremonies. In the late 20th century, they took action to have more control over their future. They regained of their land in 1978, and gained federal recognition as a tribe in 1983. According to tribal rolls, there are approximately 2,400 members of the Narragansett Tribe today. Like most Americans, they have mixed ancestry, with descent from the Narragansetts and other tribes of the New England area, as well as Europeans and Africans.
Land claim suit In January 1975, the Narragansett Tribe filed suit in federal court to regain of land in southern Rhode Island, which they claimed the state had illegally taken from them in 1880. The 1880 Act authorizing the state to negotiate with the tribe listed 324 Narragansetts approved by the Supreme Court as claimants to the land. In 1978, the Narragansett Tribe signed a Joint Memorandum of Understanding (JMOU) with the state of Rhode Island, the Town of Charlestown, and private property owners in settlement of their land claim. The state transferred a total of to a corporation formed to hold the land in trust for descendants of the 1880 Narragansett Roll. In exchange, the tribe agreed that the laws of Rhode Island would be in effect on those lands, except for hunting and fishing. The Narragansetts had not yet been federally recognized as a tribe. == Reservation ==