, by Massachusetts Bay colonists in 1637
Etymology Pequot is an
Algonquian word, the meaning of which is disputed among language specialists. Considerable scholarship on the Pequot claims that the name came from
Pequttôog, meaning ‘the destroyers’ or ‘the men of the swamp’.
Frank Speck was a leading specialist of the
Mohegan-Pequot language in the early twentieth century, and he believed that another term was more plausible, meaning ‘the shallowness of a body of water’, given that the Pequot territory was along the coast of
Long Island Sound. Historians have debated whether the Pequot migrated about 1500 from the upper
Hudson River Valley toward central and eastern
Connecticut. The theory of Pequot migration to the
Connecticut River Valley can be traced to Rev. William Hubbard, who claimed in 1677 that the Pequot had invaded the region some time before the establishment of
Plymouth Colony rather than originating in the region. In the aftermath of
King Philip's War, Hubbard detailed in his
Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England the ferocity with which some of
New England's tribes responded to the English. Hubbard described the Pequot as "foreigners" to the region; not invaders from another shore but "from the interior of the continent" who "by force seized upon one of the goodliest places near the sea, and became a Terror to all their Neighbors." Much of the archaeological, linguistic and documentary evidence now available demonstrates that the Pequot were not invaders to the Connecticut River Valley but were indigenous in that area for thousands of years. By the time of the founding of
Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay colonies, the Pequot had already attained a position of political, military, and economic dominance in central and eastern Connecticut. They occupied the coastal area between the
Niantic tribe of the
Niantic River of Connecticut and the
Narragansett in western
Rhode Island. The Pequot numbered some 16,000 persons in the most densely inhabited portion of southern New England. The
smallpox epidemic of 1616–1619 killed many of the Native Americans of the eastern coast of New England, but it did not reach the Pequot, Niantic nor Narragansett tribes. In 1633 the Dutch established a trading post called the House of Good Hope at
Hartford. They executed the principal Pequot
sachem, Tatobem, because of a violation of an agreement. After the Pequot paid the Dutch a large ransom, they returned Tatobem's body to his people. His successor was
Sassacus. In 1633 an epidemic devastated all of the region's tribes, and historians estimate that the Pequot suffered the loss of 80 percent of their population. At the outbreak of the
Pequot War, Pequot survivors may have numbered only about 3,000.
Pequot War Members of the Pequot tribe killed a resident of
Connecticut Colony in 1636,
John Oldham, and war erupted as a result. The
Mohegan and the
Narragansett tribes sided with the colonists. Around 1,500 Pequot warriors were killed in battles or hunted down, and others were captured and distributed as slaves or household servants. A few escaped to join the
Mohawk, and the
Niantic tribe on
Long Island. Eventually, some returned to their traditional lands, where family groups of friendly Pequots had stayed. Of those enslaved, most were awarded to the allied tribes, but many were also sold as slaves in Bermuda. The Mohegans treated their Pequot captives so severely that officials of Connecticut Colony eventually removed them. Connecticut established two reservations for the Pequots in 1683: the Eastern Pequot Reservation in
North Stonington, Connecticut, and the Western Pequots (or Mashantucket Pequot Reservation) in
Ledyard.
19th century The
Shawnee chief
Tecumseh cited the destruction of the Pequot in call to arms against the United States during the
War of 1812. It was commonly thought that they had disappeared entirely due to violence against Native Americans provoked by American colonists, and they reached their lowest number several decades later. Pequot numbers grew significantly during the 1970s and 1980s, especially the Mashantucket Pequot tribe which opened a casino in the same timeframe, and tribal chairman
Richard A. Hayward encouraged them to return to their tribal homeland. He worked for Federal recognition and economic development. In 1976, the Pequots filed suit with the assistance of the
Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the Indian Rights Association against landowners and residents of North Stonington to get their land, which the Pequots claimed had been illegally sold in 1856 by the State of Connecticut, and they settled after seven years. The Connecticut Legislature passed legislation to petition the federal government to grant tribal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequots, and the "Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act" was enacted by Congress and signed by President
Ronald Reagan on October 18, 1983. This settlement granted federal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, enabling them to buy the land covered in the Settlement Act and place it in trust with the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for reservation use. In 1986, they opened a bingo operation, followed by the first phase of
Foxwoods Resort Casino in 1992. Revenue from the casino has enabled the development and construction of a cultural museum which opened on August 11, 1998, on the
Mashantucket Pequot Reservation where many members of the tribe continue to live. The
Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation was recognized in 2002. Since the 1930s, both Pequot tribes had serious tension over racial issues, with some people claiming that darker-skinned descendants should not be considered fully Pequot. Two groups of Eastern Pequots filed petitions for recognition with the BIA, and they agreed to unite to achieve recognition. The state immediately challenged the decision, and the Department of the Interior revoked their recognition in 2005. That same year, it revoked recognition for the
Schaghticoke tribe who had gained recognition in 2004. The Connecticut state government and Congressional delegation opposed the BIA's recognition because residents were worried that the newly recognized tribes would establish gaming casinos. ==Geography==