The history of the Pequot Indians of Conn. and southern New England is a true tragic tale of beheading, death and slavery.  It is the makings of a Greek tragedy except it takes place hear in the New England area in the 1600’s.

      To under stand the history of the Pequot Indians one has to understand the economy of the wampum exchange system and the role of territorial expansion.  For the native American culture the medium of exchange was the wampum. 

      What was the wampum?   The wampum was white or black shells are more valuable than the white shells.   Because their are sea shells they are available to tribes of the coastal area.  So therefore the Pequot had a economic monopoly of the local medium of exchange currency.

       The Indians used the wampum as part of the engagements, and marriage ceremonies.  By  1633 the English settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture those wampum beads.  That of course was a direct threat to the economic monopoly that was enjoyed by the Pequot’s.

       The second contributing factor was the efforts by the Pequot’s to expand their territory to the north, south, east and west.  That expansion came at the expense of the other rival Indian tribes in the region.

The expansion to the north came at the expense of the Wampanoag tribe, the expansion in the south came at the expense of the Algonquin tribe, in the east was the Narragansett tribe and in the west was the Mohegan tribe.

       Tribal rivalry and alliances are a tricky complex strategy.  The Pequot’s Indian allies were the Niantic tribe.  The Pequot’s also allied themselves with the Dutch settlers.  Mean while their enemies included  both the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes, and the Pequot’s had a healthy distrust of the English.

       The Pequot war was fought from 1634 to 1638 and the location of the conflict was in Southern New England.  The Pequot’s fought the Massachusetts Bay & Plymouth colonies as well as the English Indian allies the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes.

      Medical pandemics of smallpox, spotted fever, typhoid, the measles were brought by the European fishermen.  The native American tribes faced a decimated population decline due to those diseases.

       The fuse that sparked the Pequot ware began in 1634.  A John Stone who was a smuggler, privateer, slave trader, commanded a Dutch vessel.  The Pequot Tatobem boarded the vessel to trade with the Dutchman.  Instead of trading with the Dutch Stone held Tatobem for ransom.  The Pequot’s gave their ransom to John Stone.  The Pequot’s got back Tatobem’s  lifeless, dead body.  Later John Stone was killed by the Pequot’s allies the Niantic. 

       It seems that Stone was raiding a Niantic village to capture children and woman to be sold as slaves.  Since he sailed from Boston, the colonial authorities demanded that the Pequot’s hand over the killer’s of Stone to the authorities.  The Pequot’s refused to turn over their allies.

       The final light fuse that started the Pequot war began when a trader named John Oldham and his crew were attacked and killed by the Narragansett Indian’s.  The Narragansett Indians were trying to discourage trading to their rivals the Pequot.

       The Massachusetts Bay Colony governor sent John Endecott  to avenge the death of John Oldham.  The result was that a village of a Niantic allies, was attacked.  14 Niantic Indians were killed, their  village was burned to the ground and the crops were also burned.

       The Pequot then attempted to rally the Niantic allies to their cause.  Only the western Niantic tribes joined them.  The eastern Niantic tribes remained neutral.  Of course the Mohegan and the Narragansett tribes sided with the English.

       On April 23, 1637  Wethersfield, Conn. was attacked by the Niantic & Pequot tribes attacked there and at Fort Saybrook.  The Europeans settlers suffered 6 men and 3 woman killed by the Indians.  Meanwhile 2 children were taken hostage and held for ransom.  All total casualties  for the English were 30 settlers killed.

       Captain’s John Mason and John Underhill sent out in May of 1637 to attack the Pequot village of Mystic, that was a principle Pequot village.  The English had 110 men along with their Indian allies the Mohegan’s who had 70 warriors.  By May 26 1637 the eastern Niantic warriors joined the strike force.

       The leader of the Pequot’s Sassacus took several hundred of his warriors to raid Hartford, Conn.  This left the village of Mystic manned by old men, children and woman.  The village was surrounded and Captain Mason order the village burned to the ground and that any  Indians who tried to escape be shot and killed.  Out of  600 to 700 Indian villagers, only 7 escaped to the woods, and 7 others were taken prisoner.

      This broke the back of the Pequot’s war effort.  It was the Indians first experience at the total war style of the Europeans.  The Mohegan allies were horrified and went back to their villages.  The remaining Pequot’s were hunted down by the Narragansett Indians.

       Sassacus  raiding party  found itself surrounded in a swamp in present day Fairfield Conn.  Captain Mason and his soldiers captured or killed 180 Pequot warriors.  Sassacus fled the area with 80  remaining warriors.  This battle was called the great Fairfield swamp fight.

       Sassacus sought refuge with the Mohawk tribe in New York.  In stead of finding refuge, Sassacus lost is head and was scalped by the Mohawks.  Sassacus scalp was taken by the Mohawks and presented to the English as a trophy.

       The Pequot’s were turned into slaves to the Mohegan and Narragansett Indian allies.  Other Pequot’s were turned into slaves and shipped to Bermuda.  The English made it illegal for Pequot’s to speak their own language and declared that the Pequot tribe was extinct.